There’s no other taste in the world like oysters. I remember having oyster stew fairly often as a boy, and though I was a picky eater I loved it. Here in North Carolina — and probably all along the Eastern Seaboard, oysters are a rural as well as a coastal tradition. On the unpaved private road I live on, 200 miles from the Atlantic, this rural tradition has survived. I or a neighbor will buy a 40-pound box of oysters and share them around.
My share this weekend was a dozen oysters. I turned the whole dozen of them into one serving of a very oystery stew. As I recall, when I was a child, oysters, butter, and milk were pretty much the only ingredients. These days I like to add a little diced celery and diced onion — and heavy cream. Crackers are de rigeur.
I assume these oysters came from the Chesapeake Bay. From Googling I find that the oyster harvest there is still improving as work continues on reviving the Chesapeake Bay oyster industry, which was in steep decline twenty years ago. Fresh oysters are cheap again — $30 for a 40-pound box. They come packed in ice. I still have the shucking tool I bought years ago for shucking oysters from Tomales Bay in California. The Tomales Bay oysters are superb. But the Chesapeake Bay oysters are just as good.
Some years ago, in a vacation cabin on Tomales Bay, my mother, sister, and I made Southern-style deep-fried oysters. What a lot of work, and what a mess! Whereas making oyster stew is easy once the shucking is done. I’ve also had oysters at an oyster bar in Edinburgh. That was interesting. But homemade oyster stew is still my favorite.
By the way, that vacation cabin was a part of Manka’s Inverness Lodge, which I understand is now permanently closed. The cabin was right beside Tomales Bay with a path leading to the water. The main lodge was on a ridge, in the woods, on the other side of the road. Manka’s demise was tragic. The New York Times wrote about it here: Margaret Grade, Whose California Inn Was Beloved by Stars, Dies at 72. Stars indeed. I’ve been there many times, and even if you are a nobody like me, you felt like a star as soon as you walked in the door.