NEWS: The Oyster is His World

[Jenise]

R. W. Apple's article in today's New York Times is about the cultivated oyster industry in the Pacific Northwest. For me, a particularly good read since it mentions people and places I know, but also a good read for anyone who loves oysters. Here's a link (as always, reading Times' articles requires free registration):

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/26/dining/26oyst.html?th&emc=th

R. W. Apple's article in today's New York Times is about the cultivated oyster industry in the Pacific Northwest. For me, a particularly good read since it mentions people and places I know, but also a good read for anyone who loves oysters. Here's a link (as always, reading Times' articles requires free registration):

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/26/dining/26oyst.html?th&emc=th

Thanks for the headsup on the article, Jenise. As a dyed-in-the-wool oyster lover I appreciated it. I too have quaffed oysters in Grand Central, Felix's, and the Swan Oyster Depot and a couple of dozen other oyster bars around the world. I have probably shucked and served 100,000 of them.

Our primo oysters when I hald sway as an executive chef in San Francisco and enviorns, were from Pigeon Point - south of San Francisco - nifty lighthouse there. They had beds of cultivated Eastern oysters, some Belons and were trying hard to cultivate scallops and abalone. The oysters came in little plastic trays that kept them upright with the deep half of the shell down.

Bill Marinelli, who managed the joint invited me down to eat oysters with him. I got a tour of all the clear tanks where the spawn were kept in different stages of their development. Oddly enough, there wasn't an oyster knife on the premises. I had a Swiss army knife and we opened them with that. Only a couple of lemons and a pepper shaker in the office. They were great.

It was sad to see the place go under. The principal investor was a guy named Dr. Black. Most of you all may not be familiar with him, but I'll bet every single one of you knows his wife - she was on The Good Ship Lollypop.

[Jenise]

Belons--I'm not expert on oysters, but that name rings a good bell in my head. I'm sure I've had them and liked them particularly well. Small like a kumamoto, but flatter?

Belons--I'm not expert on oysters, but that name rings a good bell in my head. I'm sure I've had them and liked them particularly well. Small like a kumamoto, but flatter?

Yep, they're flat and kinda salty. Quite good. Being cultivated in several spots around the US today.

[Jenise]

I believe I first had them in Brussels, at one of those wonderful noisy, bulging little brasseries where the big deal thing to order is a three-tiered cold seafood meal for two that comes with everything from a whole lobster to a pile of little cockles and darning hook thingies to pick them with. Of course a dozen oysters were included, several varieties. Prior to that meal I did not eat raw oysters, but these were a revelation, so tiny and so good, and of them all I remember only my favorite, the Belons, by name. And I remember that several weeks later I was in Paris, on my way to somewhere for dinner--it was December and already dark--and I walked past a little oyster market/cafe wherein all the oysters were stacked about in folded-down burlap bags, which of course couldn't have looked more appealing, and the sight stopped me dead with desire. So to hell with the time, I took a seat and ordered a dozen Belons and a little carafe of white wine which a bent-over old woman served with a little plate of brown bread and excellent butter. It was raining out and I sat just under the eaves where, if I moved a knee one inch to the left I would catch raindrops, which somehow reinforced the feeling that I was living on the edge and playing it safe at the same time which was not a bad metaphor for my life at the time.

And so it is that oysters have always represented something beyond mere food for me, and Belons most of all. I have never seen them here in the U.S. but were I to, I would again be rendered helpless, would have to drop whatever I was doing and take a seat and let life happen to me.

Sounds terrific, Jenise. You know, it's funny, a lot of the casinos are now offering those three-tiered cold seafood presentations now. On a couple of occasions, it was the only thing I found that I could eat.