This Little Piggy Goes Oink for Oysters!

While reading Bourdain's A Cook's Tour, In Search of the Perfect Meal I discovered that we share a love of oysters.  I was really hoping to incorporate his  feelings about the amazing bivalve into The Piggy Post, but couldn't for the life of me figure out how.  Low and behold, a wonderful article in WJS.com this morning, Re-Branding the Oyster by William Snyder.

The article is fantastic.  It provides interesting knowledge about the marketing trends currently surrounding the oyster industry.  It also explains why different oysters have different tastes and how those flavors are developed, using the comparison of different grape varietals and how those produce differing wines.  Snyder states, "That’s because like Malbec or Cabernet grapes, oysters from the same species create entirely unique tastes when raised in different conditions. But while extracting a varying flavor from a grape means growing it in a different country, climate or hemisphere, for an oyster that change in taste might only be a matter of a few yards."

Snyder's comments on oysters reminded me of Bourdain's description, "What is an oyster if not the perfect food? It requires no preparation or cooking.  Cooking would be an affront...It appears on your plate as God created it: raw, unadourned."  I also recalled Batali's response at The Strand last week when asked what his favorite meal was: "Anything someone else makes for me." He elaborated with the example of an oyster, stating if someone else was doing the shucking he could eat hundreds, while forced to do it himself he would only eat a 1/2 dozen. 

All this oyster talk has me excited to try the new Mermaid Inn Oyster Bar, open now in Greenwich Village.