Chefs and restaurants serving our oysters

Storing oysters

Opening oysters without tears

Dexter Russell Oyster Knives

Nutritional value

Oysters and art

Moonlight Flat Oysters and wine

Enjoying our oysters

Chefs and restaurants serving our oysters
From Byron Bay in the north down to Brighton, Victoria and west to Orange, our footprint of client restaurants is deliberately selective. In all venues we entrust our product to just a handful of truly gifted chefs who share our passion for preserving the integrity of the finest product. We deliberately don’t seek an empire because quality control—the key to our reputation—could suffer.

Ask for our brands by name.

NSW and ACT

In Sydney at:

Aperitif 7 Kellett St, Potts Point. Tel 02 9357 4729

The Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay, Ferry Road Glebe. Tel 02 9518 9011, www.boathouse.net.au

Coast Restaurant The Roof Terrace, Cockle Bay Wharf, Darling Harbour, Sydney. Tel 02 9267 6700. www.coastrestaurant.com.au

Flying Fish Restaurant 22-32 Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont. Tel 9518 6677, www.flyingfish.com.au

Four in Hand Hotel Bistro  105 Sutherland St, Paddington. Tel 02 9362 1999, www.fourinhand.com.au

Manta The Finger Wharf, Woolloomooloo. Tel 02 9332 3822, www.mantarestaurant.com.au

Jonah’s Restaurant 69 Bynya Road, Palm Beach. Tel 02 9974 5599, www.jonahs.com.au

Ormeggio d'Alrbora Marinas, The Spit, Mosman. Tel 02 99694088. www.ormeggio.com.au

Pilu at Freshwater Moore Road, Harbord. Tel 02 9938 3331, www.piluatfreshwater.com.au

The Public Dining Room The Esplanade, Balmoral Beach, Mosman. Tel 02 9968 3433
www.publicdiningroom.com.au

In Orange:

Lolli Redini 48 Sale St, Orange. Tel 02 6361 7748, www.lolliredini.com.au

In Byron Bay at:

Pacific Dining Room, Byron Bay Beach Hotel, Byron Bay. Tel 02 6685 6402, www.pacificdiningroom.com.au

In Watego's Beach at:

Rae's at Watego's, Watgeo's Beach, Tel 02 6685 5366, www.raes.com.au

Victoria

In Melbourne:

Albert Park Hotel Cnr Montague St and Dundas Pl, Albert Park. Tel 03 96905459. www.thealbertpark.com.au

The Botanical 169 Domain Road, South Yarra. Tel 03 9820 7888, www.thebotanical.com.au

Cumulus Inc 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne Tel 03 9654 9545 www.cumulusinc.com.au

Grossi Florentino 80 Bourke Street, Melbourne, Tel 03 9662 1811 www.grossiflorentino.com

Cutler & Co 55 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne, Tel 03 9419 4888, www.cutlerandco.com.au

Middle Park Hotel 102 Canterbury Road, Middle Park. Tel 03 9690 1958 www.middleparkhotel.com.au

Restaurant 35 Sofitel Hotel, 25 Collins Street, Melbourne. Tel 03 9653 7764 www.no35.com.au

Vue de Monde 430 Little Collins Street, Melbourne, Tel 03 9691 3888, www.vuedemonde.com.au

Storing oysters
Oysters are live fish happy in their shell when shipped direct from us. Sydney rock oysters have a fantastic advantage over all other oyster species because their shelf life, under ideal conditions, can extend out to a couple of weeks. (Although we want you to consume them early, not shoot for the longest shelf record!).

The single biggest enemy of oysters in storage is the fan air in a normal fridge. It dries the sealant lip of the oyster forcing the animal to ‘give up’. The lid opens and it dies.

We recommend storing oysters almost in the same conditions you store your best red wine. Cool, dark, moist, windless conditions, for example a corner of the concrete floor in the garage. Best if you can find a damp hessian bag to cover them.

If storing in a restaurant cool room, keep them in a protective container away from the direct fan air, and with some dampened cellular material covering them. If storing angasi oysters stack them and keep a weight on them.

If you must keep closed oysters in the household fridge, wrap them in a thick damp newspaper to insulate them from the fan air. Consume within a couple of days.

The ideal temperature for keeping rock oysters is between 10 and 15 degrees. For angasi it’s a little lower at 5 to 8 degrees.  Be careful though not to subject the animals to wild variations in temperature in short periods, e.g. from the fridge to the BBQ bench on a hot humid day, then back to the fridge for the unused oysters. That’s a killer.

Oysters are great picnic takeaway food, what other product comes in its own individual pearl lined container?

Opening oysters without tears
Believe us it can be done, it’s all a matter of practice….after all, 60 million French people can’t be  wrong!

