About flavor: oyster riot 1.0 and crayfish boil, 6/22/08

Joel Schott threw an incredible party, dubbed Oyster Riot 1.0, on a rooftop overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge in Dumbo. The day before, Joel was on the phone with a fisherman in Louisiana, arranging for the delivery of 100 pounds of live, chirping crawdads. As luck would have it, the boats came back full and the next morning a package of crawdads arrived at LaGuardia and was couriered to Dumbo, much to the chagrin of a perplexed doorman. On this memorable Saturday, Joel cemented his legendary status for going all out, especially in the name of food and drink and great times.

This is the kettle we set up in the cabana. It was filled with water and a ton of creole spices. The first step was to cook quartered red-skinned potatoes. When the potatoes were 3/4 cooked, we dumped them into a cooler and closed the lid, allowing them to steam until fork tender.

We shucked corn and cut the cobs into thirds.

Peeling pearl onions was a big job. I volunteered to arrive early to help bang out the pearls and help with other prep. Graciously, Joel rewarded my efforts with grand cru champagne.

Nic, Jonathan Schwartz, Craig, and I all peeled pearl onions.

Relaxing, drinking bubbly with a view of the brooklyn bridge and the city on a picturesque day.

Craig is a hero. He brought oysters that he raised and harvested in Long Island. This is Craig and Matt Fuhrmann shucking.

David Norris shucked oysters, too.

Joel's daughter Sophie meets a crawdad.

JP reckons that it might be a good idea to let a crawdad pinch his finger. It was a bad idea and he complained of pain later.

Joel at work. He is loading up the kettle with corn, pearl onions, andouille, pre-grilled chicken thighs, and lots of peppers. When all this was cooked, he submerged the crawdads in highly salted water for a few minutes to purge them and then dumped them into the kettle and turned off the heat. He added the cooked potatoes to the brew and ten minutes later the grind-fest was on!