My first oyster was at Connie & Ted's in West Hollywood. I had been wanting to try them, but I only ever saw them offered a dozen at a time. What if I didn't like them? Connie & Ted's sold them one off, so I got one. I was there with my brother. It was his birthday and I took him there for fried clams. (Later at another restaurant I ordered steamed clams and discovered that he liked the "fried" more than the "clams"). I tried one, and loved it. I ordered another. As I ate, my brother asked the waiter, "When was that oyster last alive?" The waiter answered, "Right up until your brother bit it!" My delight was only matched by his horror. I now eat oysters every time they are on the menu. It is as you said, "it’s like something in the depths of my animal humanity needs to eat raw things out of shells."
Ah, arsters! Where I grew up in Southern Maryland, you had a crab guy and an oyster guy both speaking of bushels. The Chesapeake Bay’s oysters are usually craggy which make them easier to hold & shuck; the brackish waters mean that they can taste different from creek to creek. One of the delights of my life is that my little brother has become “the oyster guy” here in Baltimore, as he regularly brings up oysters to sell and is the backyard shucker of choice for rowhome shindigs.
Raw please! My first oyster was my best oyster. A few years back, I worked at a restaurant with an oyster bar and was lucky enough to get to know the oyster supplier. One summer, he took us out to his oyster farm to learn about oyster farming and conservation on the York River. Until that point, I had not tried oysters, because as a vegetarian, I thought I'd be crossing some imagined line. But, on the boat that day, I shucked and slurped my first oyster straight from the river and washed it down with some coors light. I, too, could not tell you about the specific tasting notes, but I do know that it was delicious and I haven't stopped eating oysters since.
Also highly recommend Jacobsen's "The Living Shore," in which he chases down the "last pristine beds of Ostrea conchaphila, the Olympia oyster. The only oyster native to the Pacific coast of North America, the Olympia once carpeted the shore from California to Alaska and was a staple food of Native Americans. But decades of overharvesting and pollution nearly wiped it out."
I like my oysters raw, like you do, but once a year I'll make myself oyster stew near the holidays and feel as luscious and indulgent as all the cream in it :) I can't remember the best oysters I've ever had, but I loved the oyster segment in "High on the Hog" featuring the history of Thomas Downing and Ben "Moody" Hardy's business, Mother Shuckers: have you seen it? And I delighted in reading "France, France, France" in Jan's whiny voice from The Brady Bunch :) Now I have to read M.F.K. Fisher again!
A little late but my earliest memories of oysters were slurping then out of shell as a kid after they’ve been covered in lime juice and a little bit of salt. As I got older hot sauce was added. We’re in Arizona on the bother with Mexico and used to cross just to eat mariscos. The oysters are from the sea of Cortez and I’m hoping to check out an oyster farm later this summer.
Since I live landlocked, oysters usually feel like a special occasion! The first time I had oysters was on a family trip to New Orleans as a young teen. They were charbroiled and indulgent and fabulous. My husband loves oysters so we get them anytime we travel closer to a coastline, and I've finally grown up enough to enjoy them raw. (On another New Orleans trip in my early 20s, a fried oysters Benedict for brunch saved me from a desperate hangover...)
Absolutely should be raw! (But are of course great in soups and sauces nonetheless)
And Barnegat Bay, where we used to go clamming as teenagers, marine biologists are learning how oysters can help restore the ecosystem (yes, Jersey has oysters! and the Bay used to have lots of them...)
My most memorable oyster experience almost turned me away from oysters for good: I was studying abroad in Paris, and the woman hosting me in her apartment, knowing that I was spending that semester eating voraciously and adventurously (and breaking out of strict veganism), insisted on serving oysters one night. They had been frozen, not fresh, though, which I think was the main reason I didn’t enjoy them. Five years later (and further removed from that experience), I had them again to much more enjoyment (but with more resistance to /where/ I was eating them—Madison, WI is not oyster region!) Needless to say, I’m still looking for my coastal oyster experience.
Another note on MFK and oyster writing—there’s a touching and funny essay in The Gastronomical Me about her first oyster eating experience, when she was a teenager.
I really loved this, thank you. I've been a vegetarian for 10 years. After college, I moved to the North Carolina coast, where I took a job at a coastal conservation organization, and I ate an oyster for the first time. It was in February, outside my office after a meeting that ended with an oyster roast, and the oyster was steamed, on a cracker, with some lemon juice. I loved talking with oyster growers for work and hearing how they described their oysters' flavor profiles. My favorite oysters are raw, salty, from in and around the Core Sound in Down East North Carolina. I'm not sure what opinions are on North Carolina oysters outside of the state, and I have not had many oysters from elsewhere to compare, but I love the waters these oysters are from and love these oysters.
I grew up in Belize and while seafood are a staple of our diet, oysters aren't. The first ones I had were at a Hooters with some distant relatives when I was a teen visiting Chicago. I enjoyed them just fine, but hated the company i was with who were there for the ogling. Years later a friend and former lover and I made a trip to Astoria, Or. I was about to leave the PNW to start a PhD out East and we wanted to have one last time together. That day in Astoria was supremely joyous and filled with food. We found an oyster bar and we sampled every variety they had along with rounds of champagne. It was a great distillation of our relationship, which had been centered on food, being unconsciously silly together, and being very present. It was decadent and fun and something we still talk about now.
