A Geography of Oysters


Book Description

A playful guide to identifying, serving, and enjoying one of America's most delicious foods describes the various types of oysters available in terms of appearance, origin, availability, and flavor and provides a host of tempting recipes, a color guide, lists of top oyster restaurants and festivals, tips on pairing wine and oysters, and more.




Oysters


Book Description

For oyster lovers everywhere, this luscious cookbook features recipes, shucking instructions, and the local farming success story of the many delicious oysters from the Pacific Coast. From Hangtown Hash with Fried Eggs to Half-Shell Oysters with Kimchi-Cucumber Relish, this gorgeous cookbook features 30 recipes, ideas for what to drink with oysters, and tips for buying, storing, and shucking to bring out the “oh!” in oysters. Since oysters are grown and harvested in some of the most beautiful environments on earth, the book is brimming with scenic as well as food photography. The delectable oysters grown along the West Coast—which include Pacific, Kumamoto, Olympia, and Eastern and European Flat species--are the stars of this beautiful cookbook celebrating oysters.




The Big Oyster


Book Description

Before New York City was the Big Apple, it could have been called the Big Oyster. Now award-winning author Mark Kurlansky tells the remarkable story of New York by following the trajectory of one of its most fascinating inhabitants–the oyster, whose influence on the great metropolis remains unparalleled. For centuries New York was famous for its oysters, which until the early 1900s played such a dominant a role in the city’s economy, gastronomy, and ecology that the abundant bivalves were Gotham’s most celebrated export, a staple food for the wealthy, the poor, and tourists alike, and the primary natural defense against pollution for the city’s congested waterways. Filled with cultural, historical, and culinary insight–along with historic recipes, maps, drawings, and photos–this dynamic narrative sweeps readers from the island hunting ground of the Lenape Indians to the death of the oyster beds and the rise of America’s environmentalist movement, from the oyster cellars of the rough-and-tumble Five Points slums to Manhattan’s Gilded Age dining chambers. Kurlansky brings characters vividly to life while recounting dramatic incidents that changed the course of New York history. Here are the stories behind Peter Stuyvesant’s peg leg and Robert Fulton’s “Folly”; the oyster merchant and pioneering African American leader Thomas Downing; the birth of the business lunch at Delmonico’s; early feminist Fanny Fern, one of the highest-paid newspaper writers in the city; even “Diamond” Jim Brady, who we discover was not the gourmand of popular legend. With The Big Oyster, Mark Kurlansky serves up history at its most engrossing, entertaining, and delicious.




Consider the Oyster


Book Description

Fisher pays tribute to one of the most delicate and enigmatic of foods--the oyster--in this gastronomical classic, originally published in 1941 and now reissued as a sumptuous jacketed paperback. Includes 28 recipes and descriptions of various regional styles of preparation.




The Oyster


Book Description




French Women Don't Get Fat


Book Description

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The book that launched a French Revolution about how to approach healthy living: the ultimate non-diet book—now with more recipes. “The perfect book.... A blueprint for building a healthy attitude toward food and exercise"—San Francisco Chronicle French women don’t get fat, even though they enjoy bread and pastry, wine, and regular three-course meals. Unlocking the simple secrets of this “French paradox”—how they enjoy food while staying slim and healthy—Mireille Guiliano gives us a charming, inspiring take on health and eating for our times. For anyone who has slipped out of her Zone, missed the flight to South Beach, or accidentally let a carb pass her lips, here is a positive way to stay trim, a culture’s most precious secrets recast for the twenty-first century. A life of wine, bread—even chocolate—without girth or guilt? Pourquoi pas?




Oysters: A Celebration in the Raw


Book Description

For centuries, oysters have had the power to sustain and delight, inspiring writers and artists, lowly cooks and four-star chefs, laborers and gourmands, and everyone in between. A feast for the eyes and the palate oysters also are rich in history and lore. In Oysters: A Celebration in the Raw, Marion Lear Swaybill presents a wide-ranging visual exploration of this iconic shellfish, including stunning portraits of more than fifty oyster varietals, the latest photographs from some of the country’s most renowned and beautiful oyster farms, and notable illustrations of oysters in the arts and culture, all alongside a lively and informative text. Acclaimed chef and restaurateur Jeremy Sewall provides personal insights, drawing on his New England lineage and his stature in the forefront of the current oyster revival. Oysters: A Celebration in the Raw is true to its title from start to finish. Chapter One is a primer on all things oyster. Chapter Two introduces readers to legendary oystermen and women from around the country. Chapter Three offers exquisite photographs of more than fifty varieties of North American oysters, along with flavor profiles and ”merroir.” Oysters: A Celebration in the Raw concludes with highlights from the oyster timeline, depictions of oysters in art through the ages and stories of oysters as aphrodisiacs, and parses oyster myths and metaphors. The book also features an oyster glossary and resource list. It is the only book of its kind—a definitive visual companion to this iconic, much loved mollusk. Overflowing with gorgeous original photography and fascinating anecdotes, Oysters: A Celebration in the Raw is the perfect book for oyster aficionados and newbies, foodies and chefs of all stripes, lovers of photography and art, the environment, history, and the sea.




Shucked


Book Description

Bill Buford's Heat meets Phoebe Damrosch's Service Included in this unique blend of personal narrative, food miscellany, and history In March of 2009, Erin Byers Murray ditched her pampered city girl lifestyle and convinced the rowdy and mostly male crew at Island Creek Oysters in Duxbury, Massachusetts, to let a completely unprepared, aquaculture-illiterate food and lifestyle writer work for them for a year to learn the business of oysters. The result is Shucked—part love letter, part memoir and part documentary about the world's most beloved bivalves. Providing an in-depth look at the work that goes into getting oysters from farm to table, Shucked shows Erin's fullcircle journey through the modern day oyster farming process and tells a dynamic story about the people who grow our food, and the cutting-edge community of weathered New England oyster farmers who are defying convention and looking ahead. The narrative also interweaves Erin's personal story—the tale of how a technology-obsessed workaholic learns to slow life down a little bit and starts to enjoy getting her hands dirty (and cold). This is a book for oyster lovers everywhere, but also a great read for locavores and foodies in general.




Meet Paris Oyster


Book Description

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of French Women Don't Get Fat comes a memorable look at the French appetite for oysters, the characters who harvest and serve them, and the compelling reasons why we should all enjoy them. A Love Affair with the Perfect Food Meet Paris Oyster is an engaging exploration of the Parisian love affair with the world's most sensuous shellfish. It centers on HuvÆtrerie Rv©gis, a tightly packed oyster bar in the heart of the City of Light, with an opinionated owner and a colorful cast of regulars. Part cultural journey, part cookbook, and part slice-of-life play, this book introduces readers to the appetites (gastronomic and otherwise) of Paris and its people. Beyond HuvÆtrerie Rv©gis, the French oystermen, and the other characters in pursuit of the oyster, Mireille Guiliano shares information on the best oysters around the world, their nutritional value, the best wine pairings with them, and a dozen mouthwatering recipes that will have readers craving, buying, and preparing oysters with confidence. So take a virtual trip to Paris -- indulge and enjoy!




How to Cook Oysters


Book Description