Love them or hate them, oysters will either get your juices flowing or simply make you want to purge. Aficionados will stand their ground and argue that au naturel is the only way to eat an oyster – freshly shucked and gulped straight from the shell. Personally I prefer a squeeze of lemon or a very occasional uncouth dollop of cocktail sauce. I’ll even go retro and have them kilpatrick or maybe down them with a shot of vodka. The varieties are endless.

Give these a go.

chinkiang vinegar & crispy shallots

• 50 ml Chinkiang vinegar (Chinese black vinegar)
• Chinese crispy shallots

Spoon ½ tsp vinegar onto each oyster, sprinkle with crispy shallots and serve.

ginger, chilli, lime + garam masala

• 2 juicy limes
• 1 tbsp grated palm sugar
• ½ bird’s eye chilli, thinly sliced
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 1 small thumb of young ginger, finely julienned
• garam masala
• coriander leaves
• chives

Finely grate the zest from half of one lime into a bowl. Add the palm sugar and chilli and mash together. Squeeze the juice from both limes over the mixture and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Stir in the fish sauce and ginger and set aside.

To serve, lightly sprinkle each oyster with garam masala, scatter over a few coriander leaves and spears of chive. Drizzle over the lime chilli dressing.

dried tomato salsa

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• ¼ medium red onion, finely diced
• 1 cloves garlic, finely grated
• 6 dried tomatoes, diced finely
• 1 tbsp capers, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• Sea salt + freshly cracked pepper