In life you're either the bird or the worm. The hammer or the nail. The man who eats the oyster or the man who gets stuck with the shells. Today, I was the man who ate the oysters. Raw oysters to be exact. And as you may have already figured, it was my first time doing so.
Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not a stranger to seafood. I LOVE seafood. Shrimp, fish, crab, lobster...I love it all! However, I have always had a slight aversion towards a particular phylum of seafood - the mollusks, and more specifically, the class of bivalvia. That's not to say that I hate all of the bivalvia, I like scallops and I like clams, I just never was fond of mussels and oysters. There was something about them that was offputting. Maybe it was the taste or the texture, or a combination of both. But this year is about trying new things, and that includes food that I've never tried before.
So after a 7.5 mile hike around Stinson Beach/Mount Tamalpais, I found myself face to face with the briny creatures of the sea. After observing several friends and their oyster-eating techniques, I decided it was now or never. Tiny fork in hand, I loosened the slimy flesh from its calcium carbonate prison. Next came a shower of lemon juice and a dousing of tobasco. There was nothing left to do but open the hatch and down the gullet.
The verdict? A solid okay. Nothing great, nothing terrible. A bit slimy and chewy, but the lemon and tobasco masked the briny taste. Not my favorite dish in the world, but definitely not as bad as I had imagined.
Here's to new things and new foods!
New Thing #2 - Eat raw oysters - DONE
Completed July 26, 2014
Completed July 26, 2014
1 comment:
Delicious! Rather surprised you haven't had raw oysters until now; you mean you didn't eat any at all that time we had a big group trip to Tomales Bay?
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