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Good Taste

Ask a server at Oyster House for the "Heeeyyyy Guurrlll" and they will laugh - it's how they've playfully been referring to the new hay-smoked oyster dish at staff meetings. An oyster this good deserves to have its own nickname. Ex

Hay-smoked oysters at Oyster House. (MICHAEL BRYANT / Staff Photographer)
Hay-smoked oysters at Oyster House. (MICHAEL BRYANT / Staff Photographer)Read more

Surf and turf

Ask a server at Oyster House for the "Heeeyyyy Guurrlll" and they will laugh - it's how they've playfully been referring to the new hay-smoked oyster dish at staff meetings. An oyster this good deserves to have its own nickname. Executive chef Andy Kitko gets the hay from his farmer ("It's pretty cheap, but not free"), soaks it for a few hours, then tosses it on the grill with the plump oysters, and smokes them until medium-rare. The mollusks arrive scented like greener pastures, and are floating in a compound butter, made with herbs (fennel seed, thyme, rosemary, lavender), that Kitko dries in-house. Look for the addition of black truffles, once in season.

- Ashley Primis
Hay-smoked oysters with Provençal butter, $12 at Oyster House, 1516 Sansom St., 215-567-7683, oysterhousephilly.com