First of all, we need to know that "oysters" and "oysters" are the same thing!
In China, people mention oysters, and the most exciting thing is to eat them grilled. Charcoal-fired oysters, a handful of minced garlic and a piece of butter, the original soup can hang out the salty and fat of the seawater juice, winning the unanimous recognition of the taste buds of the people of the whole country, and prying the entire Chinese supper barbecue circle.
There are more Chinese methods of oysters or Cantonese, and typical Cantonese cuisine techniques such as frying, stewing, stir-frying, frying, branding, dipping, and town are more common
In Guangdong, people also dried oysters made from oysters. Under the action of sunlight and wind, the oysters gradually become smaller and smaller, but the flavor is gradually concentrated. The moisture is taken away by the sun, and the high protein and amino acids that remain also give dried oysters a powerful umami power. After the fragrant frying, the rich fresh aroma is stimulated, and the oyster fragrance is bursting, which is very tempting.
Dried oysters
The three major breeding areas of oysters in China are Fujian, Dalian and Liangguang, and there are also pollution-free breeding areas that can raise high-quality oysters suitable for raw food, such as Rushan oysters on the Shandong Peninsula, the sea area of Rushan is clean and pollution-free, rich in nutrient salt, and the oysters produced can be eaten raw.
As a gourmet country, Chinese eat oysters is very accomplished, and it has not failed to live up to the delicacy from the sea. Leaving China, from the west coast of the Pacific Ocean to the eastern shore of the Indian Ocean, oysters can be found on almost any inhabited coast. Oysters will actively adjust themselves to the environment, and the taste of oysters grown in different seas will vary slightly, or like milk, or like hazelnuts, or like honeydew melons.
France's Ginador is creamy, America's East Oysters are soft and fresh, Japan's Kumamoto oysters are sweet as candy, China's Rushan oysters are smooth and juicy, The delicate Taste Australian Tasmania oysters, tropical Santa Catarina oysters in Brazil... Tasting the oysters produced in a region is equivalent to kissing the sea in that area.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > in Europe</h1>
When it comes to eating oysters, Europeans have the most to say. Since the ancient Roman period more than 3,000 years ago, the Romans began to eat oysters, and in order to catch oysters, they also sent a large number of slaves to the English Channel.
European oysters are mainly Asian oysters (also known as Pacific oysters) and European oysters.
The Asian oyster (Crassostrea gigas), also known as the Pacific oyster, is the largest of the oysters and is the oyster species we come into contact with on a daily basis. Native to the Pacific coast of Asia, it was introduced and bred by New Zealand, Australia, North America and Europe, and is now widely distributed across the globe. Long oyster shells can be up to 40 cm long and are generally lightly sweet and salty, with slight hints of melon, cucumber or cream.
European oysters are mainly distributed in Europe, from Norway to Morocco through the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, the most famous of which belongs to the Belon region of France, so it is also called "Peron oyster". It has a slight metallic smell and a heavy seafood taste.
In Europe, the French love oysters the most.
Since Roman times, the French coast has been a source of high-quality oysters. In modern times, France was also the first country in Europe to cultivate oysters on a large scale. With two thousand miles of coastline, France produces 90 percent of Europe's oysters every year, but 90 percent of them are supplied to the French for their own consumption.
French stamps with oysters
Veron oysters (i.e. European oysters) are traditional French oyster species characterized by heavy flavors. The taste is rough, the flesh is crisp and crisp, and the rich seaweed aroma is mixed with a metallic taste similar to copper, so it is also called "copper oyster". After eating, the aftertaste is long-lasting and strong, and even leaves an electric tingling sensation at the base of the tongue.
Due to past over-harvesting and disease outbreaks, Belon oysters are produced in low quantities, scarce and expensive.
Belon oysters, flattened in shape
However, more oysters in France belong to the Asian long oysters.
The oysters produced by Fines de Claire, a famous oyster producer in France, belong to the Asian oysters. This oyster smells a bit melon and cucumber, and the seawater flavor is usually not as heavy as European oysters.
