The Oyster Guide

June 3rd, 2010

Here is an absolutely brilliant pdf guide to the oysters of Great Britain. I’m now itching for an excuse to visit.

May 21st, 2010

In retrospect, it seems like a no-brainer that somebody would name an oyster after the Naked Cowboy. The jaunty naughtiness, the devil-may-care attitude, the ample flesh–it’s a perfect match. In this case, the somebody is Chris Quartuccio of Blue Island Oyster Company, who has been harvesting oysters from Long Island Sound for 15 years. Naked Cowboys […]

May 19th, 2010

When I evaluate oysters in a retail shop, I use the “fruit rule”–pick the ones that feel heaviest for their size. That usually yields an oyster with firmer meat and shell less likely to shatter during shucking. Those dense oysters just seem to taste better, too. That’s certainly the case with Chathams, an oyster that as […]

April 27th, 2010

An oyster drill is a nasty marine snail that drills through an oyster’s shell with its saw-like tongue and devours the oyster inside its own shell. But this oyster drill is straight off of Tool Time. I haven’t tried it myself, but you must check out the video for the original song alone.

April 14th, 2010

If you can’t beat ’em, eat ’em! (Lots more on the Chesapeake debacle in my book The Living Shore.)