French Fry Euphoria at Oyster Bay Seafood Cafe

Bacon Shrimp Po Boy with fries

They say knowledge of a person’s food preferences is a good indicator of how well you actually know them, like how someone takes their coffee, or how they like their eggs. I think the true test is knowing how a person likes her French fries. You see, there are two basic ways a person can “take” their fries: crunchy (the right way) and gushy (Andrea’s way).

My friend Andrea and I have been debating the topic of French fries since high school, and we simply cannot come to an agreement. But instead of driving a wedge in our relationship, this difference of opinion has actually made us closer. After all, she’s the perfect partner for sharing an order of fries, because she always polishes off all the (gross) gushy ones and leaves the crunchy ones for me. Still, it’s nice to find someone – or someplace – that knows what a good fry should be.

Oyster Bay Seafood Café in Lawrenceville is one such place. Here, each and every fry is cooked to a crisp perfection, yielding a deep, golden color glistening with grease and producing a satisfying snap when you bite into it that’s audible from across the table. Indelible on their own, the fries reach an higher level of greatness when dunked into Oyster Bay’s signature spicy remoulade sauce – it’s French fry euphoria.

Yet as good as they are, the fries are not the only item worth bragging about at this casual seafood joint, which reminds me of the hole-in-the-wall local hangouts I seek out at the beach, with all it’s coastal kitsch and a Florida Gulf-themed menu. 

The Key West Conch Fritters, served with that aforementioned remoulade, are full of flavor with a unique crusty-chewy texture that only good conch fritters can claim, and the Bacon Shrimp Po Boy is simply genius – why don’t all Po Boys come with bacon?? I enjoyed my meal alongside a glass of – what else? – Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc, one of my favorite white wines. It’s crisp and citrusy, like adding a squeeze of lemon to my seafood, just the way I like it.

Oyster Bay Seafood Café is located at 125 Crogan St. SE in Lawrenceville. Read my full review in the April issue of Points North, on stands late March!

Hello, World.

Some people just have impeccable taste. Take, for instance, my sister. Lila has impeccable taste in fashion. She’s trendy yet classy with just the right accessories and an innate ability to throw together the perfect outfit for each and every occasion. Or my friend Caroline, whose impeccable taste in home décor is evident in every detail of her recent remodeling projects, from the color of her living room walls (“weimaraner,” the perfect shade of dusky gray) to the Gallo Victoria granite countertops in her kitchen.

            Me, I appreciate tastes of a different nature. Edible tastes. Flavorful tastes. Impeccable tastes. To put it plainly, I like to eat, and not simply for the sake of satiation but for the pure pleasure of it. I love exploring different tastes, whether I’m dining out or playing around in my own kitchen. I love to cook (almost) as much as I love to eat, and nothing gives me more satisfaction than sharing food I’ve prepared with the people that I love, whether it’s dinner for two with my husband or a multi-course meal at a party with friends. I love to experiment with food, talk about food, read about food, learn about food, write about food. So here I am.

As an editor for a lifestyle magazine, I get to write about all kinds of things on a regular basis, including food (and travel, when I'm lucky), but there's something indulgent about writing whatever I want whenever I want to write it. Maybe not as indulgent as digging into a rich, molten chocolate cake … but hey, maybe I’ll get to do that, too. In any case, I want to give the blogging world a shot. Hopefully, it will make me a better writer. And a better cook. And, most importantly, a better connoisseur of impeccable tastes.