You may be wondering what the big deal is with eating oysters in season. I had a chance to sit down at Reef recently with chef Bryan Caswell to talk all things mollusks. Here is what he had to say:
• January, February and March are the best months to eat oysters because they mature, grow and fatten-up as the water gets colder.
• Interesting fact: Oysters will taste different from week to week because of the ebb and flow of the water they are in.
• Fresh water makes oysters grow and salt water makes them taste good (gives them the salinity).
Need more of an oyster eating primer? Try these pointers on for size:
• Don’t know what to order? Describe to your server what flavors and/or textures you think you’d like.
• Flavor descriptors might include salty, sweet, briny, metallic and buttery. Texture descriptors might include chewy, tender, firm, creamy, or soft.
• East Coast oysters tend to be milder, saltier and brinier than their West Coast counterparts that lean more towards creaminess and sweetness.
• There’s technically no right way to eat an oyster, but one easy way to do it is to take your oyster fork and run it around perimeter of the shell to make sure the oyster is detached. You can then either use the fork to place the oyster in your mouth and then sip the oyster liquor from the shell or just (delicately) slurp the whole thing at once. Be sure to tip the oyster shell into your mouth from the wider end of the shell. Pick up the oyster on near hinge end, holding the shell with on both sides.
Appearance: what is the size (inches in shell length), depth (shallow or deeply cupped), color, and shape?
http://claddaghoysterhouse.com/blog/?p=17