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Eating oysters was never the intention of the leisurely stroll along Bundeena beach (Sydney, Australia) that I took one lazy afternoon with friend Malcolm.Little did I know that tasty and succulent morsels were shivering in fear just below my feet. |
I think I even heard an oyster scream when Malcolm told me oysters were abound on this beach and mentioned that we could actually eat them were it not for the lack of a knife.
To this land locked Canadian, the pure idea of shucking oysters right off the beach was more than exotic. It was completely unheard of !
It’s a good thing I always carry around my trusty oyster shucker with me… aka swiss army knife.
Mere seconds after the suggestion, I jumped to action and we started hunting for our prey.
Surprisingly for prey that doesn’t really move around much, getting them succesfully is actually a pretty tricky endeavour.
You need to sneak up on an oyster (light footsteps, think “crouching tiger, sleeping dragon” style) and stick your knife very quickly in between the two shells in the right spot before the oyster realizes what you’re up to. And you have to do all this while the oyster is still cemented on the rock on the beach, so the angle can get a little tricky.
If you’re too slow, they close up so tight that your chances to open them up with a dodgy knife become so slim that you might as well save your energy and move on to the next target.
You also need to pick the oysters in the right area. Oysters seem to like to hang out where they get occasionally wet as the tide comes in and out… but they aren’t too fresh if they are too far away from the water. The golden rule is that if the oyster opens up too easily, then it’s clearly dead and you shouldn’t eat it.
In the end, most of the 2-4 cm oysters we enjoyed were tiny by comparison to the ones you get at the fish market or the grocery store (1 – 1 1/2 inches), but we had much more fun hunting for them in their natural environment.
Who knows what other beach adventures exist that we have never even endeavoured to dream about !
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