Wayne Baldwin's Amazing Story: Baldy's Eual Eldred Baldwin

[F-12]

Looks good for the races in Daytona This weekend. I have heard them from my house testing, racing, and r&d laps. Watch it on TV, walk out in the front yard and hear them. Just ordered a bushel of Oak Hill oysters for the event. Thanks agin.........

[Gene East]

In reality Jeff...to me it looks yukky if you don't know oysters. The shiny bulbs of gray bubbling out look poisonous. But in actuality, it is delicious. Oysters spawned and grown in clean bays are sumptous. These pics are not the best representations of "Oysters ala Baldy", but I was anxious to get going again. I took them some time last year and because of computer problems wasn't able to hook up with my camera, I used these pics because the oysters we had a couple of weeks ago are no longer able to lay around for the camera.. That's why I suggested that those who may be quesy about raw oysters, may want to brown them a little before dressing them with the rest of the ingredients and finishing them out. However you do them though....if the oysters are fresh....it is a most delicious dish.

Wayne,

They look delicious to me.

It's hard to imagine Bill Van Steenwyk eating oysters of any kind after all the guff he gave you and me about Spam.

Do you suppose he could eat a dozen raw ones on the half shell, maybe with a saltine cracker and a little shot of Tabasco??

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

Gene:

As my lovely wife Eileen will testify to, I am a very finicky eater, possible more so than Morris the Cat!!

That being said, in some cases you are better off to just "dive in and get with it" especially when something that looks like raw or cooked oysters do are concerned. As I have recounted many times, Baldy like to harass me as much if not more so than anyone else, so if I were to refuse to eat something with him around, especially if it were something he had prepared for me and his other guests, you better have a really good reason. Since we were usually full of either Lone Star, Bud, or Black Jack Daniels when the oysters came out, it made little difference at that point what they looked like. Add to that all the fun times he had shown you earlier in the day, and you better eat some if you wanted to have peace the rest of the night.

Anyone who has studied the "culinary arts" knows that appearance is a great part and function of how something tastes. I was very lucky to have eaten my first oysters, both raw and cooked, when for reasons previously mentioned, I didn't much care what they looked like. Get past the initial first look, pop one or more in your mouth, and they were great. Add to that a raw oyster very seldom stays in the mouth long enough to be tasted anyway, the hot sauce, peppers, or other condiment taste masking the true flavor, the booze previously consumed, and they were just fine, thank you. The mention of the hot peppers brings to mind another story that concerns a Great Dane dog that I believe belonged to Wayne's sister Jan, but I'll leave that for another time later on in this thread.

The only point I will argue, is that no matter how good a cook and host Baldy was, he would have never been able to convince me to eat that "stuff" in the spam can I have discussed previously.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Had Baldy known about how you feel about Spam Bill Van.....I guarantee you would have eaten it and loved it. He would have figured a way to either get you to eat it in something you didn't know it was in, and conned your "fabulous praises" out of you before he told you it was in the dish...or he would have cooked it "straight up" with all of us around where you couldn't turn it down. Convincing was not a part of his makeup. When did you ever hear Baldy say "Hey...why don't you try this? I think you would really like it." He either cooked it and you ate it, or if you didn't like it, he would make you something else if it was handy and possible to throw it on the grill or in the oven with the rest.

I'm not sure about the Great Dane yet Bill Van, but there is also one for later concerning the "broken legged (pronounced legg idd) calf" to come up later. You will know when to add yours.

ADD: Gene....I always grew up knowing that there were too many bones in carp to eat. I was taught that by Baldy. I wish he would have heard about the carp burgers and had been able to taste one. He would have loved to have made them for our neighbor friends and anyone else who came to visit.

And Charley.....are you going to give Oysters ala Baldy a try?

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

Wayne:

You need to reread the previous posts about "Spam and Me". It is NOT the spam I don't like, it is the yucky, gucky, greasy, awful looking stuff it is packed in. Looks like a piece of meat packed in snot, and as I said previously, looks are a great part of a food being attractive to the palate. Just for clarification, I do not object to the taste of the Spam itself, just the packaging. If placed on a serving platter or other type plate, neatly sliced, cooked or uncooked, garnished or not, with bread or plain, I will partake.

When I first read your previous post of today about my not liking Spam, and realized you didn't remember what I objected to, I was going to say something smart like "where did your memory go, same place as your hair", but you will notice I am trying to be nice so I won't mention it.

[F-12]

You bet I am, Wayne. I think with the sharp cheddar and enough jalapenos for the perfect blend, it sounds like a perfect race dish. 1/2 bushel raw, 1/2 bushel ala Baldy. I'll let you know how it turns out..............

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Looking forward to your report Charley. Include the sounds, VS. television and how your guests took to the oysters.

Bill Van! I do remember your post about the gelatin and how it you felt about it, but when you said "he would never convince me to eat that stuff in the 'Spam' can"...I thought you referred to "stuff" as the meat content and not the gelatin, because Baldy would never try to con someone into eating "the wrapping". And that's what the preservative you don't like basically is....so you kind of threw me off. But now that Baldy is not around......see if you can remember whether or not I will make oyster stew when you and Eileen come to visit, and if I mention I will have a special sauce that will make it very tasty.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Actually Bill Van....you win this one, because if Debbie caught me emptying the liquid contents of the Spam can into a stew pot..........she would not only agree with you on the point you made, but also disagree with me on why it would be a good thing to be cooking with horse, cattle and pigs hooves. marinated in fat

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

Wayne:

I always knew that two good looking, intelligent gentleman like ourselves could settle our differences in a grown up manner.

On another matter and all kidding aside, Eileen and I were really happy to see you in Fl. last month. I doubt I would have gone to the trouble and expense you did, and get up as early for the trip back, if I had not been able to spend more time than you did. Just goes to show, old boat racing friends are the best kind, especially when you hadn't seen some for 30 years. Was great to see you and hope you make it to Lake Alfred this fall.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

To get back on track. I had originally planned to throw in the highlights of each year as I got to that point for everyone to recall those moments of time who were around then, and to give some perspective to those following the thread that were not. Our oilfield work is highly irregular both in time and date, so in the last couple of months I haven't been able to get this story going like I planned. So after thinking it over... I decided to introduce the highlights as I go along for the nostalgia of us that lived it....and to plant guideposts for those that were too young to remember, or were not born in time to get the climate, sounds and feelings for those days.