Step 1. Put that screwdriver back where it belongs in the toolbox and go purchase a decent oyster knife that will serve you the rest of your life.  No bones about it, the best we’ve come across around the globe is the Dexter-Russell 'New Haven' 2.5 inch with slightly bent tip. Works a treat on rock oysters.

Step 2. Dampen a kitchen towel and shape it into a little “nest” in which to cradle the oyster you are about to open. If you’re really sharp you might get your European friends to purchase a plastic kitchenware oyster cup—I found mine in Hong Kong.

Step 3. Place clean oyster in nest. Left hand over the nest with the beak towards you protruding between thumb and other fingers

Now here’s the family secret: with the tip of the knife flick the first couple of millimeters of the ‘false beak’ up and off, revealing the true hinge point between top and bottom lids. Voila! (See pic top right).

Gently but firmly wiggle the bent point of the tip of the blade into the visible hinge line. Be patient. The lid will pop. (See pic middle right).

Step 4. Gently slide the blade of the knife horizontally around to the other end of the oyster severing the thick muscle which holds the upper and lower shell together. If you have kept all this steady you will retain all the natural oyster juices. (See pic bottom right)

Should you accidentally break a few chips of shell into the oyster, don’t worry. Take a small pastry brush and gently brush them off the oyster. Between oysters, rinse your knife blade to clean off any grit.
[graphic]

If you feel you need a mesh glove, do not rush out and buy an expensive metal one. There’s a cheap Kevlar material glove sold in fishing shops for about $25. 

Like my piano teachers always said …practice.. practice.. practice .

Dexter-Russell Oyster Knives
You won’t be surprised to know that we have tried quite a few oyster knives over the years and we think we have found the perfect knife, the US-made Dexter-Russell ‘New Haven’, with a 70 mm blade and a slightly curved tip on the end of the blade. It is certainly the best knife we have tried for rock oysters and we recommend them to our restaurant customers.

Features:
- 70mm blade
- Angled tip to prevent RSI and wrist strain.
- Polypropylene, sanitary handles are high impact and slip resistant.
- Impervious sanitary seal between handle and blade.
- The blade is stain free, high carbon, hand ground and honed.
- Superb edge retention and sharpening characteristics.

We carry a small stock of these knives—if you would like to purchase one please email your address and credit card details or post your details and a cheque for $24 to Moonlight Flat Oysters, PO Box 778, Batemans Bay NSW 2536. Cost includes postage to anywhere in Australia.
 
Nutritional value
Moonlight Flat oysters are the result of our environmentally blessed estuary located at Batemans Bay in southern NSW, far removed from any contamination by urban, industrial or rural developments. They offer a well‑balanced nutritional package, rich in essential minerals and vitamins. Oysters are much lower in cholesterol than prawns or red meat, about the same level as fish. Before despatch to select client establishments, special care is given to regulatory preparation, hygiene and hand packing to ensure the integrity of the oyster.

Oyster recipes from our chefs
Over the years we have seen some great food presentation from the kitchens of our partners, the chefs, so we prevailed upon them to contribute some oyster inspiration for our ongoing collection.

From Andrew McConnell, Three, One,Two, Restaurant, 312 Drummond Street, Carlton, Melbourne, comes a fantastic simple breakfast treat using our Clair de Lune Sel Saveur:

Rice with fried egg
Generously sprinkle Clair de Lune Sel Saveur over  a steaming bowl of plain Japanese rice with a fried egg on top. Refresh the sprinkle as the rice and egg quickly disappears.

From Matt Wilkinson and David Moyle at Circa, 2 Acland Street, St Kilda, Melbourne.

Oyster Sauce
2 cups oyster meat
3 cups water
1 cup clam juice (bottled)
1 clove garlic
1 green onion, white only
1 x 3 mm thick slice of ginger

¼ cup light soy
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons corn starch
3 tablespoons water

Wash and drain the oyster meat, peel and crush the ginger. In a saucepan, bring the oyster meat, water, clam juice, salt, garlic, green onion and ginger to simmer for 30 minutes.

Mix together the soy sauce, sugar, corn starch and water, stir the mixture into the oyster mixture stirring as you go. Simmer for another 10 minutes, stirring periodically. Strain the mixture after cooking, discarding the solids and retaining the liquids (including the oysters). Keep in a tightly sealed jar.

I watched Matt and David prepare this sauce then drizzle a little over a sumptuous tablet of fresh sashimi tuna placed in an oyster shell with a fresh Clair de Lune perched on top. Wow!

Clair de Lune Sel Saveur®
Our oyster savoury salt is made in the style of traditional French sel saveur, comprising wholly natural ingredients of seaweed, Moonlight Flat Oysters™ and sea salt. READ MORE >


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