>Beverle:
><<  I live near the Chesapeake Bay and I wouldn't eat raw oysters upon threat
>of death - which in  way it would be.  Oysters around here sometimes have a
>parasite that is *fatal >>

I hear that irradiation for oysters is just around the corner :( If
irradiation only worked for automobile safety!

I gotta jump in on the oyster talk--I can't resist ;) Everyone has to
decide safety issues for themselves, but I have lived to tell...

I really got into oysters when I started eating raw foods (paleo foods
doncha know). When they would taste great--which was most of the time for a
couple years there in the late 80's--I could eat several dozen with delight
and experience no gastric-intestinal upset. On occassions where I could get
dirt cheap oysters (like in Ancud, Chile or Prachuap Kiri Khan, Thailand) I
would eat nearly a thousand in a week (these were smaller then the average
found in USA markets). As so often happens with raw foods, what was
initially very attractive in large amounts became just tasty in "normal"
amounts and by the time I had access to free-for-the-gathering oysters
(near Paihia NZ) I would only be attracted to fifteen or twenty or so
before the flavor fell off. FWIW, I consider that not being attracted to
huge amounts of oysters is a good thing--that I have more metabolic balance
than before when I musta been greatly deficient in something useful in
oysters. But who knows? :/

So...having sampled oysters from many areas of the USA I have the following
totally subjective impressions: The Chesapeake Bay oysters ("blue points"
etc) are _very_ polluted tasting. (The oysters seem to know this and have
stopped reproducing at full tilt). It seems you have to get as far north as
Maine (malpaques) or south to Georgia (not commercially available methinks)
or Florida before they are clean tasting again. The Gulf (Louisiana)
oysters have never tasted right to me but it may have been the
season--though I suspect they come from brackish waters instead of salt
waters. Nevertheless oysters vary with the season IMMENSELY. After spawning
they are completely inedible (blah/insipid) though you won't know that
until you shuck em open and taste em. On the other hand, before they build
up some "roe" they can be pretty salty/metallic/strong. When an oyster is
prime it is full of "roe" and is so rich and sweet and salty that they
become a main course instead of an appetizer.

Oysters from Washington state are my favorites. There are many different
kinds with many different names. The generic (and large) inexpensive
"pacific" oysters are usually very strong and are a great value when you
have the taste for oysters. Smaller and more delicately flavored oysters (a
variety of names) are preferred by most folks. Anyone interested in
sampling oysters in the USA can do no better than to find themselves in
Seattle. If you see some folks sitting on the cement walls bordering the
parking lots behind Pike Street Market shucking and slurping, it might just
be me, my wife, and our three month old daughter--but since we probably
won't make it by Seattle for a few years I guess I won't be tempted to see
how the bambinette approaches her first oyster while she's still
breastfeeding ;)

Then again, there is the oyster bar at Grand Central Station in NYC. They
have a bunch of different varieties from all over the place and oyster
lovers who are filthy rich are in heaven. I plan to do some serious
sampling there when I win the lottery.

On a related thread...the high one gets from a couple dozen oysters when
they taste stunning is more than legal. Comes in handy for beginners since
the wounds on their palms and fingers from the slipped oyster knife become
an interesting sensation instead of any sort of pain when you have an
oyster buzz going.

YMMV, of course. ;)

Cheers,
Kirt

Secola  /\  Nieft
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