The Oyster Guide

Hama Hamas are famed for their size, shell strength, firmness, cucumber flavor, and light finish. When you see a Hama Hama, you know it is a well-weathered oyster. The knobby, heavy, sand-green shells speak to life on the beach—not just for a few months, but from infancy. After all, every one of those larvae did it the old-fashioned way, conceiving in the wild and icy reaches of Hood Canal, navigating its way to the perfect Hama Hama River delta, then grabbing on to a piece of shell and holding tight. No two weeks in a warm hatchery bath for these guys. No one knows whether this makes any difference to the quality of the grown oyster, but I do know that when you bite into a five-year-old Hama Hama, you’re into something substantial. It’s a full-contact experience, your taste buds popping with salt and citrus, your teeth working, your nasal passage filled with aromas of lettuce and lovage.

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