Cue the dueling banjos music.

Okay, folks. A little kitchen competition tonight. Mr. Hawthorne and I are having fried oysters. So we both prepare our own coatings. This is his: 2/3 flour, 1/3 cornmeal, Old Bay Seasoning. Pfffft.... I let him fry first so he got the good oil. He says his mistake was leaving the oysters in the breading while waiting for the oil to get hot. So the oysters were not as crispy nor as light as they should have been. He says he knew better. Excuses. Excuses. I made two different coatings. Here's the first. This one is a 3-parter. First bowl is flour/cornmeal/salt/pepper. Second is aigs. Third is ground up Ritz crackers and Panko bread crumbs. Here's my second. It's last night's tempura batter consisting of cake flour/cornstarch/ baking soda/salt with beer. 3 parts tempura mix to 2 parts beer.

And here are the results. On the left, Mr. H.'s breading. On the top right, my 3-dipper. And on the bottom right, my wet batter. Remember, you eat with your eyes first. I won't say which two batches look better than the third.

Here's the plated meal. 3 types of oysters, cocktail sauce (Ketchup, horseradish, Worcestershire Sauce, and lemon), Mr. H.'s Tartar sauce (Mayo, sweet pickle relish, splash vinegar), and my coleslaw. The coleslaw is red and green cabbage, grated carrot, minced onion, mayo, vinegar, pinch sugar, s & p and chopped apples. Quite good.

Our final decision on the meal? The oysters would have been much better had they been freshly shucked, but can't get them right now. Mr. H. agrees with me that my 3-part batter was the best. Although just a tad heavy. The oysters should have been bigger to accommodate that batter. Second place was my wet batter. He says if he had done his oysters properly, his breading would have won hands down. Well now, since he didn't do it properly, we just won't know, will we?