My family has never been into sea food. My mom likes shrimp and lobster and my dad eats salmon, but that’s it. We are steak and chicken people. Who would’ve thought I’d eat fresh oysters on a boat in La Spezia?
I was busy swimming and taking pictures, so I didn’t even notice our tour guide get in the water. I finally caught on when he walked over and put a big box of oysters on the table. He looked like he just got out of the water and we all realized that he just jumped in and caught them.
While he was preparing them, I thought he was cutting them. It turns out, that is called “shucking.” Apparently the process is more complicated than I thought. First, you hold the oyster with the flat side up. Then, you put the oyster knife at the hinge of the shell and twist it to open it. When it opens you slice the muscle to slice the abductor muscle. Finally, you scrape the shell to release the meat.
Through my quick Google search, I also found out that people have been eating oysters for over 180,000 years. There was a craze in the 1800’s in Europe and the United States because they were cheap and accessible!
Some people were excited to have fresh oysters, others ran away. I was convinced by my friends and the tour guide convinced me.
I thought they looked gross, but the idea of eating something straight out of a shell was cool. I love the ocean, I like a lot of seafood and what’s a better time to try than on a boat?
It tasted like salt water. I am not really sure what it was supposed to taste like, but it tasted like squishy salt water. I’m not a picky or sensitive eater, so it didn’t bother me.
After I tried it I walked away because I wasn’t impressed. I expected to have the most life changing bite of my life. “Oysters right out of the water,” sounds like a delicacy.
The guide got white bread out and told us to try it with bread. It was much better. It still tasted a little like salt water, but in hindsight that could be because I was swimming in the ocean. Honestly, even though it was better I just started eating the bread by itself.
Overall, trying fresh oysters on a boat in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea was the coolest snack I’ve ever had. I wasn’t overly impressed by the flavor, but the experience was a lot of fun!
xo, Rach 🍋