Katrina and oysters

[JB]

Well, we are almost to October. Normally, the time of year when I start eating as many oysters as I can get my hands on. Problem is, the oyster beds in Louisiana are, for all intents and purposes, gone. I know Acme at baytowne wharf still gets their oysters from Lousiana (or at least they did before Katrina).

With the Bon Secour beds also destroyed, and with red tide in Appalachicola, are there any decent oysters around? If so, where are they coming from?

[dirtdaddy]

I eat some oysters last Monday that had come for Texas and they were
wonderful.

[Beach Runner]

I wonder if it's okay to eat oysters at the Taste of 30-A event this Friday. BTW is Taste of 30-A worth going to?

[kurt]

I wonder if it's okay to eat oysters at the Taste of 30-A event this Friday. BTW is Taste of 30-A worth going to?

http://www.sowal.com/bb/showthread.php?t=1606

[Smiling JOe]

I wonder if it's okay to eat oysters at the Taste of 30-A event this Friday. BTW is Taste of 30-A worth going to?

I guess that depends whether TS Rita becomes Hurr Rita and ruins the party.

[Beach Runner]

http://www.sowal.com/bb/showthread.php?t=1606

Thanks for the link!

[Beach Runner]

Thanks for the link!

Please! Let's just hope the current models don't change.

[aquaticbiology]

OK, here's the straight dope on oysters. They are filter feeders, so that means they suck in whatever is in the water along with their food. Imagine an organic aquarium filter in dirty water and you've about got it. Add sewage and you get a tasty oyster. I will not eat gulf oysters until next year at the earliest. Find a place that has Atlantic Oysters, since Ophelia didn't hurt their environment too badly.

[Beach Runner]

OK, here's the straight dope on oysters. They are filter feeders, so that means they suck in whatever is in the water along with their food. Imagine an organic aquarium filter in dirty water and you've about got it. Add sewage and you get a tasty oyster. I will not eat gulf oysters until next year at the earliest. Find a place that has Atlantic Oysters, since Ophelia didn't hurt their environment too badly.

Thanks for the advice. I don't think I'll eat any until next year AND I get the hepatitis A vaccine, just to be safe.

[aquaticbiology]

most of the resturants up here have switched to atlantic oysters already (joe's crab shack, etc). they're a little more 'bright' tasting than gulf oysters

[Dabell]

Does The RED BAR have cooked seafood?

[shakennotstirred]

Yes. If my memory is right, a fish of the day, shrimp & crawfish with pasta & of course crab cakes.

[Miss Kitty]

Yes. If my memory is right, a fish of the day, shrimp & crawfish with pasta & of course crab cakes.

Remember...crab cakes on Fri/Sat night only!!

[karen]

To Shaken Not Stirred...

Your Steeler logo caught my eye...Would you by any chance own the house by the same name in Seacrest? I am a Gateway High School graduate from Monroeville, now living in Atlanta....own Happy Hour in Seacrest Beach North.
I'm older than dirt and actually was at the game with the Immaculate Reception. Oh, how I long for the days of Myron Cope on Sports!!!

[shakennotstirred]

To Shaken Not Stirred...

Your Steeler logo caught my eye...Would you by any chance own the house by the same name in Seacrest? I am a Gateway High School graduate from Monroeville, now living in Atlanta....own Happy Hour in Seacrest Beach North.
I'm older than dirt and actually was at the game with the Immaculate Reception. Oh, how I long for the days of Myron Cope on Sports!!!

I wish I owned some property there ...... maybe someday!

Atlanta has a lot of former Pittsburghers there.

That would of been awesome to see the Immaculate Reception in person. I don't believe that game was even televised. I miss Myron as well - he retired recently & is no longer announcing the games.

[Mermaid]

I'll tell you another culinary fallout from Katrina! We went to a big festival on Saturday night called The French Market. The Catholic church down the street from us, St. Joan of Arc parish, throws this bash every year and all the food is French and Creole. It's fabulous! One of the most popular items for dessert are the beignets. They're always a sell-out.

This year a sad sign: "NO Beignets Due to Katrina." They get the mix, you see, from Cafe du Monde in NO.

[beachmouse]

You can probably still find boxes of the mix in stores like World Market/Cost Plus and Publix if you really want a beignets fix.

As far as oysters go, Apalachicola Bay is probably far enough away to not get Katrina-related polluted waters.

[Smiling JOe]

You can probably still find boxes of the mix in stores like World Market/Cost Plus and Publix if you really want a beignets fix.

As far as oysters go, Apalachicola Bay is probably far enough away to not get Katrina-related polluted waters.

