Snacks and Starters

The Lowcountry meal is seldom a series of courses in the French manner, although a sideboard brimming with offerings from soups to nuts is not unusual. The food itself is often the entertainment at social gatherings such as the barbecue, the oyster roast, and the fish fry. Everyone pitches in and joins the cooking, then sits down at the communal table when all the food is prepared.

We take our oysters so much for granted that to serve a few of them as an appetizer before a meal seems an insult to a palate jaded by bushels of them. Most Sandlappers enjoy their oysters straight, opened outdoors around tables made from giant cable spools.