Part of being on the eastern coastal region of the US is the abundance of oysters, they were so populous back in the early days of our country that they were the street food of the day (check out this article about oysters and new york city), so I happen to love raw seafood, top necks (clams), oysters etc etc, I have been known to house a few dozen no problem (just ask Awful Arthurs, I think they got sick of me while I was in town), but in all my travels (OK, limited I have basically just gone up and down the east coast of the US) I have not seen the ritual of eating them with crackers (saltine type)… so, the bartender was rather amused with the idea of me trying oysters the southern maryland way, there is some disagreement though, there are two methods (so I was told – maybe they were messing with me which would be hilarious).

a) make a sandwich of sorts, oyster on cracker topped with raw horseradish and cocktail sauce

b) cracker crumbled on top of said oyster and horseradish/cocktail sauce

Both are anathema to how I enjoy my bivalves.. but heck, I’m game, so I ordered a 1/2 dozen (I was @ Stoney’s in Prince Frederick if you ever are here – GO, or order online, the crab cakes are divine), so…

a) made the sandwich, while being ogled by the bartender and her endless amusement at my proclaimed predicament, I guess I had to do this in one bite?  so I did.  artful ? probably not, graceful ? surely not.  the cracker kind of soaked up the liqueur (which I want to taste) but also too much, it made my mouth a desert and kind of robbed the oyster of it’s full natural flavor, it kind of was like really good paper towels had sapped away all the moisture and I was only getting everything BUT the oyster, thumbs down, well, at least the bartender was amused by all my expressive facial expressions…

b) the crumble method… so I carefully selected one of the remaining oysters (I had cleansed my palette in between with a combination of oysters the way I like and some Goose IPA), I popped some raw horseradish on there, a quick squeeze of lemon, and a dollop of cocktail sauce… on that (blasphemy) I crumbled a full cracker’s worth of cracker on top…  and popped it in the ole blow hole in the front of my face, OK, not bad, did not totally sap the oyster of what makes them great (IMO), it added a little texture to the mix, I could live with this version (IF I didn’t know any better)

Verdict? I still like to just scoop the suckers up, put a little cocktail sauce/horseradish on and chew ’em… I like to taste where they are from, word is that there was a good deal of rain this year in the bay (that might actually hurt the harvest) but that also decreases the salinity… I definitely noticed, these were super mild (and sweet).  So, that is what my blog is today, no poetry, just a dissertation on local oysters and customs.  Tomorrow I venture back to home, the murderer of dozens upon dozens of bivalves over the course of the week… if the mollusks ever take over, I am surely in trouble…