Excerpt from Chapter I: About Oysters The oyster--"greatly more complicated than a watch." --Aldous Huxley From Ubiquity to Rarity and Back Again For centuries, audacious eaters the world over have cherished oysters. Undeterred by the rough shell and impervious to the unctuous meat, oyster lovers invariably are rewarded by delicate textures and bright, briny flavors. Plentiful in waters along the coast and high in calcium, iron, and protein, oysters were a dietary staple of the indigenous population and European settlers. By 1763 a humble saloon opened on Broad Street in New York City, the first public house to put oysters on the diners' menu. Soon Amboys, Jamaicas, and Rockaways were advertised--then, as now, they were named for their place of origin. So it began in America. As the nineteenth century unfolded, oyster establishments could be found in every town along the East Coast and, after the Gold Rush, on the West Coast as well.

Thanks to new rail lines and refrigerated boxcars, oysters were now reaching eager diners in the middle of the country too. Fancy oyster parlors sprang up down the street from rowdy oyster bars, and around the corner from oyster pushcarts. For some, a few slurps made a cheap meal. For others, oysters were an essential part of a leisurely dinner out or a sumptuous addition to a beautifully appointed table at home. America was producing upwards of two billion oysters a year. And then, oyster production crashed. As hungry patrons demanded ever more oysters, the industry responded with aggressive over harvesting that resulted in extensive destruction. Suppliers also began importing common European oyster species to broaden the supply; foreign breeds proved incompatible with local waters and rapidly spread disease.

Across the country, Washington State's native Olympia oysters were disappearing too. As on the East Coast, over harvesting and disease were the likely causes. Eastern oysters were introduced to the West Coast with much anticipation but failed in the colder Pacific waters. The once-abundant oyster supply was vanishing. From the Industrial Revolution onward factory debris, dangerous chemical waste and increasingly damaging pollutants poured into estuaries and battered coastlines. Oyster reefs across North America were decimated, with some dying out altogether. By 1970, "Atlantic oyster culture fell to just one percent of its historical capacity." America's bountiful bivalves became a rarity, a culinary luxury enjoyed primarily by the rich.

To the delight shellfish lovers everywhere, oysters are on the rebound. Over the past several decades, advancements in aquaculture, local food entrepreneurship, concern for the environment, vigorous water quality regulations, and greater producer and consumer confidence have contributed to the great oyster revival. Though wild oysters abound in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, almost all the oysters we savor are farmed and nurtured along the reinvigorated coasts. More and more are harvested with every passing year. All over America upscale, trendy restaurants, neighborhood bistros featuring dollar-an-oyster happy hours, and chic, new raw bars are satisfying a demand for oysters not seen for almost a century. Location is Everything The flavor of an oyster depends on several things. It will taste like a Chincoteague or a Bluepoint or a mild oyster from the Louisiana bayous or perhaps a metallic tiny Olympia from the Western coast. Or it may have a clear harsh flavor, straight from a stall in a wintry French town, a stall piled herringbone style with Portugaises and Garennes.

Or it may taste firm and yet fat, like the English oysters from around Plymouth --MFK Fisher Like wine, oysters mirror their natural environment and draw overall flavor from the waters in which they live. There's the pure, sharp brininess of Atlantic oysters and the sweeter, kelpier smoothness of Pacific oysters. Aquatic micro-zones contribute the more subtle flavor attributes. These highly individualized environments are the reason you hear so many different words used to describe the way oysters taste, look, and feel. Sublimely balanced Island Creeks. Sweet, fruity Hama Hamas. Creamy, herbaceous Hog Islands. Perfect, buttery Kumamotos.

