March 20, 2004

the world is your oyster
posted by kuujjuarapik 20 years ago
  • It's often said that the first brave hominid was the one that ate an oyster. I think it was just hungry. Still, every coastal region has its myths. I love good oysters and like everyone else the bad ones make me sick. I'm just fascinated by all of the different flavors and looks of the creatures. If you do eat them, why? What's your favorite? What's your local? (disclaimer- I sell fish for a living and very few oysters. I'm just amazed at the new varieties of oyster that pop up, while god is not inventing new fishes.)
  • We have the fabulous Blau Oysters in my neck of the woods. I only eat the smalles oysters. I like clams, mussels and such. Where I live, you could really hurt yourself feasting on oysters, salmon and crab year round. Believe it or not, I am quite sick of all three at this point.
  • One of my transcendental Pacific Northwest moments was around a beach campfire, where we gathered oysters, roasted them, ate them, gathered more .... This was on the northeast face of the Olympic Peninsula, I think, or else one of the islands nearby. The richness of the bounty was staggering. Sometimes I think about that while pondering just how hard an inland bear has to work to forage. Unlike my just-over-the-mountains neighbor Darshon, I am far from sick of the local seafood. I don't get it during my Inland Empire days, which has preserved my no longer jaded palate.
  • I grew up in Annapolis, MD, and having the Chesapeake so close meant oysters were on the menu quite often. My father made fabulous grilled oysters and oyster chowder. I wasn't a fan of raw oysters until I was older. I adore them now. One of my favorites is the oyster shot: place a raw oyster in a shot glass and cover it with a generous amount of hot sauce. Add a shot of ice cold vodka and down the hatch. Chase with a mouthful of cold beer. Delicious. Middleton's tavern in downtown Annapolis is well-known for their oyster shots. There's nothing better than sitting on the patio at Middleton's on a cool evening, doing a few oyster shots, and watching the tourists amble by.
  • I eat raw oysters from the West Coast of South Australia. The population is low in those parts, so there's little runoff
  • oooh! oysters. I love them raw or barbequed. in the bay area the absolute BEST BEST BEST oysters are Hog Island in Tomales Bay. Its a beautiful drive up the coast, a nice day outing with a very rewarding end. lovely kumimotos and pacifics...
  • Wolof, if people can pay hundreds for coffee beans that have been eaten and crapped out by cats, you can bet some sucker out there will buy special coliform-rich oysters. (I love Bluff oysters when they're available, but really marinated raw or smoked green-lip mussels are the best shellfish ever.)
  • Wolof, if people can pay hundreds for coffee beans that have been eaten and crapped out by cats, you can bet some sucker out there will buy special coliform-rich oysters. Uuuhhhhh......wha......????
  • you can bet some sucker out there will buy special coliform-rich oysters. And eat them and die. This is grade-A food poisoning we're talking about here. I find those NZ green-lipped mussels a bit rubbery and flavourless
  • Thanks Wolof, that's an oyster that I've never heard of. The west coast of Australia is just about the antipode of where I live. I'm glad to see that people on the other side of the earth like oysters too. I think that my favorite thing about oysters is shucking the little critters. You never really know what you're going to see, small and stinky or fat and tasty. It's kind of like x-mas morning, you know the sweater that's too itchy or the perfectly fitting warm socks. And Tracicle, I'd have to agree with Wolof about the green-lips. Bland and rubbery. But the ones I've had have spent at least 2 days on an airplane without a drink of water or any isometric exercise. They're plumb tuckered out by the time they get to Boston. Shellfish don't fare well with jet-lag. It's the same story with West Coast US oysters. I think the lesson is: don't eat the clams that aren't a day away by car or truck. I also wonder if anyone would go for a clam that has been crapped out by a civet cat. Not having said cat, I can only dream of the millions I'd make selling boutique cat-crap oysters to the "it" crowd.
  • Feel this thread would be incomplete without this.
  • Darshon, here. Maybe I'm just inexperienced in the ways of mussel-dom. But it's hard to find anything other than green-lipped mussels here.
  • I wonder how much they pay to pick through Civet shit? I would think with that kind of labour the price of the bean would be akin to buying saffron (nevermind, I read on......). I think that the Pacific Northwest has the very best mussels. I swear, I could eat them by the pound.
  • Kujj, you can google "oysa" if you want to check the local oysters out. It's a horrible site with awful Java and stinky proofing errors, which I why I didn't link to it. The oysters are as good as I've had, though. Better than Euro oysters, anyway. (Never been to Amrika.)