Oysters…Mmm March 2, 2008

I love to eat raw oysters. One of the downsides of living in Nowhere, Texas is that we don’t have a good source for raw oysters here.
Gulf oysters are fairly close, but we don’t have any restaurants here that would sell enough product to have a high enough turnover to keep them coming in fresh. It’s a shame, because oysters are one of the foods that I am passionate about that are actually good for you. They have high levels of protein, zinc and omega 3’s. Before I moved to Nowhere, Texas, though, I used to eat them a couple of times a month. A couple of times, I even found a little pearl! The pearl looked nothing like those big beauties on necklaces, but it was still exciting. What would be even more exciting is if you opened up the oyster and found something like an M&M instead. I mean, that would be just my luck. There I would be, eating something healthy and enjoying it, and then a piece of chocolate would appear on my plate. I probably wouldn’t be able to resist it, either.

There’s another downside to eating oysters, though, regardless of where you live. That’s the possibility of getting this nasty illness called Vibrio vulnificus. There are steps being taken to seriously lower the risk of this, however, that are detailed on the Be Oyster Aware website. Thank goodness! I’d hate to give up what is probably the one healthy food that I actually crave!