I hear talk of Red Tide, not to be confused with Crimson Tide, in the area of Apalachicola. It may just be talk, so check it out for yourself.

[Rita]

I eat some oysters last Monday that had come for Texas and they were
wonderful.

Dirtdaddy - interesting name care to explain? Just got me curious.

[JB]

You can probably still find boxes of the mix in stores like World Market/Cost Plus and Publix if you really want a beignets fix.

As far as oysters go, Apalachicola Bay is probably far enough away to not get Katrina-related polluted waters.

Apalachicola Bay is closed to oyster harvesting due to red tide. That was exactly the point of my post - there are simply no gulf oysters available.

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/12576817.htm

[DD]

My husband ate oysters Sat. nite from Galveston--said they were great-(I don't touch 'em). I hope that twitch he's developed isn't related!

[JB]

My husband ate oysters Sat. nite from Galveston--said they were great-(I don't touch 'em). I hope that twitch he's developed isn't related!

I'm sure they were fine. Unless one already has a compromised immune system, you really don't have to worry. Normally, the Texas beds don't open this early, but they may have been forced to do so because of the shortage everywhere else.

[Beach Runner]

I'm sure they were fine. Unless one already has a compromised immune system, you really don't have to worry. Normally, the Texas beds don't open this early, but they may have been forced to do so because of the shortage everywhere else.

But you never know if you have a compromised immune system. My sister was training for a marathon, and she got CMV from overtraining. She wasn't even allowed into the Gulf after Hurricane Dennis. So even well-trained, presumably healthy athletes can have compromised immune systems from overtraining and not know it.

[DD]

I'm sure they were fine. Unless one already has a compromised immune system, you really don't have to worry. Normally, the Texas beds don't open this early, but they may have been forced to do so because of the shortage everywhere else.

I'm sure they were too..I was just kidding. He had them last week too in a different restaurant, we asked where they were from--again, Galveston. The bartender showed us the "tag", said they have to keep it at the bar while they are serving the particular bag from whence they came. I never knew that ..interesting--good idea I guess.

[DD]

"He was a bold man that first eat an oyster."--Jonathan Swift

[Smiling JOe]

"He was a bold man that first eat an oyster."--Jonathan Swift

Probably not so bold as hungry. Maybe the first person to eat a raw oyster lost a bet. I wonder how many people died from eating them before they finally determined how to properly handle them.

[DD]

Probably not so bold as hungry. Maybe the first person to eat a raw oyster lost a bet. I wonder how many people died from eating them before they finally determined how to properly handle them.

I just wonder how they got past how they LOOK????

[Smiling JOe]

I just wonder how they got past how they LOOK????

They probably just closed their eyes.

[DD]

[sarahj]

Dirtdaddy

[Miss Kitty]

I totally agree dd...I only acquired a taste for the fruits of an oyster's labor myself! I do think people that eat oysters are very special...they usually don't just like oysters...they LOVE oysters!!! They are happy for people like us...more oysters for them!!!

[aquaticbiology]

QUOTE "said they have to keep it at the bar while they are serving the particular bag from whence they came

That's a clue for those who still roll those dice! Gotta keep it around so CDC can know where they came from when somebody DIES! Jeez! Just dont touch em until next spring (cold calm water should bye bye the bad bugs and the contaminates in their food - a.k.a. 'the poisons' and 'the poo' - will percolate out of the water column) or request Atlantics and watch out for cheapo 'Gulf Oyster' deals - probably from poaching in the closed areas, or reported as coming from 'Galveston' like the Coneheads were from 'France'. Texas oysters are to the west of the Mississippi River Outflow. Galveston sand isnt brown from just oil ya know! Read the freakin posted sign and use your pie hole for something besides being a contaminated food tester. Eat a cigrateet or something. Wait, thats supposed to be cigarette not cigrateet. Oh, how Freudian! My former collegues who measure the contamination of the oyster beds are not psychic readers of tiny oyster brains, or csi-types with million dollars gas chromatographs, but just people who grind up oysters and feed them to fish to see if the fish die. Its an everyday job and that's the test you're risking your life on.

[Miss Kitty]

Mad Oyster Disease!!!!! Be careful out there!

