#Flavorsometuesdays oysters?

Oysters.  Blech.  I can’t help but wonder how anyone ever thought those slimy little things were edible.

I was raised in a kosher home, meaning shellfish was not part of our menu.  We’d eat shrimp occasionally, in restaurants,  sometimes fried, or scampi, or in Chinese dishes. But other than that, no ...

As an adult I learned to love all kinds of seafood.  Shrimp, lobster, crab.  Clams, mussels, scallops.  Fried, steamed, broiled.  Chowder.  There’s a local seafood restaurant, very no-frills, food served on paper plates, that makes the best lobster bisque ...

Calimari.  I love fried calamari.  There used to be a restaurant — it’s gone now — that served fried calimari  with a spicy chili sauce instead of the usual marinara.  Yum! 

But oysters?

It was Christmastime, and there was a business luncheon at a well-known steak restaurant.  Our very generous host ordered appetizers for the table: shrimp cocktail, lobster claws, baked clams.  And raw oysters.

When I said I’d never eaten an oyster, my coworkers urged me to try one.  

I looked at the tray.  I picked one up.  I raised it to my lips.

I looked at the slimy, oozing lump sitting on the shell.

And my lips clamped shut. No oyster would pass.

And none shall ever pass these lips.


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