The world is your oyster
Yep, it's Friday, and they're a dollar a pop! How to make the best of a fabulous situation — and become an instant aficionado.
Once upon a time, Native Americans harvested oysters by the billions. These days, you’ll pay $48 for a dozen of them at the new seafood place around the corner from where I live in Dallas, or $60 for a dozen of them at Balthazar in New York City. They can be so pricy!
That’s why, if you love the bivalves as much as I do and you’re not afraid to wield an oyster knife, you need to know about the Friday oyster deal at Whole Foods: just $12 for a dozen (for Amazon Prime members). It’s all over the U.S. (though a wee bit more in Hawaii — a dozen for $15). In my local store, I usually find one or two North Atlantic oysters on offer, along with Gulf oysters (which I don’t eat raw). Last week it was Blue Points in one store, Wellfleets in two others. Presumably it’s different at stores around the country. I grabbed all the Wellfleets in the case, 13 of them. (Shoudda gotten there earlier!)
It’s a great time for oysters
My local Whole Foods fishmonger told me that the stores get all their oyster deliveries on Friday, and that’s why this deal is so awesome — not only are they a bargain; they’re also the day the oysters are at their best.
They’re also at their flavor peak from November through January. Are you wondering about the “R” rule — that you shouldn’t eat oysters in months without an R? In his authoritative (and wonderful) book The Essential Oyster, Rowan Jacobsen advises ignoring the rule because it’s outdated. It used to relate to bacteria growth worries in warm weather in pre-refrigeration days; also the fact that wild oysters spawn during the summer. “But today’s farmed oysters are spawned in hatcheries,” he writes, “are iced as soon as they leave the water, and they stay that way all the way to your plate. You can eat them year-round."
That said, aficionados like Jacobsen do pay attention to seasonality. Fall and winter are much better than spring and summer for reasons having to do with their life cycle and reproduction. And the colder the water, generally speaking, the better the oysters.
🦪 🦪 🦪
I’ve always loved oysters, but didn’t know a whole lot about them until I did some consulting work last year for a wonderful restaurant in Portland, Maine — Helm Oyster Bar & Bistro. In order to prepare for the collaboration, I read a lot, including that Jacobsen title, and another — A Geography of Oysters. I’d long been consulting Jacobsen’s online Oyster Guide, where you can look up particular oysters (say, if you spot them on a menu and wonder which to order).