stampa

ARTICOLI CORRELATI

San Francisco, a bordo delle cable-car

Stati Uniti, i presidenti sul monte Rushmore

Strade nel vento, road to Tennessee

California, davanti all’Oceano Pacifico

Chincoteague Oysters in Virginia

Oysters aren’t everybody’s cup of tea. For one thing they aren’t particularly attractive and we like our food to look pretty. And the flavor is a little strange, at least initially. Some would say it’s an acquired taste. However, if you’re willing to try oysters, they can become habit forming.

My first introduction to oysters was as a youngster in an oyster stew my mother would make. Hidden in the bowl of milky broth were one or two tiny oysters with little flavor and the consistency of rubber bands. It was not until I was an adult and moved to the Philadelphia area that I experienced the real thing. A friend was shucking fresh oysters in her kitchen and asked if I ate oysters.

When I replied yes, she promptly shucked one and handed it to me along with a slice of lemon. I had never eaten a raw oyster, but it was too late to turn back. I not only ate it, but I loved it and have been eating them ever since whenever the opportunity comes along. Once or twice a year my wife and I make a pilgrimage to Chincoteague, Virginia, to watch birds and eat Chincoteague oysters. It’s heavenly.

Nothing else tastes quite like Crassostrea Virginica (the scientific name), so named because biologists first identified it on Virginia’s shores. Plump, delicate, tender, and slightly salty, they take on the flavor of their environment. Because these oysters come from waters fed daily by ocean tides, they impart a highly desirable briny flavor.

Chincoteague oysters were once considered the aristocrats of all the oysters harvested in America. Many still believe so. Since before the turn of the last century, Chincoteague “salt” oysters have been served in the finest restaurants in America and Europe.

Oystering once dominated the seafood industry in both the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. The introduction of dredging, where a large rake and net is dragged over oyster beds, made oystering lucrative. A dredge boat could harvest as many as 500 bushels a day, and hundreds of boats worked the beds at the industry’s peak. But over harvesting and a decline in consumer demand during the economic depression of the 1930’s curtailed the industry. Another set back came in the 1950s, when disease decimated the oyster population.

Now, in less than two decades, the amount of farmed seafood produced throughout the world will exceed production from wild fisheries for the first time as wild stocks continue to decline.

English and Dutch colonists discovered oysters soon after they arrived and were taught to gather and prepare them by the Indians. The harvesting technique of tonging, learned from the Indians, probably helped the Pilgrims through their first hard winters.

Traditionally, oysters were harvested in Virginia by day boats using hand tongs and later mechanized patent tongs and dredges. Today, nearly all oysters are raised on aqua farms. Tom’s Cove Aquafarms in Chincoteague supplies locally grown salt oysters to those specialized markets that demand a high quality, plump and flavorful oyster. See www.tomscove.net.

Owner operator Tommy Clark has been aqua farming for about 15 years. A labor intensive job, Clark produces over 250,000 oysters each year and more than 2 million clams. Nearly all are shipped overnight to restaurants and seafood outlets in Pennsylvania and New York. One of his clients is the Oyster Bar at Grand Central Station one of the best known oyster houses in the world. Does Clark eat oysters? “I eat my share, sometimes a lot more,” he quips.

Native species oysters are carefully grown in “off-bottom” aqua culture systems, ensuring a clean, uniform shells. These oysters are cultured in areas that offer optimum growth, yielding a firm meat product. Since they are hand raised in suspended nets, they are free of sand and silt. They are perfect for serving as steamed, poached, grilled, baked or at the raw bar.

Chincoteague Island has long been linked to fishing, seafood, and shellfish. For over 150 years, the ocean fed waters surrounding the island have yielded some of the finest shellfish found along the east coast of the United States. The demand for island seafood was so great by northern markets, that during the Civil War, Chincoteague unanimously voted to stay with the Union. Today that demand remains, as Chincoteague shellfish continues to command respect among seafood connoisseurs worldwide.

To learn more about the annual oyster festival (scheduled in October each year) and other activities in Chincoteague view www.chincoteaguechamber.com.

Organizza il tuo viaggio	Prenota il tuo volo	Prenota il treno
Rent a car	Prenota un hotel

 stampa

LIBRI

New York, la città più frenetica al mondo

"Come sopravvivere ai newyorchesi" di Tiziana Nenezic - Cooper, 2008

Sulla strada

"Sulla strada" di Jack Kerouac - Mondadori, 2006

SCELTI PER VOI

Viaggi

Washington DC, storia d’America
di Luca Ferrari

nessun commento »

Viaggi

Prossima fermata, San Francisco 1
di Desirèe Sigurtà

nessun commento »

Viaggi

California dreaming, sulle strade del sogno 2
di Fabio Castano

nessun commento »