Oyster Hour at Cumulus Inc.
“They lend themselves to the whims of every cool and temperate climate, so that one man can drink wine with them, another beer, and another fermented buttermilk, and no man will be wrong”.
- M.F.K Fisher
We have well and truly opened our doors for winter here at Cumulus Inc., the month of June welcoming new seasonal additions to the menu. Alongside the arrival of the chill, we also welcome Pacific Oysters from the cold depths of our southeast coastline, being at their peak from autumn through late winter. Our Head Chef Allan Eccles is anticipating the best of the season to come from Boomer Bay on Tasmania’s south-east coast, as well as Coffin Bay north-west of Kangaroo Island on our mainland. The cooler and, generally speaking, cleaner waters prove the adage that ‘you are what you eat’, as the little bivalve filters through its surrounding waters, resulting in its crisp and clean composition.
The excitement does not end here, however, as the humble oyster acts as a reminder of Eccles’ roots. Every year in the month of May, on the chef’s birthday, his mother would serve up a plate of Pacific oysters with rye bread, butter and a stout, usually Guinness. “For me, that encapsulates perfectly what Pacific Oysters are about” Eccles states, ‘they are hearty’. He describes the oyster as a rough food, not necessarily comforting, but strong and aligned with what winter represents.
For our oyster hour, we might recommend Champagne, preferably a Blanc de Blancs. Michel Gonet's 2015 'Le Mesnil-sur-Oger' is driven and structured, and the freshness and salinity works well with the oyster. If the preference is for a still wine, consider the wines of Muscadet in the Loire Valley, complementing seafood of all kinds.
However, the oyster’s bottom line is not drawn at drink pairing, it is unbounded and vast in the company it keeps. The Ostreidae (pertaining to the non-pearl bearing oyster) has a history of inclusivity, and was not considered exclusively a luxury until seemingly quite recently (partly due to its shell being used in the mortar of many historic Australian structures still standing today). For the English, historically, their abundance of stock meant that the bivalve was considered an anti-luxury (a familiar pattern reveals itself). It’s a brilliant sort of underdog story, and one that echoes Eccles’ sentiments around the oyster being the people’s food.
It was Brillat-Savarin who deemed the oyster an appetite stimulant, which is how we often enjoy the mollusc today. At Cumulus, we bring back the democracy of the oyster with our weekday $2 Oyster Hour. Here, the plump Pacific-native is shucked to order and paired with a classic mignonette or a spritz of lemon. And we intend to shuck and serve those up for the foreseeable future, in the hope that you enjoy these pearly blues with their creamy texture and crisp, clean finish, alongside a glass of Champagne, or even a stout, in chef's honour.
$2 Oyster Hour at Cumulus Inc.
3pm to 6pm, Monday to Friday