Known as the "Rolls-Royce of Oysters" – the Ginador Oyster is also part of the Asian oyster.
Ginador oysters
Ginador is characterized by a milky scent. The oyster shell is regular in shape and full of flesh. When first introduced, the sweetness of the oyster meat and the salty taste of the sea water are blended together, and after chewing, it has a faint hazelnut aroma and milk aroma, and the aftertaste is endless, and the taste is top-notch.
Ginador oysters are significantly more reserved, and the shell will be printed with a "G" with laser engraving technology, but there are also counterfeiting gangs that carve the "G" on low-end oysters to confuse authenticity.
Iconic "G"
For the French, eating it raw is the greatest respect for high-quality oysters, and the salty juice and rich meat quality are a great surprise. Clean and fresh oysters should smell seawater. When you eat it, swallow the oyster meat with a juice mixed with seawater, lemon juice or red wine vinegar, and the taste of the sea will be inserted into your taste buds.
At the end of the French "Su Shi" - Dumas almost ate all the large and small restaurants in Paris in his later years, first wrote food reviews and created the "Oyster Chapter" in the "Dumas Gastronomic Dictionary", Dumas made a summary of the way to eat oysters:
Oysters are eaten the same all over the world, and it's so simple. Peel off the shell, pull it out, pour a few drops of lemon juice, swallow it in one gulp... The most discerning gourmets mix vinegar, pepper and green onion into a sauce, dip and swallow. Others — which I thought were true oyster lovers — didn't dip anything and swallowed them raw.
In a middle school textbook, Maupassant's "My Uncle Hule" also describes the scene of eating oysters raw:
Suddenly, the father saw two gentlemen asking two beautifully dressed wives to eat oysters. An elderly sailor in rags took a knife and pried open the shell of an oyster and handed it to the two gentlemen, who then passed it on to the two wives. They also ate in a very elegant way, with a delicate handkerchief holding the oyster shell and extending its mouth slightly forward so as not to stain the clothes; then the mouth quickly moved slightly and drank the juice, and the oyster shell was thrown into the sea. - Maupassant, "My Uncle Hule"
"Oysters (i.e., oysters)" became the two most attractive words in the text, and the oncoming gusts of sea breeze mixed with the faint salty taste of seawater, lips and tongue touched the tender soft and juicy oyster meat, which was the taste from the sea. At that time, I did not know what this "milk in the sea" tasted, but only knew that it represented the noble aristocratic life.
When the European nobles gathered, they could not be less oysters, but also had to find painters to record the scene and paint more oysters to show the wealth and generosity of the family. Poor people can only fantasize about its wonderful taste through paintings.
The Oyster Feast, 18th-century French painter Jean-François Troyes
Because of its "oyster setting" of nourishing yin and yang, oysters in ancient Greek mythology are the food that represents love, and oysters are also associated with the wild history of European royalty, just like the secret history of the Qing Palace in China will see the emperor's love to drink deer blood and deer whip.
In the history of Europe, the ancient Roman Julius Caesar expeditioned to England and launched the War of England, one of the reasons was the fat oysters in the English Channel to maintain a strong energy; Napoleon of France bluntly said that "oysters are the best weapon to conquer enemies and women"...
Under the influence of medieval European culture, and after layers of celebrity anecdotes, oysters have a strong erotic flavor.
By the 19th century, oysters had become very common.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the development of the Industrial Revolution made it easier to farm and catch oysters, and large quantities of oysters were transported every day from the Thames River to the Billingsgate Pier, the world's largest fish market at the time, where hawkers immediately set up stalls to sell after unloading their goods, and there were oyster stalls on almost every street corner in London.
In 1851, London's billingsgate sold 500 million oysters. According to the population at that time, the average Londoner had to eat 200 a year.
A penny can be bought, everyone can afford it, no matter how rich or poor, and it has become a representative food in London, and for a long time it was called "the protein of the poor", as Dickens said that "poverty and oysters always seem to be together".
But an accident caused oysters to disappear from the daily dinner table.