Earthy Olympias. Brassy Belons. Water temperature is largely responsible for the texture of oysters. Oysters from the colder waters of Nova Scotia or Maine, for example, are firmer, crisper, and saltier than those from Virginia or the Gulf. Plumpness and toothiness are influenced by the quantity and quality of nutrients in the water-- more nutrients mean more heft and more flavor. The specific combination of water conditions that determines the flavor and character of oysters is called, somewhat tongue-in-cheekily, merroir , reflecting wine lovers' use of the term terroir--the combination of soil, topography, and climate that produces different varieties of grapes. Though there are only five oyster species, merroir produces hundreds of varieties that are distinct in taste, texture, and appearance. Most often, these varieties are named for where they are harvested--for their merroir.

Peters Point, Glacier Bay, Blue Pool, Chatham, and Pemaquid are some of the best-known examples. Understanding merroir is essential if you want to know which oysters you're ordering and how they will taste and feel in your mouth. The saltiness of the seawater that courses over the oyster's body twenty-four hours a day has the greatest impact on its flavor. The Atlantic is saltier than the Pacific so you can expect eastern oysters to taste more of the sea than their western counterparts. There are further flavor distinctions within these broad categories. Oysters from the Chesapeake Bay, for example, are considerably less salty than those grown nearby in deeper Atlantic waters. Firm, briny Island Creek Oysters are considered among North America's best, in large measure because of the unique water conditions in Duxbury Bay, where they grow. As filter feeders, oysters extract algae, plankton, and other food particles from their immediate environment.

Along with seawater these tiny organisms give oysters their nuanced flavor profiles and textures. Different seaweeds produce different notes-- fruitiness, nuttiness, citrus, mineral, metallic, and vegetal among them. In general, oysters from the Pacific Northwest can be described as having hints of watermelon and cucumber, though flavors are more cucumber-like in British Columbia and more melony in Washington. In essence, oysters are what they eat. And When They Eat It Oysters are highly seasonal. The algae that sustains them bloom in the spring when the water temperatures warm, proliferate in the full sun of summer, diminish in the autumn and go dormant in the winter. Anticipating their dwindling food supply, oysters gorge in the fall, becoming plump and sweet, making autumn prime time for both harvesting and eating oysters. Fueled by their autumn feast oysters hibernate in the winter, when their food supply disappears altogether.

They emerge thin in the spring, ready to feed on the newly blooming algae. And so it goes. Each year they spend in the water, oysters grow another inch or so. In the ancient piles of oyster shells (known as middens) identified by archeologists, there are oyster shells up to two feet long. Foot-long shells are more common and indicate a ten to twenty year growing cycle. Excerpt from Chapter IV - Oyster Stories The Original Food Porn Oysters evoke not only the idea of concealed virtue, since the eatable part is firmly enclosed within the valves, but also--and for the same reason--the power of love. --Silvia Malaguzzi, Food and Feasting in Art Centuries before we coined the term "food porn" to describe mouthwatering magazine spreads and seductive Instragram feeds, there were seventeenth century European still-life paintings. Sumptuous foods were rendered in magnificent detail and splendid banquet tables were depicted, laden with grapes, apricots, lemons, pheasants, venison, lobsters, wines--and oysters.

The Dutch, in particular, were obsessed with depicting oysters, no one more so than Osais Beert (c. 1580-1623/24). Beert is considered one the greatest still life painters of the period and the single greatest painter of oysters. [ch4_beert] Among his many gifts was the ability to replicate the play of light on the creamy, lustrous oyster flesh, shimmering oyster liquor, and rigid, pearlescent interior shell. Considering the array of extravagant representations of oysters in all their glory--Beert's and others--it's easy to imagine the Golden Age of Dutch still-life painting as an equally Golden Age of oyster painting. Consistently, oysters were shown as symbols of taste and prosperity. They were also emblems of fertility, sensuality, and sexuality. Over time grand scenes of lavish feasts of oysters gave way to more intimate, domestic moments, loaded with sexual innuendo.

Oysters--and lovers--were put front and center, as the genre evolved from "feast to tryst." Jan Steen's Girl with Oysters (1658-60) shows a quintessential seventeenth century seductress. Innocent and provocative at the same time, she gazes directly at the viewer, seemingly offering the oyster she is salting-- and herself. Behind the girl is a bed with cl.