"Gregory Morrow"
<gregorymorrowEMERGENCYCANCELLATIONARCHIMEDES@eart hlink.net> wrote in
message nk.net...
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/22/dining/22oyst.html
>
> February 22, 2006
>
> At Lunch With Mark Kurlansky
>
> A New York Story on the Half Shell
>
> By FLORENCE FABRICANT
>
> "Before it had hot dogs or bagels, New York had oysters. And, as Mark
> Kurlansky explains in "The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell"
> (Ballantine Books, $23.95), these were not just any oysters.
>
> For more than a century, the oysters pulled from New York waters,
> especially
> from the East River and around Staten Island, were prized by connoisseurs
> as
> the finest in the world. They were shipped to top restaurants in Paris and
> London, and once the Erie Canal was completed in 1825 and railroad links
> were established soon after, they were sent to western destinations in the
> expanding territory of the United States.
>
> Demand would soon outstrip supply, and the beds were exhausted. Pollution
> eventually took its toll, and what oysters were left in New York waters
> were
> no longer safe to eat. The Big Oyster became the Big Apple.
>
> In a previous book, "Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World"
> (Walker & Company, 1997), Mr. Kurlansky examined the history of cod as a
> paradigm for the depletion of the oceans. Now he is using New York's
> oysters
> to illustrate not just overfishing but the consequences of urbanization
> and
> the pollution that goes with it.
>
> "Examining the oyster is an accessible way to take on the issue of urban
> development," Mr. Kurlansky, 57, said. "Even though I'm from New England,
> I
> never wanted to eat cod that much. Oysters are much better."
>
> As he was talking about oysters last week, he was making short work of an
> assorted dozen on the half shell - none from New York - at Aquagrill in
> SoHo, slurping the bivalves from their shells without the benefit of
> silverware or sauces. When it comes to oysters on a personal level, Mr.
> Kurlansky is a purist. His book, which will be available next week, does
> not
> even mention cocktail sauce. "There are lots of things in this book that I
> wouldn't do to an oyster, like roasting them," he said, adding that he
> also
> likes clams. "But clams don't have the same taste of the sea as oysters,
> and
> none of the romance and wildness."
>
> A native of Hartford who now lives in Manhattan, he went to Butler
> University in Indianapolis, where he was a theater major.
>
> "I wanted college to be a real American adventure for me," he said. He
> tried
> writing plays but, dissatisfied with his progress, went into journalism.
> He
> said he always had an interest in food. "When you're in theater you
> inevitably wind up working in restaurants," he said. "I made pastry."
>
> Even before writing a book on cod, he had written food articles for
> various
> publications. The oyster book grew out of an article he wrote for The New
> York Times's City section in 2001. His next book, a nonfood volume called
> "Nonviolence: 25 Lessons From the History of a Dangerous Idea," is
> scheduled
> to be published in October by Modern Library. Then he will start work on a
> book of the food writings commissioned before World War II for the Works
> Progress Administration.
>
> Through the oyster, Mr. Kurlansky's current book traces the social,
> economic
> and environmental history of New York City and its waterways, starting
> even
> before the Europeans came on the scene, with the oyster-loving Lenape
> Indians. From the shells in the middens, or refuse heaps, archaeologists
> have concluded that the Lenape ate tons of oysters. With the Dutch, then
> the
> English and eventually every other group that arrived, the abundant
> oysters
> in the harbor and the rivers contributed to the city's economy.
>
> The Dutch did just fine shipping oysters to Europe, though they were
> disappointed that the city's oysters could not revive their pearl
> industry -
> they are the ones who named Pearl Street - but Eastern American oysters,
> Crassostrea virginica, do not make gem-quality pearls. All the native
> oysters on the East Coast, from Louisiana to Newfoundland, are C.
> virginica,
> a different species from many West Coast varieties and from European
> oysters.
>
> Mr. Kurlansky's book explains oyster taxonomy, biology and history, and
> not
> just as these subjects relate to New York.
>
> He marvels at the human taste for oysters. "They take work, and they are
> not
> terribly nutritious," he said. "And a hundred or more years ago oysters
> were
> a food that was consumed in more or less the same form by every social
> class. Throughout most of New York's history, oysters were incredibly
> cheap.
> You could get all you could eat for 6 cents, an entire plate for less than
> what a hot dog cost, at a time when a single out-of-season strawberry cost
> 50 cents."
>
> Mr. Kurlansky was particularly struck by the extent to which New York was
> identified by oysters at that time.
>
> "People came here to eat them, like having grilled sardines in Portugal,"
> he
> said. "Europeans loved the taste of them. As with wine, geography affects
> the flavor. Oysters are usually named for a locale."
>
> Mr. Kurlansky's book also documents the ways people liked to eat oysters.
> Some recipes, mostly from 19th-century cookbooks, are included "for their
> historic interest," he said. A few of them are worth trying.
>
> Cooking oysters on grills or in stews was the norm until the middle of the
> 19th century, when fancy restaurants, following French tastes, started
> serving them raw. It was not just Diamond Jim Brady and Lillian Russell
> who
> would tuck into platters bearing dozens of oysters to start a dinner.
>
> The hoi polloi would frequent bawdy oyster cellars, some owned by
> African-Americans, where oysters were served raw and cooked, with plenty
> of
> strong drink. And once Charles Dickens discovered them, the oyster cellars
> became everyone's destination.
>
> Around that time the story takes an ugly, polluted turn. Starting in the
> mid- to late-1800's, many of New York's oyster beds, in the Harlem River,
> for example, and in Jamaica Bay, were abandoned because of the pollution
> from increased industrialization and improper waste disposal.
>
> If the natural oyster beds were being wiped out, not only in New York's
> harbor and rivers, but also in New Jersey and Long Island waters, oysters
> could be cultivated. Spat, or small oysters, mainly from Chesapeake Bay,
> were introduced. "With cultivation, the New York oyster industry thought
> it
> had beaten nature," Mr. Kurlansky said. "But the city still didn't take
> care
> of its water. London, where oysters once came from the Thames, has a
> similar
> story."
>
> He said that by the 1970's water conditions had started to improve, but it
> was still too toxic to make the cultivation of oysters, which constantly
> filter water through their bodies, safe in New York Harbor. As he was
> finishing the last of the oysters on his plate at lunch, Mr. Kurlansky
> paused. "I only wish I could taste a real New York oyster," he said. "But
> that's impossible."
>
>
>
> Copyright 2006The New York Times Company
>
>

that is a very sad story, and one repeated waaaaay to often around the globw

chris