If, as Jonathan Swift said, “He was a bold man that first ate an oyster,” then New York is full of brave souls.
We’ve been slurping down oysters ever since Henry Hudson sailed into New York Harbor and was greeted by the Lenape, who offered him “hemp, beans and the local delicacy — oysters,” Mark Kurlansky writes in “The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell.”
The brackish waters surrounding New York City form a natural estuary where trillions of oysters thrived since the Cambrian period. Pollution in the 19th and 20th centuries nearly wiped them out. But those solitary slimy blobs have — with the help of oyster farms, environmentalists, foodies and mixologists — made a comeback, and brought in a new wave of places to enjoy them, such as Blue Water Grill’s Metropolis Oyster Room and Cocktail Bar.
New Yorkers can gorge on these delicacies at the fifth annual Oyster Week at events all across the city.
Festival organizer the OysterHood, which spotlights oysters as if they were Rockettes, will oversee the Brooklyn Oyster Riot on Saturday at Brooklyn Bridge Park (near John Street) starting at 5 p.m. OysterHood co-founder Kevin Joseph will lead the party, at which, for $95, you can have your fill of 12 kinds of East and West Coast oysters, plus beer and wine.
“Eating an oyster is like kissing the sea,” Joseph says. “I don’t want to sound all tree-hugging and Green Peace-y, but the more oysters we eat, the more we’re going to raise [in the waters around New York]. They filter the waters, and sequester the carbon and nitrogen that are the biggest threats to our waters here in the East.”
If you happen to be in the Rockaways on Saturday afternoon, head to the dock at Thai Rock (375 Beach 92nd St.) and join the Oyster party boat. Boarding is at 2:30 p.m., and for $55 you can wash down your oysters with as much Stella Artois as you like.
Still to come: Cocktail Oysters at Dorlan’s Tavern & Oyster Bar (213 Front St.), Wednesday from 5 to 8 p.m., where, for $75, you get exactly that — oysters and fancy cocktails; and ShuckEasy, at Brooklyn’s Lot 45 (411 Troutman St.) Friday from 6 to 9 p.m. The latter, also $75, features “ultra-premium, rare and exotic oysters,” some from as far away as New Zealand, if Lot 45 can get ahold of them.
Then again, every week is oyster week at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Terminal. It opened in 1913 and, despite a rough patch in the ’70s when New York was on the skids, has been feeding commuters ever since. Walk into the clubby wood-paneled bar and you’ve time-traveled back to 1955. You’ll swear that’s Cary Grant at the bar, quaffing a martini before he sneaks aboard the 20th Century Limited train in “North by Northwest.”
Come Oct. 1, the Oyster Bar will hold hold its 14th annual Oyster Frenzy: Gorge yourself on 16 different kinds of oysters, washed down with 30 different wines, while watching the country’s fastest shuckers go shell-to-shell.
“These guys can shuck up to 10 oysters in a minute,” says the bar’s executive chef Sandy Ingber.
for oyster virgins.Tamara Beckwith
Luis “The Mexican Menace” Iglesius has won the competition eight times. But he’s not competing this year, Ingber says, so the field is wide open.
Shucking takes practice. Believe me, I know: I buy oysters at the farmers market from Phil Karlin, owner of PE & DD Seafood in Riverhead, LI. His fishermen pluck wild oysters out of Long Island Sound this time of the year. They’re available Saturdays at the Abingdon Square and Union Square farmers markets.
I shuck my oysters over the sink, squeeze a little lemon on them, and slurp them right out of the shell. (That marvelous oyster liquor, by the way, isn’t seawater — it’s oyster blood.) But it takes me about an hour to shuck six, which is a long time for the appetizer course. And when I’m done, my wrist aches for a day. That’s not surprising, since the oyster is a mighty creature. The muscle that holds the shells together exerts 22 pounds of pressure.
As popular as oysters are these days, there are plenty of people who gag at the thought of a live, slimy sea creature sliding down their throat. Ingber recommends that first-timers start with bluepoints: “They’re mild, low in salt and brine, and easy to get down.”
from street carts like this
one on South Street.Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Wild oysters are in season in the fall, but the old saying that you can eat oysters only in months with an “R” is no longer true. It harks back to the pre-refrigeration days, when oysters would quickly spoil in the hot summer months. Oysters spawn in the summer, which makes their meat thin and bland. They plump up in the winter, and become especially tasty. But you can eat farm-raised oysters any time of the year at most restaurants.
The best way to eat that first raw oyster, especially if it’s a kind you’ve never had before, is when it’s “naked.” The better, Joseph says, to taste the environment in which the oyster has lived. After that, pick your topping: lemon juice, Tabasco sauce, mignonette sauce. Garnish with fresh parsley and be that brave man (or woman) Jonathan Swift spoke of. What better time to taste the “kiss of the sea” than during Oyster Week?
New York Oyster Week runs through Oct. 1; OysterWeek.com
Aw, shucks! How to open your oyster shell
To shuck, “wrap the hand that holds the oyster in a towel,” says the Oyster Bar’s Sandy Ingber. “That way, you won’t cut yourself if the oyster knife slips. Then wiggle the knife at the hinge of the shell. You’ll feel it enter, and when you hear a pop, lift off the top shell.”
Then again, says the OysterHood’s Kevin Joseph, “if you’re going to shuck oysters, you’re going to bleed. I’ve stabbed myself 30 times. But wounds heal, and chicks dig scars.”
Once you’ve managed to pop the shell, run the knife gently under the oyster to detach it from its shell. Place oyster and shell on a bed of ice and let it settle in its liquor for a bit.
