Come to think of it, maybe I do take one bite and then let it slide. But you don’t chew it to pulp-- it’s like a shot of good booze. You pretty much want to do it all at once.
I just had raw oysters for the first time recently. I put some cocktail sauce on it, forked it into my mouth, gave it a couple of chews, and swallowed. Very nice!
Agreed. I’ll usually go two bites…three at the most.
Poor Phil’s is pretty good. They mix up their selection every once in awhile, but they almost always have Blue Points and Chincoteagues. If you’re just starting, get a couple of each, but I get up to a half dozen total if I’m eating something else too. Try one variety, then the other, and note the differences. Once you figure out what you like and don’t like, don’t be afraid to try other varieties if they have them. Clean your palate with your favorite beverage (Guinness for me, in honor of the Guinness and Oyster fest in Old Town) and enjoy!
But you’ll be limited to what Poor Phil’s has unless you try other oyster bars. For me my best experience was in Seattle, Elliot’s Oyster House, I think, when I had a four hour layover coming back to Chicago. Got to try 18-21 excellent varieties, and the guy only charged me for a dozen! He got a good tip. Worst experience was in New Orleans, where the Gulf oysters were tasteless. At least I’ve never gotten sick!
Oh, and give Cherrystones a try too, if you don’t like the texture of oysters.
That’s what I was wondering. I hate seafood, but I mean, c’mon! I’m not going to take a piece of prime rib and then just swallow it! If it tastes so good, chew the damn thing and savor the flavor!
This thread has made me plan a trip to the Los Gatos farmers’ market tomorrow. An oyster guy from the Tomales Bay usually has a booth there. Does anyone else in the country get kumimoto oysters? They’re a small, deep oyster with a luscious coppery sweetness. You don’t get as much oyster for your buck, but the taste is addictive.
The booth is cool. Oysters are $1.50 each, and they shuck the oysters to order. They supply lemon wedges, a local version of mignonette sauce (with cilantro and chiles in it), and squeeze bottles of cocktail sauce. You stand there slurping oysters one after the other and then pay up at the end. We like to get there early while he still has plenty of kumi’s. Oysters - the breakfast of champions!
I second this - for any seafood you are going to eat raw, make sure it smells of nothing but ocean. Any fishy odour indicates that it has started to decay, and therefore you do NOT want to eat it raw. This applies to sushi and so on, but especially to shellfish - I’ve never had bad shellfish, but by all accounts the experience is not pleasant. Not only can they make you sick as a dog, they can do it fast - apparently some people have been spurting from one or both ends before they make it from their table to the restaurant bathroom.
WOW!
Thanks for all the great info - now I’m REALLY jazzed up to try this out.
Thanks again!
But be aware that perfectly tasty seafood can give you food poisoning also!
My last batch of raw oysters were marvelous! No “spoilage” at all. But I’m still pretty sure I got vibrio parahaemolyticus from them.
Just a general reminder: Any food doesn’t have to look or smell or taste spoiled to make one sick.
I was a kid when I tried oysters for the first and last time. To my young mouth, the texture was all wrong, like a garden slug or something. Then, when I chewed, the sound it made was like I was killing it, right there in my mouth.
I’m a lot more adventurous in my eating now, but I don’t know if I’ll ever touch another oyster.
See post 19.
- Freshness, freshness, freshness. Both for your health as well as the taste.
- I would never swallow an oyster whole. That’s a waste of 75 cents, you don’t get to enjoy it at all. With modern refrigeration techniques, there’s no reason you can’t savor a fresh oyster. It isn’t like a shot of Jagermeister where there’s an advantage in getting it over with as quiclkly as possible.
- Lemon juice is a given, and if you’re a bit new to the raw oyster thing, go heavy on the horseradish and/or cocktail sauce the first couple of times. Serving it on a cracker can also give it a bit of bulk.
- Serve with beer or dry sake. This is not a meal to accompany with tequila shooters, unless you plan to have it only once in your life.
- This is a strong taste, you might not acquire it the first time around, but it’s well worth it if you can.
A few years ago I was at a seafood restaurant having dinner with my boss, who was from England. He had an interesting way of eating oysters. He tipped the oyster into a glass, added some lemon juice (and possibly Tabasco, I don’t remember), added just enough beer to make a mouthful, and then tipped it back in one shot. (I did not pay close enough attention to notice whether he chewed or not.)
Have any other English dopers ever heard of this?
Don’t need to be English - you can get an oyster shooter at lots of restaurants on the West Coast. Course they add all sorts of things like worchestershire sauce, vodka, pepper, etc.
Seems like a waste of an oyster to me personally. Plus, they usually cost WAY too much money for what you’re getting.
But to each his own, I suppose.
- Peter Wiggen
Oh yes indeedy - but unless you plan on taking a microbiology kit with you everywhere, you have to place your faith in the kitchens and go for it. Good seafood is worth the risk.
On the other hand, if someone serves me anything that smells off, or is open or shut when I am expecting otherwise, or has a suspect colour or taste, I ain’t eating it.
I recall reading an articular in a popular science magazine a few years ago. Some scientists wondered why raw oysters didn’t cause way more cases of food poisoning than they do. It turned out that lemon juice and hot sauce have an anti-microbial effect (although obviously not enough to **guarantee **a safe experience).
Another point - as mentioned, I’m the kind who generally lets the oysters slide without chewing, and it seems to me I taste them fine. After all, I don’t need to chew soup to enjoy the taste.
The one thing I don’t think has yet been mentioned, for beginners, is if you have a choice, choose smaller ones, just in case you don’t like them, you only have to tolerate one bite!
[Hijack] When i was a kid, we’d go oystering every year. In the early years you just raked up a gunny sack full, and head back to camp.
When the beds started to be depleted, you couldn’t take the shells off the beach. (the baby oysters attach to the outside of the shells.)
My uncle would rake a big pile of shells around his camp chair and beer cooler. He’d sit there for hours, playing “one in the bucket, two in the mouth, one swig o’ beer” I don’t remember what the limit was, but I’m pretty sure he took triple whatever it was. Funny, he was never hungry when he came back to camp… [/hijack]
I thought I’d wait a bit before posting my favorite oyster quote–so as not to spoil anyone’s appetite.
When asked how he felt after having eaten his first oyster, Victorian author William Makepeace Thackeray said:
It’s been said, but cannot be too often repeated; raw oysters are a gamble, microbe-wise. Me, I don’t have them very often, but when I do I like just a tiny amount of horseradish and a squeeze of lemon. And yeah, I chew, just a bit.
I’ve never swallowed an oyster (plain or slathered with cocktail and horseradish) without chewing it. Seems to be missing the point of eating an oyster if you want to get it over with as quickly as possible with minimal oyster tasteing (sp?). Just my two cents.