Oh, Shucks!
Raw or cooked, oysters make a special meal By CLYDE VAN ARSDALL IV
T
Fresh oysters, available at some seafood retailers in San Diego, can be eaten raw with just a bit of lemon. It takes a bit of practice to open, or shuck, an oyster.
54
CROWN CITY MAGAZINE
| FEBRUARY 2020
om Robbins, one of my favorite authors, once said, “Eating a raw oyster is like French-kissing a mermaid.” There was a beautiful mermaid on my mind this past summer when I returned to Rhode Island where I went to college. I was determined to get that kiss at Matunuck Oyster Company in South Kingston. Matunuck Oyster Company is an oyster processing plant as well as a restaurant with a large waterfront patio. As I sat at the bar overlooking Potters Pond drinking Narragansett beer I got the kiss I had traveled so far to get. Each beer came with a shucked oyster on the half shell. Magical. The oyster beds on Potters Pond provided the backdrop as I watched flatbed boats dump fresh oysters from the nearby beds on the pier connected to the restaurant just a stone’s throw away. It just doesn’t get any fresher than that. I was in oyster heaven. I had ordered the Oyster Trio – grilled oysters topped with garlic butter, oysters broiled with a bourbon chipotle sauce and Rockefeller-style oysters – as an appetizer while waiting for a table. Lunch was a New Orleans-style fried oyster po’ boy sandwich, also known as an oyster loaf – my favorite way to eat oysters. My trip East reminded me of all the fun ways oysters can be served, and I couldn’t wait to make some of these amazing dishes at home. Coronado only offers a few places to get a raw oyster fix, and oysters are not readily available in most grocery stores, but these seafood markets sell live oysters: South Bay Fishery, Catalina Offshore Products and Point Loma Seafoods.
