(Updated and revised)
Amid the continuing late spring monsoon here in Louisville metro, my thoughts turned to oysters.
Long Island oyster operations look to bounce back after winter temperatures cause severe damage (Eyewitness News ABC 7)
SUFFOLK COUNTY, Long Island (WABC) — “This winter was unprecedented, weather-wise – at least in my lifetime,” said Peeko Oysters owner Peter Stein. This winter’s deep freeze caused severe damage to oyster operations on Long Island. The Governor’s Office estimates there was a $2.4 million impact on the industry.
“We lost the crop, lost equipment, and spent time dealing with that instead of doing other things that would advance our business,” Stein said.
Subfreezing temperatures created a thick layer of ice that cost Peeko Oysters upward of a million oysters from their crop, along with significant financial damage. “Hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Stein said.
Many readers already know that oysters are “unsung heroes in a changing climate,” but they’re also fragile, and acutely sensitive to changes in water temperature, salinity, and pH. If oysters are among your culinary choices, think them; don’t just eat them.
Because, the oyster is a perfect food.
From A Cook’s Tour, Anthony Bourdain weighs in.
“What is an oyster if not the perfect food? It requires no preparation or cooking. Cooking would be an affront. It provides its own sauce. It’s a living thing until seconds before disappearing down your throat, so you know – or should know – that it’s fresh. It appears on your plate as God created it: raw, unadorned. A squeeze of lemon, or maybe a little mignonette sauce (red wine vinegar, cracked black pepper, some finely chopped shallot), about as much of an insult as you might care to tender against this magnificent creature.
It is food at its most primeval and glorious, untouched by time or man. A living thing, eaten for sustenance and pleasure, the same way our knuckle-dragging forefathers ate them. And they have, for me anyway, the added mystical attraction of all that sense memory – the significance of being the first food to change my life. I blame my first oyster for everything I did after: my decision to become a chef, my thrill-seeking, all my hideous screwups in pursuit of pleasure. I blame it all on that oyster. In a nice way, of course.”
As an aside, oyster fans looking for a fascinating read should consider...Read more
