All About Oysters

Before arriving in New Orleans, I had these grandiose ideas of eating fresh oysters on the half-shell every night with dinner. New Orleans is known for it's seafood, right? I figured we'd be close enough to the Gulf of Mexico to hit it with a well thrown stone, so oysters should be plentiful and cheap... and I was right... to a certain extent. They are plentiful AND cheap, but you can only buy them already shucked. There's a bizarre law that does not allow for a sack of oysters in the shell to be divided and sold individually, except with a special license, and as of yet, I have not been able to locate a fish monger with this particular license. The strange thing is that it's perfectly legal for a store to tear open a closed, tagged sack, shuck the oysters and then sell the shucked oysters by the half-pint, pint...up to a gallon size. Go figure.

As much as I love oysters, I'm not oblivious to the fact that they are ugly, slimy-looking things. For some inexplicable reason, raw oysters only look appealing on the half-shell (and even then, just barely) so if you can imagine a pint full of them (or worse, a whole gallon!)- all grey and naked, floating in their milky juices... not a very appetizing thing to see, I can assure you. I have considered saving the shells the next time we go out for raw oysters, then buying some shucked oysters and placing one on each half-shell, but that would just be silly...and an act of sheer desperation. Cooking them is another option and although they add a delicious flavor to gumbo, they taste far better when served raw. Do you see my predicament? Can you feel my pain?

Unfortunately, thanks to Louisiana's strange licensing setup, it appears that our only options are to go to a restaurant and spend too much money OR buy an entire 25 pound sack of oysters (that's about 100 oysters). Considering that a sack of oysters is only $26.00, it's a very tempting proposition. I'm relatively sure that I would not be able to eat 50 oysters in one sitting, but I would certainly be willing to try!

The only other option is to make some friends here and then invite them over to an oyster-fest at our place. We are currently conducting informal interviews with
potential candidates, with the main focus of ascertaining the potential candidate's level of interest in oysters. The questions go something like this:
1. Do you like oysters?
2. On a scale of 1 to 10 how much would you say that you like oysters?
3. With what method of preparation do you prefer your oysters?
4. If requested to do so, would you be able to eat 25-35 raw oysters?
5. What if you were forced to eat that many? Could you do it?
6. If you were in a Russian Gulag and made to eat oysters on the half-shell...

For some reason, we haven't been able to get past question 4 or 5 before the potential candidate excuses him or herself to go to the restroom and then disappears...