My first oyster was at Connie & Ted's in West Hollywood. I had been wanting to try them, but I only ever saw them offered a dozen at a time. What if I didn't like them? Connie & Ted's sold them one off, so I got one. I was there with my brother. It was his birthday and I took him there for fried clams. (Later at another restaurant I ordered steamed clams and discovered that he liked the "fried" more than the "clams"). I tried one, and loved it. I ordered another. As I ate, my brother asked the waiter, "When was that oyster last alive?" The waiter answered, "Right up until your brother bit it!" My delight was only matched by his horror. I now eat oysters every time they are on the menu. It is as you said, "it’s like something in the depths of my animal humanity needs to eat raw things out of shells."
Ah, arsters! Where I grew up in Southern Maryland, you had a crab guy and an oyster guy both speaking of bushels. The Chesapeake Bay’s oysters are usually craggy which make them easier to hold & shuck; the brackish waters mean that they can taste different from creek to creek. One of the delights of my life is that my little brother has become “the oyster guy” here in Baltimore, as he regularly brings up oysters to sell and is the backyard shucker of choice for rowhome shindigs.
Raw please! My first oyster was my best oyster. A few years back, I worked at a restaurant with an oyster bar and was lucky enough to get to know the oyster supplier. One summer, he took us out to his oyster farm to learn about oyster farming and conservation on the York River. Until that point, I had not tried oysters, because as a vegetarian, I thought I'd be crossing some imagined line. But, on the boat that day, I shucked and slurped my first oyster straight from the river and washed it down with some coors light. I, too, could not tell you about the specific tasting notes, but I do know that it was delicious and I haven't stopped eating oysters since.
Also highly recommend Jacobsen's "The Living Shore," in which he chases down the "last pristine beds of Ostrea conchaphila, the Olympia oyster. The only oyster native to the Pacific coast of North America, the Olympia once carpeted the shore from California to Alaska and was a staple food of Native Americans. But decades of overharvesting and pollution nearly wiped it out."
I like my oysters raw, like you do, but once a year I'll make myself oyster stew near the holidays and feel as luscious and indulgent as all the cream in it :) I can't remember the best oysters I've ever had, but I loved the oyster segment in "High on the Hog" featuring the history of Thomas Downing and Ben "Moody" Hardy's business, Mother Shuckers: have you seen it? And I delighted in reading "France, France, France" in Jan's whiny voice from The Brady Bunch :) Now I have to read M.F.K. Fisher again!
A little late but my earliest memories of oysters were slurping then out of shell as a kid after they’ve been covered in lime juice and a little bit of salt. As I got older hot sauce was added. We’re in Arizona on the bother with Mexico and used to cross just to eat mariscos. The oysters are from the sea of Cortez and I’m hoping to check out an oyster farm later this summer.
Since I live landlocked, oysters usually feel like a special occasion! The first time I had oysters was on a family trip to New Orleans as a young teen. They were charbroiled and indulgent and fabulous. My husband loves oysters so we get them anytime we travel closer to a coastline, and I've finally grown up enough to enjoy them raw. (On another New Orleans trip in my early 20s, a fried oysters Benedict for brunch saved me from a desperate hangover...)
Always here for oyster content. All that oyster content, but are you oyster content?
Absolutely should be raw! (But are of course great in soups and sauces nonetheless)
And Barnegat Bay, where we used to go clamming as teenagers, marine biologists are learning how oysters can help restore the ecosystem (yes, Jersey has oysters! and the Bay used to have lots of them...)
https://stockton.edu/news/2019/oysters-show-researchers-how-to-restore-barnegat-bay.html
My most memorable oyster experience almost turned me away from oysters for good: I was studying abroad in Paris, and the woman hosting me in her apartment, knowing that I was spending that semester eating voraciously and adventurously (and breaking out of strict veganism), insisted on serving oysters one night. They had been frozen, not fresh, though, which I think was the main reason I didn’t enjoy them. Five years later (and further removed from that experience), I had them again to much more enjoyment (but with more resistance to /where/ I was eating them—Madison, WI is not oyster region!) Needless to say, I’m still looking for my coastal oyster experience.
Another note on MFK and oyster writing—there’s a touching and funny essay in The Gastronomical Me about her first oyster eating experience, when she was a teenager.
I really loved this, thank you. I've been a vegetarian for 10 years. After college, I moved to the North Carolina coast, where I took a job at a coastal conservation organization, and I ate an oyster for the first time. It was in February, outside my office after a meeting that ended with an oyster roast, and the oyster was steamed, on a cracker, with some lemon juice. I loved talking with oyster growers for work and hearing how they described their oysters' flavor profiles. My favorite oysters are raw, salty, from in and around the Core Sound in Down East North Carolina. I'm not sure what opinions are on North Carolina oysters outside of the state, and I have not had many oysters from elsewhere to compare, but I love the waters these oysters are from and love these oysters.
I grew up in Belize and while seafood are a staple of our diet, oysters aren't. The first ones I had were at a Hooters with some distant relatives when I was a teen visiting Chicago. I enjoyed them just fine, but hated the company i was with who were there for the ogling. Years later a friend and former lover and I made a trip to Astoria, Or. I was about to leave the PNW to start a PhD out East and we wanted to have one last time together. That day in Astoria was supremely joyous and filled with food. We found an oyster bar and we sampled every variety they had along with rounds of champagne. It was a great distillation of our relationship, which had been centered on food, being unconsciously silly together, and being very present. It was decadent and fun and something we still talk about now.