Huh. I’ve also heard that if you squeeze lemon onto a freshly shucked one, it will twitch. I’ve shucked and squeezed lemon onto a lot of oysters, and not once did I see an oyster twitch. I always assumed the act of shucking killed them pretty promptly.
Johnny L.A., did you get your fresh oysters from Taylor Shellfish, at their Samish Oyster Bar and Shellfish Market near Chuckanut? We bought a pound jar of shucked ones there and made a heavenly oyster stew for dinner that night.
Sorry for the misspelling, Colibri. I’m in the office today, and was distracted by coworkers. :smack:
I was pretty sure they are still alive when you eat them, but I wondered of shucking them ‘killed them promptly’ so I wasn’t sure.
That’s pretty far from where we live. I got them from the butcher’s at the closest supermarket. Their oysters are local(-ish). For real local oysters I could always go to Drayton Harbor Oyster Co.
We eat oysters one of three ways: Raw, fried (plain, or in a po’boy), or broiled. I use jarred oysters for frying, but the other ones are alive.
That’s pretty unusual, actually. I’ve only seen it in touristy coastal towns. Uni (sea urchin) is usually processed where they are caught, and just the raw gonads packed in boxes. Most sushi restaurants in Japan - even the top rated ones - use pre-packaged uni because it has more consistent quality than live uni.
I don’t eat raw oysters very often, but I have seen them twitch. Here’s a video. And here’s a video showing a shucked oyster with the heart still beating.
As I said above, the problem is defining exactly what is meant by “alive” when it comes to an oyster. Even if the heart stops, the tissues including the nervous system may remain alive for a time. But given that an oyster doesn’t really have a brain to begin with, but rather a couple of ganglia, the concept of “brain dead” is tough to apply. Maybe the twitching when you apply lemon is just an automatic reaction of the muscle fibers rather than a response of the nervous system. What is certain at any rate is that the tissues are still alive if you eat them immediately after shucking without condiments. It’s possible that lemon juice or vinegar in cocktail sauce might kill the tissues before eating.
I have no fears that the oysters I eat are alive since they have been smoked and canned.
Oh, I’m clutching my pearls.
So were the oysters.
So, tell my how you really feel about raw clams. 
(ISWYDT)
I do like my oysters grilled, mind you (and at Felix’s on Iberville, while at it), but the notion that the raw oysters on the ice bed that you put some hot sauce and lemon upon before slurping down may be still technically “alive” does not much disturb me.