One of the most important epicurean things you can know about me is that I have a love affair with oysters.
Raw. Oysters.
Keep your “eeeeuuuwww-ing” and “gross-ing” to a minimum and where I can’t hear you. I love them. And true love lasts a life time.
Of course, growing up smack dab in the middle of Texas there weren’t many opportunities to eat raw oysters. So my love of oysters really blossomed when I moved to Australia, where 85% of the population live within 50 miles of a coast and fresh seafood is always on the menu.
Several hours drive south of Sydney is a small coastal town named Narooma. Narooma offers many wonderful things for visitors and is a favored vacation spot for many Australians. Whale watching is the most popular, but, in my humble opinion, the best is their boat tours of the inlet. On the tour, we saw a variety of wild and plant life and even stopped for billy tea (an Australian bush tea). But my favorite part of the tour is when we came across a bed of oysters and the captain began harvesting and shucking them for us–right out of the water!
Okay, so realistically, I know this is what happens, but this landlocked Texan had never seen such a thing! I was hesitant, but my sense of adventure and excitement to try something so new quickly overcame any kind of “are we sure this is safe?” qualms I might have had. I was justly rewarded. The taste of the oyster was silky and creamy and the saltiness of the water created a nice compliment. IT. WAS. AWESOME!!!!!
And, as such, my like for oysters instantaneously turned to LOVE. and thus it started. and just you wait–oysters have their own tag, so trust me–there will be lots of posts about them!
Meanwhile, I owe a lifelong enjoyment of this delicacy to my Captain and crew in Narooma!
The Epicurious Texan 