Jenise wrote:R. W. Apple's article in today's New York Times is about the cultivated oyster industry in the Pacific Northwest. For me, a particularly good read since it mentions people and places I know, but also a good read for anyone who loves oysters. Here's a link (as always, reading Times' articles requires free registration):
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/26/dining/26oyst.html?th&emc=th
Thanks for the headsup on the article, Jenise. As a dyed-in-the-wool oyster lover I appreciated it. I too have quaffed oysters in Grand Central, Felix's, and the Swan Oyster Depot and a couple of dozen other oyster bars around the world. I have probably shucked and served 100,000 of them.
Our primo oysters when I hald sway as an executive chef in San Francisco and enviorns, were from Pigeon Point - south of San Francisco - nifty lighthouse there. They had beds of cultivated Eastern oysters, some Belons and were trying hard to cultivate scallops and abalone. The oysters came in little plastic trays that kept them upright with the deep half of the shell down.
Bill Marinelli, who managed the joint invited me down to eat oysters with him. I got a tour of all the clear tanks where the spawn were kept in different stages of their development. Oddly enough, there wasn't an oyster knife on the premises. I had a Swiss army knife and we opened them with that. Only a couple of lemons and a pepper shaker in the office. They were great.
It was sad to see the place go under. The principal investor was a guy named Dr. Black. Most of you all may not be familiar with him, but I'll bet every single one of you knows his wife - she was on The Good Ship Lollypop.