The first rule of Txoko Club is not to talk about Txoko Club. That doesn’t really help does it, to spread the word on the fun we had that night.

What is a Txoko?

It comes from a Basque (Northern Spain) region event which is a gathering of people that come together to socialise and to cook together. Traditionally it is male only, hence the reason why you see women with stick on moustaches so they can go under cover.

The Larder House has held a few of these already but this was the first one I was able to make time for, and the fact it was a seafood one sealed the deal in reality.

Berets on head, but I can’t do sticky on moustaches due to being allergic to the adhesive.

Oyster Shucking

As part of the evening is about rolling your sleeves up and joining in with the food prep or cooking, I had a big surprise in having my own oyster shucking station, suitably adorned with some comedic titling. This was all due to me smashing out a time of less than 6 seconds to shuck and eat an oyster at a recent oyster festival held at the place.

I hadn’t brought my own trusty knife so on the stall I had to use their skinner blades, which gave room for some non-comedic wrist slicing action – so I had to gingerly take my time. There was a fair queue building up.

Some people had never tried them or had them once before but didn’t like it. It was good to find out that everyone enjoyed them. I had a cheeky few to myself before settling down with the rest for the food.

For me it was heaven – based on crab balls, clams, prawns, mussels, razor clams, lobster, crab, oysters….. plus there were salad bits.

A great night of eating and meeting new people, and ridiculously good value. Thoroughly recommended. Take a few friends or make new friends.