4.14.2009

Oyster lessons

I took a great class many years ago about oysters because I am the world's biggest oyster fan. The class was less about recipes than it was about the illustrious oyster itself. I just found my notes and so am going to do a little 2-part series from said notes. The teacher, by the way, was Jon Rowley, and there's lots about him on the internet. From an article on him, there's this quote from Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast":

"As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans."

Here is part 1 of the series, ABOUT OYSTERS:
  • More species are in the 30 mile radius around Olympia than anywhere else in the world.
  • Kumamotos are called the "sweetheart of the half shells"
  • The Pacific oyster came here (Olympia WA) from Japan in the twenties.
  • oysters have a lot of minerals that are hard to find in other foods.
  • in season the white part is full of glycogen.
  • He recommends trying the Boy Scouts' oysters at Oyster Fest
  • Oysters are best in late spring.
  • In pioneer days, oysters were cheap and plentiful and were used wherever trains went. Old time cookbooks have lots of oyster recipes because they were so inexpensive (even cheaper than beef.)
  • Wash down a raw oyster with a brisk, dry, clean-finishing white wine or a malty porter or stout. Take a bite of a crusty light rye bread to neutralize the taste buds and then onto the next oyster, Jon says.
Part 2 will have a couple of recipes from Jon. Fried oysters and barbecued oysters.

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