A Wendalicious reader asks:
What would you prepare if a friend sent a bushel of Chesapeake Bay Oysters (live, unshucked) to your home as a gift? The approximately 100 oysters will be packed so as to keep for 2 weeks and come with two oyster knives.
Your friend, Joanne
What nice friends you have! A very thoughtful gift.
I personally do not like oysters, and thus have never prepared them myself. Can any of you out there offer Joanne some guidance? The only thing I can offer is a wine suggestion – a very dry sparking wine, perhaps Gruet Brut from New Mexico. One of my personal favorites.
Life at Goal 
I would open a bottle of Verdicchio, shuck and slurp away until in oyster overload. I love the slimy, salty things. It’s like a little piece of the ocean going right down my throat.
That said, a nice spicy cocktail sauce, tobasco and lemon make ’em even more heavenly…never been as fond of them cooked, but a chinese hotpot with black bean sauce will do…
I prefer raw, but if someone has a fried oyster recipe, they are delicious prepared that way. Less visceral.
I’d skip the cocktail sauce and make a champagne mignonette. Then drink the rest of the Champagne with the oysters, with a bottle of good French Chablis to follow.
And friends. I’d need a couple of friends to help eat and drink the bounty.
Here is a link to a recipe for the mignonette:
http://www.kqed.org/w/weircookinginthecity/recipe-02.html
Thanks, Daniel! I love your blog…