a dash of vodka with raw oysters is delicious and makes a kind of instant ceviche
All the oysters, please. Raw for preference, but bbq’d, fried, I’m down for it.
There used to be a (now-closed) restaurant here that used to have half-price raw oysters on Tuesday. It was great sitting on the patio, slurping oysters and drinking La Marca Prosecco (in moderation since the markup made it 3x the price at the liquor store).
We were recently in the French town of La Rochelle. We went to look at the food market which was generally filled with top quality produce. One of the outdoor stalls was selling nothing but oysters. You could buy to take home or the guy would open some for you to eat there and then. Unfortunately, it was early in the day and the guy was still setting up so hadnt started selling yet. But it was the sort of thing you wish happened at your own local market.
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My father (in France) always ordered a “bourriche” of oysters for Xmas (that is 12 dozens in a wooden lattice bucket), so I was trained to chuck oysters from a very young age, but never enjoyed them (the idea of eating a live animal which could crawl back your esophagus did not appeal). Jump ahead 40 years, and I was reintroduced to oysters in South Africa, and since then I am a great fan and eat oysters at any opportunity (very careful where they come from, though!). I was in Washington DC not long ago and decided to have fresh oysters twice in 2 separate restaurants. Much to my surprise and disgust, the oysters tasted of bleach, as if they had been disinfected before being served… Is this a normal practice in the States so that customers don’t get food poisoning?
No.
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Never heard of such a thing!
Dried? Like jerky dry? Never heard of that.
I like oysters, but I adore oyster stew more than the raw. I only get to good raw oyster places once in a blue moon, so I really don’t have the resources to become an addict. Loved the Rockefeller ones I had once. I just don’t have the resources where I live.
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Dried oysters are a Chinese thing. Oddly enough, the Chinese don’t consider dried oysters to be ‘meat’ - they’re a common ingredient in lo han jai or ‘Buddhist’s Delight’, and usually called a vegetarian dish.
Does that also go for things like dried shrimp or shrimp paste?
Do raw/cooked oysters count as meat?
It’s always interesting to see where lines are drawn. The Catholic church officially considered beaver “fish” for a time, so that French-Canadian fur trappers wouldn’t starve during lent. This apparently extended to other water-dwelling definitely-not-fish like muskrat and capybara. Many Louisiana Catholics consider alligator a suitable Lenten meal.
I don’t honestly know. I just recall finding it odd being sent to the local Asian market to buy dried oysters for a purportedly vegetarian dish! Mom’s recipe clearly called Lo Han Jai ‘vegetarian’, yet called for dried oysters. It didn’t matter to us, we ate/eat anything. IIRC, there are other recipes online that do the same for LHJ.
Learn sum’n new every day. Brings up an interesting potential debate. Where does meat end and veg begin?
Just gonna leave this here.
“What is an oyster if not the perfect food? It requires no preparation or cooking. Cooking would be an affront. It provides its own sauce. It’s a living thing until seconds before disappearing down your throat, so you know – or should know – that it’s fresh. It appears on your plate as God created it: raw, unadorned. A squeeze of lemon, or maybe a little mignonette sauce (red wine vinegar, cracked black pepper, some finely chopped shallot), about as much of an insult as you might care to tender against this magnificent creature. It is food at its most primeval and glorious, untouched by time or man. A living thing, eaten for sustenance and pleasure, the same way our knuckle-dragging forefathers ate them. And they have, for me anyway, the added mystical attraction of all that sense memory – the significance of being the first food to change my life. I blame my first oyster for everything I did after: my decision to become a chef, my thrill-seeking, all my hideous screwups in pursuit of pleasure. I blame it all on that oyster. In a nice way, of course.”
― Anthony Bourdain, (A Cook’s Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines)
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Neither had I… Must have had bad luck with my choices; on the other hand, maybe I was lucky they disinfected the oysters, as I did not get food poisoning :o)
What y’all paying for your oysters where you are?
Being in the UK i’m getting mostly Irish or Cornish oysters, and generally paying £1.50 (+/- 25p) each.
It really depends on where one lives. A popular small plates joint in our town has “buck a shuck” Tuesdays, so … $1 per oyster.
Regular prices can range from $2.75 upwards.
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I don’t think anyone “disinfects” raw oysters.
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Anywhere from $1 - $5, usually. I’m not paying $4, but the option is there.
Interesting, because I’m researching dining in Scotland, and prices tend to be much higher than that. This is a very casual place (on Skye, so there is that):
I saw a number of “buck-a-shuck” happy hours 7-8 years ago, but post pandemic inflation bump I haven’t seen any oysters at that price. Maybe if I go out to the coast to actual oyster farms (or very close to them) I can find them at it near that price on specials. Even supermarkets don’t do $1/ea trays anymore (Whole Foods used to, or something close to that price).
I’ve resigned myself to the fact that any decent place will be $2.50-$4/ea depending on variety (possibly more). If someplace is charging less, I kinda want to know why.
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There’s only one more place in town that does cheaper oysters at the bar on Thursdays, but I don’t recall what they charge.
The buck-a-shuck place is closer, and the oysters are very good.
