Despite my earlier dramatization, it’s actually not that difficult shucking oysters (opening them) with a proper oyster knife.
Insert the knife with moderate force by wiggling it into the tight (hinge) end of the shell with its belly down maybe about 1cm or so, then lever it open with relatively little force by turning the knife. Kind of how you would kill your favorite enemy (for good measure use 10cm into the body instead of just 1cm).
Takes amateur Goofy maybe half a minute per body oyster.
I’m always amazed how the professionals shuck the oysters in like a couple of seconds. There’s also a gazillion videos on YouTube on how to do it yourself protecting yourself with a folded towel. The guys I observed at the fish market in Sydney all used metal gloves. That possibly helps with avoiding injuries …
Goofy does it bare hands, of course. What am I? A Chihuahua?
Narrator: Helps that Goofy lives just within walking distance of the Triemli hospital in Zurich and that with his blood type AB+ any donor’s blood type is compatible.
Second worst case, fetch some bandaids and ask Minnie for help.
Edit: It’s a little known fact that dogs like Goofy in fact (apparently) have six “fingers”, at least according to the Grok image creating tool. I just counted mine again, but I can’t count past three, so I’m not entirely sure …
One of my greatest memories of the '80s is sitting at the oyster counter at the Acme Oyster House in New Orleans watching the guys shuck with their bare hands. Each one took them literally seconds. We talked and joked, and every few oysters, one went to us (not logged on the receipt). Those were the days.
I was sitting on the terrace today, silence like the grave. All I could hear was the blackbird quietly practicing his next-year’s riffs in the yew trees. Then THUNK. The first hazelnut clusters falling. Now every day there will be nut patrol so that the greedy Alpine squirrel doesn’t get the crop. Drying for a couple of weeks, then Hungarian hazelnut torte!!
Hey! I hope you share a few with that squirrel. (S)he likely has been watching that tree for a while and posting their expectations on the squirrelnet for their buddies to see.
PS. What is the one English word that no French mother tongue speaker can ever pronounce? You guessed it!
@Bowlie, I do think of her, because some idiot cut down the rank hazelnut in the next-door garden that for years I used as a decoy. Now she gets the very tippy-top clusters that I could never reach–they must be 15 feet up. I whack the lower clusters and let her climb to the top ones. Win-win. Yeah, I too have to think about écureuil before saying it, so it goes both ways.
Now, Oysters I did eat all around the world. Can remember still a place in Miami that sold it on wednesdays for a Dollar the dozen.
An oyster has to be alive when you eat it. You ensure that by dropping a little lemon over it and check if it moves.
I had oysters at oyster beach in Vancouver island once. A knife and a bag of lemons and then opening and eating oysters the whole morning. Were nice, but surprisingly not the best I did try.
One morning 1988 I went early to the beach in Margarita island, Venezuela. They have a big lagoon in the middle and that is full of oysters, the best I did try. A bloke was there with a barrel full of oysters and a police bloke did not let him pass. He would need to pay to sell oysters. The rate was more or less 4 dollar cents. I helped him and since then I did eat a lot of those oysters, all I wanted, every morning (OK, I used to buy a bottle of rum to go with it… yes, in the morning).
I love crude meat but the story with the oysters is different. In Mexico I ate once an oyster salad and slept with Moctezuma (Montezuma in English) for a week. Just after I met this guy with a crippled leg that told me he got that from bad oysters. Since then I eat only whole oysters after checking that they are alive.
I tried grilled or cooked oysters, not my pair of shoes. If something is that perfect like a living oyster why should I go and make it worse? OK, for health reasons or because you cannot get it fresh.
Of course, thanks for mentioning that. My problem in Mexico came from oyster meat that was probably left in the tropical sun. I love mexican cooking, but hygiene is an unknown word in many places.
And off I go for a nice “esmorzar valenciá”, the famous second breakfast that is like lunch, just bigger. Probably I go with meat today after all the seafood yesterday. A nice Entrecot “vuelta y vuelta” for example.
