Hey kids, guess where I ate today & a little factoid

Yes.

It is true. I have once again braved the fires that are Gjelina and Playa de Jaime. To the untrained eye it may even look as though I am just recycling pics but no not so.

The SeaHorse is moving to the Venicide and he is fragile delicate in the tummy...and so he will only eat in places he knows. I am hoping in the near future he can know more than two places.

Recent days have also placed me in an Oyster binge.

I will now attempt to demystiphizzle the magicism that is the Oyster.

Oh slippery briny precious thing, still living and waiting to be sucked into oblivion.

you...thing you.

Oysters amaze me.

Oysters have been in the human diet since prehistoric times. The fact that they can be consumed raw may have been one of the main reasons for this, but who was the genius who picked up an ocean "rock", cracked it open and drank the salty mucus first. How ridiculed was that person at first, how revered when they realized its perfection.

A friend of mine recently told me a story from his childhood, when his grandfather shoved a freshly shucked Oyster into his face and stated "eat this! it tastes like mermaid Pussy" A raucous laughter ensued after the telling, but the statement is absolute truth. An oyster is a sensual wet jewel tasting of pure ocean. Cold and most always inviting. sometime you can have one that makes you want never eat another because it was too perfect other time you can have one that smells funny and turn you off completely, which makes the statement even more true in my opinion.

Its a sea flavored soupy dumpling.

Factoid: Oysters are filter feeders, drawing water in over their gills through the beating of cilia. An oyster can filter up to 5 litres (1.3 US gal) of water per hour.

Oysters like most Ocean life have declined over the years, we simply consume to much without allowing them to replenish. 50 years ago Japan would routinely fish tuna weighing over 1000 Lbs and length in excess of 10 feet, but nowadays a mammoth blue fin tuna is rarely more than 200lbs.

These numbers induce conflicting feelings in Chowdown. On one hand you think preserve what you have and allow the species to flourish once again. On the other you think "fuck it, get'm while its hot!"

from wiki;

"In the early 1800s oysters were cheap and mainly eaten by the working class. Throughout the 19th century, oyster beds in New York harbor became the largest source of oysters worldwide. On any day in the late 19th century, six million oysters could be found on barges tied up along the city’s water front. Oysters were naturally quite popular in New York City and helped initiate the city’s restaurant trade.^[7] New York’s oystermen became skilled cultivators of their beds, which provided employment for hundreds of workers and nutritious food for thousands. Eventually rising demand exhausted many of the beds. To increase production, they introduced foreign species, which brought disease and combined with effluent and increasing sedimentation from erosion, destroyed most of the beds by the early 20th century. Oysters’ popularity has put by ever-increasing demands on wild oyster stocks.^[8] This scarcity increased prices converting them from their original role as working class food to their current status as an expensive delicacy."

Gjelina
James Beach

ciao