Tucked into the weekly Bixby Park Farmers Market on Saturdays sits an adorable truck, tucked under a bright orange umbrella, with “Loquat Oysters” proudly displayed on its side. And oysters, indeed, you will find. Beausoleils topped with caviar. Watch House Points grilled with bone marrow. Penn Coves squeezed with lemon before being topped off with a prohok-inspired mignonette—a Washington bivalve gone Cambodian.
And for owners and Long Beach locals, Lucky and Liz Huon? It might just be a weekend-meets-popup gig for the couple while they maintain full-time jobs during the week, sure. But if passion—mixed with the right tinge of talent, of course—proves anything, it is that you can create some of the finest things in your community. And in the case of Loquat Oysters, it is the fact that they are Long Beach’s best oysters.
If this alone doesn’t make you smile in the slightest, surely the story behind it will. Romantic. Ambition-filled. A highlight of our Asian communities. And purely Long Beach.
How date nights inspired by NOLA led to Loquat Oysters.
“We ate a ridiculous amount of oysters, drank a ridiculous amount of hurricanes. And we were like, ‘Hey, we could do this.’”
These are the words of Liz, relaying her and Lucky’s first trip to the great city of New Orleans. And much like the romanticism of NOLA itself—rich history, the constant cacophony of live music and conversation, one of the country’s richest culinary cities…—what started as a birthday indulgence turned into a date night tradition.
“We’re self-taught,” Lucky said. “COVID had us bored, and we wanted to re-live our time in New Orleans, so just… We just began shucking oysters at home. Eventually, we started inviting family, friends, neighbors—and the feedback was great. And then that led to us being a bit more ambitious.”
And by ambition, they mean a kinda-sorta food truck—if a Vespa could but a truck, it would be the Loquat Oyster truck—that isn’t about serving the food but more about creating an oyster bar to sit at. (Including the truck being equipped with a TV in case Dodgers or Lakers games are on.) Insanely cute, the Queen Mary night market was their first gig. And it was ambitious, chaotic, and absolutely packed. “Our line felt never-ending,” Liz said. “Not gonna lie: It was overwhelming. Our menu was way too big, and we had no idea what we were doing. We even had to have a friend hop on the line to help schuck.”
Loquat Oysters has grown into a weekly tradition (with appearances beyond).
“You’re back!” a customer said, leaning their head into the tent that sits next to the Loquat Oysters truck to note that, due to a catering event, the pair were not at the farmers market the Saturday before. Liz turns around, smiling broadly, oyster knife in one hand and a Canadian oyster in another. “Hey Randy!” She shucks the Beausoleil, adds it to an array of others atop ice, and quips, “It still gets to me that we have regulars.”
With their success as a pop-up, they run the truck regularly—every Saturday at the Bixby Park Farmers Market—and rotate their oyster offerings weekly. Shigokus. Malaspinas. Rock Holes. Misty Points. Samish Pearls. What’s served all depends on what their purveyors have and, most importantly, what they love. That is why they have regulars: immense quality paired with innovative takes on the bivalve and a genuinely warm spirit.
You can top them off with caviar. You can add a jalapeño mignonette or a Cambodian version—muddled with Thai chile, tinged with fish sauce, and doused in an array of herbs to play off the traditional prohok sauce in Cambodian cuisine. Or you can order scallops, seared so briefly on the grill that there’s only the slightest hint they received fire at any point. Topped with a chile garlic oil, chives, and a lime squeeze. There’s even a karaage oyster—a masterfully created batter that envelops the oyster before you dot drips of a scallion-meets-togarashi oil atop it.
But the real star? It’s their grilled oysters.
The real specialty? Their grilled oysters.
“I remember when we were beginning last year, how much we had to convince people to try the grilled oysters,” Liz said. “They really just didn’t understand it.”
And she’s right: For the most part, Californians are used to the raw versions, topped with some type of acid, maybe heat. But the grilled oysters at Loquat go beyond Rockefeller.
Bone marrow is slid atop the shelled glob of an ocean creature. N’duja is added like a bright red invader. Classics like garlic butter and Cajun are options. They’ve had Kosho, the common Japanese condiment. Or spicy miso. They’ve had yuzu wasabi. All charred above Japanese charcoal briquettes on a tiny-but-mighty grill they set up.
“This is our version of partying now,” Lucky said, laughing. “We used to go out two, three nights a week. Now, we work at our jobs, work the truck and eat oysters… It’s admittedly exhausting sometimes, but it’s fun. This is the new chapter.”
Loquat Oysters is located at the Bixby Park Farmers Market on Saturdays. For more info, including other popup locations, follow their Instagram.
