Welcome to 2020

[Gob]

It's now looking like she's got gastroenteritis from a dodgy oyster..

There's posh for you!

[RayThom]

It's now looking like she's got gastroenteritis from a dodgy oyster..
There's posh for you!

For most of my early life I called raw oysters "phlegm on the half shell." However, many years ago I slurped down my first oyster on a dare. A day later I was in such cramping pain that I thought I was dying. Yep -- I got a bout of vibriosis eating my first -- and last -- raw oyster. Some of the worst intestinal problems I ever encountered ensued for days. I had a seat belt strapping me to the toilet for most of it. I can hardly look at a raw oyster now without throwing up in my mouth.

However, steamed clams, and sushi, I can totally enjoy.

[TPFKA@W]

It's now looking like she's got gastroenteritis from a dodgy oyster..

There's posh for you!

Never mind the Lysol then. Food poisoning is invincible.

[Long Run]

After a long December, no pearls?

[Lord Jim]

woke up at 8.00 am to find that our sewage pump was blocked, and sewage was backed up to the house. Hen has gone to the hospital to see Hatch, I've got the pump to fix.

Strop, it seems like it's been one nightmare after another at this place since you first acquired the abode...

[Gob]

Hey, guess what? Hen has gone down with it now!!

2020 has been all fucking fun and games so far...

[Crackpot]

Stop eating oysters!

[Sue U]

Stop eating oysters!

Right, leave them for Guin and me!

[rubato]

And me! Love oysters.

yrs,
rubato

[TPFKA@W]

You people who shell go on and on about oysters need to clam up.

[Bicycle Bill]

Closest thing to oysters or clams I ever ate was scalloped potatoes.
I think I'll keep it that way.

-"BB"-

[Joe Guy]

You people who shell go on and on about oysters need to clam up.

For some reason they seem to like to flex their mussels.

[Sue U]

For some reason they seem to like to flex their mussels.

Generally in white wine and garlic, but will occasionally accept marinara. I'm bivalvular that way.

[BoSoxGal]

Oysters are fabulous. Read M.K. Fisher's Consider the Oyster. I would eat them weekly if I could afford to.

I have also recently embraced scallops, which I couldn’t stand as a kid and the few times I tried them as an adult - but I now know they’d been ruined by the cook. A well prepared scallop is a taste of the divine.

[Guinevere]

Oysters are not dodgy, nor posh, and often not terribly expensive. You can find them for $1 an oyster and eat your fill. They make a wonderful, lean, high protein meal. I’ve been eating them raw or cooked my entire life (Maryland is even more oyster-central than Massachusetts in some waya) and I don’t recall them ever making me ill. I’ve even learned to shuck my own. Mussels are typically even more reasonable and also one of my favorites - drowned in white and wine and butter, occasionally marinara, and even in the portuguese style with peppers, onions, and linguica. Hmmmmmmmm. Yummy!

BSG, check out these links: https://ediblesouthshore.com/map/buck-a-shuck/ (plenty of options in your hood) and don’t forget Island Creek if you want to grab your own and shuck them https://www.islandcreekoysters.com/

Sue, next visit, dinner at my local, which has both raw oysters and great mussels (and usually a couple bottles of good french wine)!

[Sue U]

Not sure when I'll be able to get up your way, Guin, but I'm going to New Orleans for a conference next month (a couple of years worth of CLEs!) and they have some pretty good seafood down there, plus it's the run-up to Mardis Gras (there will be parades). Wanna come along? You might get the firm to pay for it!

[Guinevere]

I wish, I love NoLa! Just back from my holiday trip and hoping to go to Paris this spring, plus Alaska this summer, so I’ve spent my travel budget for the year.

[ex-khobar Andy]

In 1971 a friend of mine (I mentioned him recently as his place in Freeport, Bahamas was badly damaged by the hurricane) was doing a marine biology project on nematode worms that lived on oyster shells. He wasn't interested in the oysters themselves and of course he roped in as many of his friends as he could in the collection thereof. We spent hours scavenging in some pretty interesting conditions (low or zero visibility, three or four knot currents, heavy boat traffic) and my recollection is that between us we brought up three large sacks of Ostrea edulis. (I just had to look that up to confirm my memory - I don't wish to appear foolish - and I am delighted to report that almost fifty years later I had it right whereas I have trouble remembering what I had for lunch yesterday or even whether I had lunch yesterday.) We were not diving on known oyster beds of course so these were just random oysters where an egg and sperm had found a rock to cling to. (The sex life of oysters is complicated. They can change from male to female and back as the fancy takes them.)

John didn't take long to examine the shells for his precious worms and after he had taken the most interesting ones he needed, we were left with 200 pounds or so of oysters that wanted shucking and eating. (Grad students are notoriously poor and do not pass up free food.) Of course that weight is mostly shell but that's a fuck of a lot of oysters. We'd seen where they came from including some pretty iffy waters so none of us were willing to experiment with them raw. But rolled in oats and deep fried for a few seconds, they were wonderful.

I think i'll buy some oysters today. Gastronomic memories are some of the best and most firmly rooted.

[BoSoxGal]

I didn’t actually find either of the specials in that link still on at places close to me Guin, but I prefer skipping the tax and tip anyway.

I looked up the prices at my local market and was surprised that Cape Neddick oysters fresh caught are only $1.25/each, so I’ll get some next week. Thanks for the encouragement! It’s in my resolutions to do seafood 2x/week minimum, so oysters regularly will fit nicely.

[Bicycle Bill]

-"BB"-