[kathydwells]

QUOTE "said they have to keep it at the bar while they are serving the particular bag from whence they came

That's a clue for those who still roll those dice! Gotta keep it around so CDC can know where they came from when somebody DIES! Jeez! Just dont touch em until next spring (cold calm water should bye bye the bad bugs and the contaminates in their food - a.k.a. 'the poisons' and 'the poo' - will percolate out of the water column) or request Atlantics and watch out for cheapo 'Gulf Oyster' deals - probably from poaching in the closed areas, or reported as coming from 'Galveston' like the Coneheads were from 'France'. Texas oysters are to the west of the Mississippi River Outflow. Galveston sand isnt brown from just oil ya know! Read the freakin posted sign and use your pie hole for something besides being a contaminated food tester. Eat a cigrateet or something. Wait, thats supposed to be cigarette not cigrateet. Oh, how Freudian! My former collegues who measure the contamination of the oyster beds are not psychic readers of tiny oyster brains, or csi-types with million dollars gas chromatographs, but just people who grind up oysters and feed them to fish to see if the fish die. Its an everyday job and that's the test you're risking your life on.

You are such a breath of fresh air!!!!!

[DD]

I totally agree dd...I only acquired a taste for the fruits of an oyster's labor myself! I do think people that eat oysters are very special...they usually don't just like oysters...they LOVE oysters!!! They are happy for people like us...more oysters for them!!!

LOL, Sue. I'm with you! They can all have my share....

[aquaticbiology]

Joe's Crab Shack just got in a great big bag yesterday. Atlantics, of course, by UPS Jet to Meridian and thus to us - same with fresh pineapple (YUM!) from Indonesia. I'd say they were both about half gone last night when we left. I had two dozen oysters and there is nothing like a big chunk of fresh juicy pineapple instead of lemon. Atlantic oysters taste just slightly different - not so much more salty but more minerally - if it were wine I suppose it would be 'brighter' (but not acidy, just more minerally taste) as opposed to 'earthier' (just minerally) , not metallic but more vitaminy - anyway - more, please! With the extra horseradish! Git t' shukkin!

[dirtdaddy]

Dirtdaddy - interesting name care to explain? Just got me curious.

when I was a boy my daddy would carry me to SoWal beaches, he coundn't
drag me away for the sand, sanddaddy just didn't sound as good as dirtdaddy.
hope I answered your ?

[lurker1]

Those tags on sacks of oysters say to keep them for 90-days! Yikes.

Yet, I still eat them. Currently I'm on hold due to the lack of Gulf Oysters.

[Rita]

when I was a boy my daddy would carry me to SoWal beaches, he coundn't
drag me away for the sand, sanddaddy just didn't sound as good as dirtdaddy.
hope I answered your ?

[aquaticbiology]

get your fix!: www.capecodoyster.com - 2 dozen for 30 bucks delivered to your door the next day via ups - BEST OYSTERS YOU HAVE EVER HAD BAR NONE ANYWHERE - or a party pack for a safe celebration! Publix can suppoosedly order them for you as well anywhere there's a Publix.

you're right!: By law, a live-oyster shipment must include identification of the oysters' origin and collection date; it is illegal to discard this tag sooner than 90 days after delivery.

more data than you'd ever want to know:
Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica): Fished and farmed from Atlantic Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and represents about 80 percent of U.S. oyster production. Most are collected from the wild, but overfishing, habitat degradation, and disease have driven wild catch levels in some areas to record lows. Farmed Eastern oysters, grown using a rudimentary form of aquaculture where farmers transport oysters from nursery areas to grow-out areas, are considered a good environmental choice.

the humble atlantic oyster
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/zone/underw...r-huitre_e.htm
excerpt:
Other organs become visible when the covering half of the mantle is removed. At the hinge end are the labial palps or lips surrounding the mouth; below are four porous, finely ridged, crescent-shaped gills, commonly called the beard. The gills function both as a respiratory and a food-collecting organ. Covering them are tiny, lashing hairs which create an incoming current of water from which food particles are filtered and oxygen absorbed.

Oysters breathe much like fish, using both gills and mantle. The mantle is lined with many small, thin-walled blood vessels which extract oxygen from the water and expel carbon dioxide. A small, three-chambered heart, lying under the adductor muscle, pumps colorless blood, with its supply of oxygen, to all parts of the body. At the same time a pair of kidneys located on the underside of the muscle purify the blood of any waste products it has collected.

Incoming food is sorted by the lips and accepted morsels pass down a narrow throat into a pouch-shaped stomach surrounded by a digestive gland. Waste passes through a long, coiled intestine to be emptied by the rectum into an exhalant chamber.

There is no way of telling male oysters from females by examining their shells. While oysters have separate sexes, they may change sex one or more times during their life span. The gonads-organs responsible for producing both eggs and sperm-surround the digestive organs and are made up of sex cells, branching tubules and connective tissue.

but they're still good!

and good for you:
http://www.starchefs.com/features/oy...ml/index.shtml
“Raw can be risky,” says Slade Rushing, one-half of the husband and wife duo that operates Jack’s Luxury Oyster Bar in New York City. “We have to worry about the state of the environment and pollution. These things are an issue."