O is for...ocean, oysters
A little bit of both since this was by the sea.
O is for Oysters.
I don't care for raw oysters and I have actually tried to be adult about it and have eaten them on several occasions. But I just don't care for them. Of course, having one forced down your throat the very first time you ever eat one probably doesn't form the best foundation for liking a food.
When I was 12, my parents bought a lot in one of the vacation home sub-divisions on the far west end of Galveston Island and built the beach house. It wasn't actually on the beach side of the island but on the bay side and our house was on one of the canals but we called it 'the beach house'. This was where I spent most my weekends and summers for many many years.
My parents' best friends had children in about our age range and so both families spent a lot of time there. The summer I was 15, they got on a rib for raw oysters. They would go to the docks and buy a burlap bag full of oysters and bring it back and we would all sit around and shuck oysters and they would eat.
I had no intention of or desire to eat one. They were
gray
wet
lumpy
slimy
nasty
gray
.
Unfortunately for me, the son of my parent's best friends, the very one from D is for..., who was a year older than me, decided that I would.
Ha ha, very funny.
Probably I smarted off to him, telling him there was no way he could force me to eat an oyster.
Almost immediately, he has wrestled me to the floor, sitting on my stomach, somehow he's got my arms pinned or at least one of them and he pinches my nose shut until I have to open my mouth and eat the oyster to breathe.
Eewwwww.
I really didn't like having to eat the oyster, but I didn't mind too much the playful wrestle with the cute teenage boy.
Oh.
Did I say that out loud?
Anyway.
Like I said, I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt but bottom line is, I really don't like raw oysters.
Have to beg to differ here Ellen - I love them!
ReplyDeleteEwwwwwwwwwwwwwww I'll eat escargot but I won't eat oysters........ick, ick, ick.
ReplyDeleteHad to comment on this one. I have a vacation place on an inlet and yes, they grow oysters there. My next door neighbor has let his waterfront be taken over by the oyster farmers. I guess we are even famous for them. Totten Inlet.
ReplyDeleteI do not like them. I won't eat them. Yuck ...
I'm with you on this one. My dad would get fried oysters when we went to the fish camp. Mom & I stuck to the filet of flounder :)
ReplyDeletegray wet lumpy slimy nasty gray. My sentiments exactly, Ellen. And I hate that they taste of saltwater too--that's the final insult to my sensibilities.
ReplyDeleteI love them in oyster dressing - it is the only kind I make at Thanksgiving [well, EVER - my family would mutiny otherwise] because they have a great flavor but you can't see nor feel them - they are mushed in really well.
ReplyDeleteI think we all found an excuse [or the boys did] to wrestle when we were teenagers.
:wink:
Oh, that was not a good introduction to oysters, being nearly asphyxiated and then forced to swallow something nasty. Terrible!
ReplyDeleteOysters are raised off the Oregon coast, and while I have never wanted to eat them raw, I can't resist an oyster Po'Boy; it just goes to show that almost anything breaded and sauteed in butter is good.
i really like seafood but i've never eaten raw oysters. one day it'll happen and perhaps then i'll be able to know something of what you and the other commenters are talking about. steven
ReplyDeleteNo, no, no. Never have had one, never plan on it.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Kerry. Oyster Po'boys are unbelievable. Something about sitting at a bar with the Tabasco in one hand and the oyster in the other....food for thought, anyway. EFH
ReplyDeleteI love raw oysters. I never ate them until later in life.
ReplyDeleteJilda loves oysters and I tried them, not expecting to like them, but I was wrong.
A salteen cracker, a shot of Tabasco and down the hatch. Yum.
I'm with you on the raw oysters. Yuck! Now fried oysters are a different matter. And I think I would have had to kick that guy where it would hurt, if he had tried that with me. lol
ReplyDeleteI am not a big fan either, but I do appreciate a person who will try something new more than once :). As a friend of mine says, I'll try anything. Twice. (I love oysters in buttered garlic though. Mmmm)
ReplyDeleteI worked in a restruant and at the end of the night what was shucked were up for grabs. Free to a student was the right word and I found something new to try. Love them with some hot sauce.
ReplyDeleteThat is so mean - being forced to eat an oyster. YUCK. I am no fan of bi-valves, especially the living ones ("raw" in this case means alive, you know). A mussel or two in paella is great, maybe some clams in chowder, but I can live a long, happy life without ever encountering another one of those slimy creatures.
ReplyDeleteGreat picture and shows why I can't bring myself to consume a raw oyster. I could be persuaded to eat cooked oysters. I eat raw plants, but not raw animals.
ReplyDeleteBefore I'd read far enough I knew this was not horseplay but teenage loveplay.
ReplyDeleteNo oysters for me, thank you, even from a sexy boy.
I refuse to be a grown up about it, so Ewwwwwwwww and ick and yuck! I have super sensitive tastes buds and they (and the rest of me) can't stand eating anything raw (oysters at the top of the list). But like you, I tried them too (no cute teen boy to wrestle though). My dad asked me to give it a try. I did. I puked on his feet. He never asked me again.
ReplyDeleteRaw Oysters MUST be fresh right out of Northern cold water in November. They must be yearlings, tiny and served with lemon and home made cocktail sauce. Otherwise they are disgusting. So, come for a visit in November !
ReplyDeleteRaw Oysters MUST be fresh right out of Northern cold water in November. They must be yearlings, tiny and served with lemon and home made cocktail sauce. Otherwise they are disgusting. So, come for a visit in November !
ReplyDeleteEwwww...on both the oysters and escargot:) The wrestling with the teenage boy has possibilities:):) Glad to have found your blog.
ReplyDeleteHi stopping by to say Happy World Oceans Day. Cheers
ReplyDeleteIt's the strangest thing. I keep trying them over and over and every time...nope...Just can't quite get over the texture.
ReplyDeleteI had them, and I liked them, but that was years ago before I found out how dangerous they are if you get a bad one, so now I just don't get it as to why anyone would tempt fate for such a teensy tiny reward as the taste of an oyster.
ReplyDelete