Opening Up
After a century of terror in the East River, a New York delicacy makes a comeback
New York used to be an oyster town. For centuries, the banks of New York’s rivers were thickly populated with great swaths of oyster beds—until 1927, when the city closed the last one in an exaggerated effort to staunch the spread of typhoid. Cheap and plentiful, the simple, fresh-out-of-the-water oyster was as much a part of quotidian life in New York as the bagel and cream cheese of today. The oyster had yet to be restricted to the province of the wealthy—many of Manhattan’s all-night markets sold oyster stews, and oyster bars were more frequented by dockworkers and fishermen than by the top-hatted set. It is speculated that at one time New York accounted for half of the world’s oysters.
Today, of course, no one in their right mind eats anything out of the East River. A century of over-fishing and pollution has ruined the New York oyster trade. Where menus all over the world once featured highly-prized Rockaways and Jamaica Bays, the most local oysters now come from Long Island, and more likely from Washington state, Canada, or Rhode Island.
Yet whatever its provenance, the mystique of the oyster has only grown with time.
Whether or not one believes in the idea of food as aphrodisiac, the cachet of the oyster is undeniable. In Up in the Old Hotel, Joseph Mitchell’s collection of New York character profiles, Old Mr. Flood, a self-proclaimed “seafoodetarian” tells a woebegone old man how to banish the sorrows and aches of age: oysters. “That briny, seaweedy fragrance will clear your head,” he waxes culinary. “It’ll make your blood run faster.”
Though they might not move your blood, oysters will certainly enrich it with protein, carbohydrates, and lipids. They’re better than your multi-vitamin, too: they brim with vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, C, and D. Four or five medium-sized oysters supply the recommended daily allowance of iron, copper, iodine, magnesium, calcium, zinc, manganese, and phosphorus. Put that in your pan and smoke it.
The days of five-cent subway rides are gone, and with them the pleasure of skulling down thirty-six oysters: how are we to indulge in this miracle tonic within moderate means? Buy them wholesale—that is, by the bushel. The Lobster Place at the Chelsea Market (15th St. and 9th Ave.) sells a wide variety for about $0.80 per shucked oyster. Unshucked—that is, unopened—come much cheaper, but shucking requires some finesse. When serving at home, avoid cocktail sauce, and serve them instead with a chilled Muscadet wine or heady pint of Guinness.
If dining out, the French-Mediterranean L’Orange Bleue (430 Broome St.) has one of the best deals in town, with oysters a dollar each from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays.
Finally, hope has resurfaced for New York oysters. In recent years, efforts have been made to replant the oyster beds around the Hudson River, where they once flourished unchecked. Not only will they act as natural water purifiers, they are playing a part in the cleaning of the Hudson. The hope is that in 20 years, New York’s oyster trade will be revived, and maybe, just maybe, this city will see the Egg McMuffin for breakfast supplanted at last by a dozen Saddle Rocks with a dash of lemon juice.