Dan Driscoll, longtime owner of Oysterville Sea Farms on the north end of the Long Beach Peninsula, serves up a plate of Willapa Bay’s freshest.

Dan Driscoll is a citizen of Willapa Bay who grew up on this tidewater.

Like a handful of survivors from the last century, he knows it intimately. He collected oysters and sold them for years at his cannery and restaurant. And he is still at work, as the longtime owner of Oysterville Sea Farms.

Certainly, Willapa Bay has been harvested for 10,000 years. When Lewis and Clark starved, the First Peoples reveled in clams, oysters, indigenous greens, roots and sea beans, to mention but a few.

Many of us love raw oysters. Summertime is not the best time for the bivalve. They can be soft and a bit milky. Nowadays, the oyster breeders offer sexless oysters — triploids — that can be consumed at most any time of year.

Still, I prefer to sup, sip and quaff (one doesn’t really chew oysters) during the winter months. The oysters are now firm in texture, a bit sweet — sometimes with a slight vanilla taste — and briny to perfection. They should be chilled and consumed blissfully. Remember, the best oyster is a fresh oyster.

Recently, Dan and I were both guests in Oysterville of our mutual friend, Steve Romero. Steve is a connoisseur of the fresh and the best, and he cooks superbly. Dan walked in with some huge oysters, larger than the normally harvested three-year oysters.

Steve’s eyes widened. He ran pell-mell to the backyard and fired up his grill. Dan followed with three dozen scrubbed oysters. The feasting was about to begin.

Grilled oysters

Ingredients

• Fresh, in the shell, oysters

• 1 tablespoon clarified butter, or a pat over the hot oyster

• Horseradish and ketchup mixture

• Hot sauce, to taste

• Parmesan cheese, to taste

• Pinch sea salt

Preparation

This is simple: throw the oysters on the grill and roast them until the shell pops open. Don’t burn your fingers. Pry off the top shell.

Now come choices. Many add a tablespoon of clarified butter or a pat over the hot oyster. Mix horseradish with ketchup, then add a bit of hot sauce. I also love an Asian garlic sauce. Butter and parmesan are great, at least in my humble opinion.

Not all those steamed oysters arrived back in the kitchen. Dan, Steve and I slurped down a good number, right there, hot off the grill.

Opened, Steve put a dozen, still in the half shell, back over the grill to brown them. I thought a splash of Japanese sake deserved consideration. Or maybe a pinch of good sea salt, or a few drops of extra virgin olive oil. Something this fresh doesn’t need a lot of doctoring.