It’s My Imagination

Strolling With An Oyster Down Memory Lane

March 19, 2008 on 10:42 pm | In Some of This Some of That | No Comments

I’ve been doing my usual nightly blog surfing and I ran across a post that brought back a lot of memories for me of when my husband and I were dating. We were both living in Southern California at the time and we spent many of our dates at restaurants on the water around Redondo Beach. It was really fabulous being so near the ocean and eating all that fabulous food.

For our first wedding anniversary we took a trip to Lake Tahoe, another beautiful spot in California. I remember the hotel having an oyster bar, and, while I refuse to eat raw oysters, there was a group drinking oyster shooters. If I recall, an oyster shooter is a raw oyster in a shot glass full of vodka (correct me if I’m wrong). This is just so not appealing to me. I love oysters, but the oysters I eat have to be cooked and cooked well.

I can’t even recall the first time I ever ate oysters, but I do know that in all the years my husband and I have been married, I find myself craving them when my birthday rolls around or when we’re celebrating our anniversary. I think that may be because it’s about the only time I can convince him to take me to my favorite seafood restaurant where they cook a fabulous fried Gulf oysters. They also serve a cooked oyster on the half shell covered in a hollandaise sauce that is delicious as well. These are the only two ways I’ll eat oysters.

While I’m not too likely to ever be inclined to eat a raw oyster, I do know many people to eat them. If you’re so inclined, you should be careful and sure that you are eating have been through a post-harvest treatment process that allows them to be eaten more safely. There are actually three types of post-harvest processing in the commercial oyster market that can make eating raw oysters safer.

1. individual quick-freezing (IQF)
2. low heat pasteurization or heat-cool pasteurization (HCP)
3. high-hydrostatic pressure (HPP)

If you’re not sure that your oysters have been through any of these processes, I’d advise you to have them cooked!

My birthday rolled around this week and in honor of that, I’m hoping to head out and eat a nice dinner of fried oysters, french fries and cole slaw, one of my favorite meals.

Tags: beoysteraware.com, food, oysters