Beginning in the second half of the 18th century, the Industrial Revolution led to rapid urbanization in Britain. But urban planning has not kept pace, and the public health situation in the UK has become dire, leading to large outbreaks of epidemics, with cholera and typhoid fever being the most frequent.
Oyster farms are mostly near the outlet of the sewage pipe, and the oysters are contaminated with typhoid bacillus, resulting in food poisoning. At the banquet at Winchester City Hall in 1902, after eating oysters, guests developed various symptoms such as persistent high fever, abdominal pain and diarrhea, and finally four people died.
This small outbreak of the epidemic, occupying the headlines of major newspapers and periodicals, has a remarkable impact, oysters have been labeled "toxic", the British oyster industry collapsed, and oysters disappeared from the daily table.
To this day, oysters are often found in high-end restaurants, basically squeaking a mouthful is two or three pounds.
< h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > in North America</h1>
There are five main species of oysters farmed in North America: east oysters, Olympia oysters, Kumamoto oysters, and the European flat oysters and Pacific oysters mentioned above.
East Oyster (also known as Virginia East Oyster) is a unique oyster species in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic coast of North America, and most of the oysters produced in the Washington area of the United States are this species. The gray-white shell is teardrop-shaped, smells of faint green leaves, and the oyster meat is fresh and salty and sweet, which is a must-eat delicacy in North America.
East Oysters form a spectacular oyster reef in the Chesapeake Bay
The Olympian oyster is mainly distributed on the west coast of the United States, Asia and the Pacific, and is also found in the famous Washington appellation. It tastes salty before eating, and has a seaweed flavor, mineral flavor, and a sweet oyster belly part.
Kumamoto oysters, native to Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, later spread to the United States, began to breed on the west coast of the United States, and flourished in the United States, today's Kumamoto oysters are mainly produced in the United States. It is small and shaped like a cat's claw, but the taste is extremely pleasing, with a creamy taste and the sweetness of a honeydew melon.
Kumamoto Raw Clams
In addition to eating it raw, baked oysters and tempura fried oysters are also popular. Baked oysters are rich in taste, and tempura fried oysters are quickly fried at high temperatures during the production process, which better preserves the moisture in the oysters.
New York has several large islands, more than a thousand small islands, several large and small rivers meet the sea here, and clams and seafood are everywhere.
When the English seafaring explorer Henry Hudson first landed in New York in 1609, the New York harbor area was about 350 miles long of oyster reefs, and the oysters in this area of water were said to be half the number of oysters in the world at that time. Compared with old Europe, new York's oyster beds are undeveloped, and the oysters in the New York sea are not only numerous, but also amazing in size, some can even grow to 30cm, and an Englishman joked: eating such a large New York oyster is a bit as cruel as eating a baby. ”
By the 19th century, New York was the world's largest oyster, and New Yorkers were crazy to eat oysters.
Due to the large production, oysters are sold very cheaply, and at oyster stalls in Manhattan, 6 cents are eaten at will. There is also a saying that if there is a very good customer, the cunning boss will quietly serve the less fresh oysters up and let people pull on the stomach for a few days, so that they will not come again next time.
Oyster street stalls are like cattle hair, especially near the Hudson River, oyster stalls are simply five steps a post, ten steps a whistle, placed in today, is now new York streets everywhere hot dog stalls.
New York Oyster Stalls
When outsiders talk about New York, the first thing that comes to mind is oysters, just like when they talk about Boston, they think of lobsters.
In the late 19th century, New York began to change from oyster stalls to oyster restaurants everywhere, and slowly became a good place for merchants to socialize. Walk into any restaurant and you can hear the sound of oysters tapping and sucking.
American 19th Century Oyster Dinner by Elijah Kellogg
In the 19th century, mass restaurants were rarely accessible to women. But because oyster restaurants are so popular, many middle- and upper-class women also want to go out to eat. So the first oyster restaurant for women was opened near Union Square in Manhattan, called "Ladies Oyster Shop."
Beginning in 1910, Oyster production in New York plummeted due to overfishing and river pollution. Finally, in 1927, New York City closed the last oyster farming fishing area. Since then, New York has lost its name as "Big Oyster.".