Montes…? Cute, I got the Peruvian bowel basher after eating at a place in Lima where the hand washing after going to the loo was in the same sink where the plates got washed.
It wasnt as if the bottom dropped out of my world, more like the world dropping out of my bottom and I havnt trusted a fart since.
The oyster is doing just fine with all that stuff in them. The next level on the food chain…not so much.
@Refugee: no need to discriminate between cooked and raw. Sometimes I cut a slice from a larger piece of meat, eat a bit raw because cooking the slice takes time. Both are great
I got it in Amecameca de Juárez from eating delicious Oaxaca quesillo bought at the village farmer’s market. By the time I got to my hosts in Cuernavaca, I was in sad shape. They sat me by the pool and made me drink two litres of warm chamomile tea…in the 100-degree heat. By the next day I was much better.
I was three days in the hotel room unable to get up, the staff were wonderfull. Changed the sheets twice a day and made me drink something to rehydrate that tasted of chemical strawberries.
I usually subscribe to “don’t use more than five ingredients” as you won’t taste a difference, but in this case I felt like this was the best (homemade) curry I’ve ever prepared. Umami2.
Minnie was even more enthusiastic about it – I’m now quite confident she’ll never return to Mickey (Mouse) anymore …
Ingredients
Red Curry Paste, 2-3 tbsp (tablespoons)
Green Curry Paste, 1 tbsp
Neutral oil, e.g. sunflower, 1-2 tbsp
Coconut Milk, ½ l
Siedfleisch durchzogen, about a kilo or slighty more, sliced into cubes of about 2-3cm
Shallots, about 8 medium sized to big ones, sliced into rings about 1cm wide
Peperoncino, red, one large one, seeds removed
Ginger, fresh, about two thumbs, very thinly sliced (1mm max)
two tiny red onions or maybe baby shallots (I think)
long green “asian” beans (Schlangenbohnen in German, perhaps Yardlong Beans in English?), cut into 4cm pieces or so
Thai eggplants, two big ones (greenish), two small ones (red)
lemon grass, two sticks, each cut in half (lengthwise)
baby corn cobs, maybe about 4 of them
fresh green pepper
galgant (maybe the equivalent of the size of a big thumb, like Goofy’s)
small chilis (in my case two green ones), I didn’t remove the seeds
kaffir lime leafs, dried, about 5 or so
garlic clove
Preparation
Sear the red and green curry paste in a Dutch oven (on the stove) in a bit of oil for a minute or two, add the ginger and galgant, fry for a little bit
Add the coconut milk (shake it well beforehand; pro-tip: warm it up to maybe 40-50°C beforehand, then shake it well), stir until it simmers.
Add: meat, shallots (sliced and the tiny whole ones), fresh green pepper, red peperoncino, garlic cloves, lemon grass, baby corn cobs, small green chilis (whole), kaffir lime leafs, “asian beans”. Season with salt and pepper.
Cover, let simmer for about 4-5 hours. Stir occasionally.
In a separate pan, anytime within those 4-5 hours, sear the shrooms in neutral oil, add just a little salt and pepper, season with rice vinegar.
In the last hour or so (30 mins for the ocras, a little more for the eggplants) add the remaining vegetables (ocras, eggplants, etc). The ocras probably take the least amount of time. Add some fish sauce.
During the last 10-20 minutes or so add the mushrooms to the curry, make sure everything is temperature wise hot. Final seaoning to your taste.
Tonight I made eggplant kabayaki, often used as a vegan substitute for eel. As usual, my photography leaves a lot to be desired.
Anyway, you steam the eggplant, and coat it in starch, (tonight I used tapioca starch), then brown it in the pan, finish by adding and reducing a sauce made of soysauce, mirin, sake and sugar. It‘s a little crunchy, sticky, sweet. Makes a nice light dish.
