Free Range Friday - Oh My God Oysters

The thing about oysters is, you either love 'em or they make you want to throw up. I obviously fall into the former camp but I'm thankful for the latter; that means more for the rest of us lovers of pearl makers.

After a day spent running errands with some great stop offs and successes (ie - thank you thrift shops of Maine for the great jeans and warm tops I snagged yesteray. I'll give them back later!).

We'd been to the Farmer's Market first thing on our errand rounds - enjoying it all from the farm fresh lettuces and eggs and herbs, from the sea fresh lobster, from the oven fresh pies and breads to beef jerky and smoked alewives.

Smoked alewives and lobsters for sale

A philosophy I believe could heal the world

 Frontier Cafe, Cinema & Gallery

A great old rehabbed warehouse place we went to for lunch

We were just about home when Phil mentioned a fish place we could stop if we'd like fish for dinner. Laurie was content to stay in the car but I'd not been to a fish market in ages so it was me and Phil. I wanted to see!

Probably the last fish market I was in was Florida, with big displays and tons of fish. And that's sort of what I'm used to. This market was quite small, with only a few selections, but each one was like a jewel of the best of its kind. Haddock (more about haddock another time, but it's good, don't worry), tuna, two kinds of salmon, scallops, and then...there were the shellfish. Oh dear.

Here at Simpson's market were clams of three kinds and mussels and oysters. Oysters large and beautiful. And  it's June! Where I grew up the 'R' month rule was firmly adhered to; that is, no oysters in a month with no R in it. Just simple reasoning in the south, it's too warm and dangerous, beside giving the oysters a spawning growing time, so April was the end and September was the beginning of all things oysters. In Maine, that's apparently not the rule (I am lying under two blankets and a comforter as I type, I understand this non rule reasoning).

At .99 cents a piece, when the wonderful, soon to be elevated to sainthood guy asked if we wanted large oysters, Phil and I didn't miss a beat in saying yes.

Back home, our bounty of the day needed to be stashed away. And then, it was oyster time.

Phil's oyster knife is up at his home about an hour away from here, so we used the screwdriver and rubber mallet method, which Laurie dubbed 'the absolutely for sure Culebra style of oyster opening" and it was. I held the screwdriver at the hinge, Phil tapped. Well, he more than tapped a couple of times but we were determined not to draw the blood Laurie was sure we were going to shed, and amazingly, we didn't. At the first sign the hinge was breached, Phil slid a very sharp paring knife inside, cutting the muscle and making the oyster give up the fight. These oysters were huge and not shaped at all like southern oysters. They looked more like a slipper...

Unfortunately, I wasn't really thinking of Free Range Friday when I was getting photos. In fact, I wasn't thinking of much at all, driven by oyster lust, nostrils filled with the sharp brine, concentrating on holding the screwdriver steady. We managed, incredibly, to open all twelve before digging in. Now to a southern oyster lover, a dozen oysters is just a prelude to a few dozen more. In this case, we actually had to rest after the first three each, to fortify ourselves with wine (me) and whiskey (Phil), to exclaim and marvel: the crispness! the freshness! the freaking SIZE! of these ugly gems.

For Phil, a splash of hot sauce was enough. I like a

horseradish/ketchup mix with a splash of hot.

It's all good, and it was!

 Oh wait, take a photo! Slurp slurp

We finished up and erased all signs of shell and juice from counter and sink and fell into our chairs like fat happy cats. Laurie just grinned and shook her head. Yes, it's true, a non-oyster lover can appreciate how sated we were, but not how amazed. Oh, where was I? Anyway, the photos are terrible and sorry about that! Laurie took a few of us opening the oysters, not one of them turned out due to my settings. Rats! Oh well, guess we'll just have to do it again sometime!

By the way, we went to the movies last night - something I haven't done in years - and saw Oceans. If you go to the movies, see it; it really is brilliant - magical and timely. If you can't get to the movies, get the DVD when you can. You'll be glad you did!

Maine Coon cat on the rocks by the sea

Have an free-ranging Friday. Do something funky.