“Growing up in a fairly conventional Korean family, Thanksgiving dinners were pretty awful at best. The only part I liked were the chestnuts. We ate them roasted, boiled, mashed in sticky rice, or right out of the shell. Nowadays, I’m the master of ceremonies when it comes to turkey dinners, but I’m not ready to let go of my childhood. The warm briny oysters are the perfect foil for the earthy sweetness of the chestnuts. Throw in the country ham, and you’ve got a complex balance of salt and sweet that will stand up to all the other flavors at the holiday table—or any other time you’ve got turkey in your game plan.” —Edward Lee, 610 Magnolia, Louisville, Kentucky

Oysters by Mail
Need fresh oysters? Here’s one of the best mail-order operations out there

Cousins Ryan and Travis Croxton have oysters in their blood. In 1899, their great-grandfather James Arthur Croxton, Jr., bought an oyster lease near Bowlers, Virginia, and the family has been selling bivalves ever since—and damn good ones. Their three native varieties—sweet Rappahannock Rivers, crisp Stingrays, and briny Olde Saltes—are all grown using eco-friendly techniques to maximize flavor and texture while sparing the fragile Chesapeake Bay environment (i.e., no dredging). If you ask the Croxton cousins, they’ll tell you their native varieties (all Crassostrea virginica) are the best tasting oysters in the world. That’s debatable. What’s not debatable is that they run a great operation, and when that box arrives, you’re in for a treat. 804-204-1709; rroysters.com