I Pass....

  Having plenty of seafood is a way of life here on the Bayou.  If we do not catch it ourselves, it is quite easy to obtain and is very reasonably priced.  Thus, it stands to reason that seafood is the mainstay of our diet.  Shrimp. fish, oysters and crabs are eaten several times a week....or throw it all in one pot and call it gumbo and you have another meal (sort of..yes, I do realize that is not gumbo.  Just joking.  Maybe!)  Anyway, you get my point.  Seafood is not a novelty nor a delicacy.  It is our "everyday" food.

  Yesterday, Mark got two sacks of oysters.  He opened them with the idea of us eating a few and giving the rest to a few of the elderly folks around here.  Back in the day, these same folks would open their own oysters and share with others.  We are carrying on a tradition that lingers on the Bayou with local folks.  Newcomers have no idea the warmth behind the idea and so it seems to be left up to those of us that have stuck close to home.  It has always been a custom to share the catch with others.  Pop always said that this assures you of a good catch on the next fishing trip and I think that holds true.  Anyway, Mark opened the two sacks and got a couple of gallons of oysters to dole out among the "old folks".  They appreciated the gesture and we got the satisfaction of helping others.

  This whole thing is leading up to the fact that these were not ordinary oysters, so to speak.  Usually, the oysters are small to medium sized things.  In comparison...bite-sized.  Not these jokers!  They were huge! Whereas it would normally take between fifteen and twenty oysters to make a nice-sized poboy, three to four of the ones today did the job.  To give you a better perspective, three shucked oysters weighed in a half pound.  THOSE are some huge oysters!

  Now comes the problem (at least for me!)  With the size of the oysters that I fried today, I could not eat a single one.  I prefer the tiny ones...those bite-sized oysters...the little tidbit types that fry up nice and crunchy.  I cannot (or at least will not) eat one that will take six or seven bites!  Nope...cannot...will not.  (Ok, ok, maybe if I had nothing else to eat but I would be hard-pressed to do so any other time.) 

  These huge oysters and my inability to eat them reminded me of a story that my sweet mother-in-law told me years ago.  She related how one day my father-in-law was shucking oysters and offered her a raw one to eat. Since she had watched him eat dozens, she felt it could do no harm to try. So, she, being the sweet lady she was, obliged and put the thing in her mouth.  Try as she might, she could not swallow the oyster.  She told me that it felt like it was growing in her mouth!  She started to gag and had to spit the oyster out.  My father-in-law burst out in a fit of laughter.  She never attempted to eat another raw oyster after that episode!  Me?  I learned from her tale and decided that raw oysters were not for me, either.  That lady taught me so much!

   Still, since Mark shucked all of these oysters he wanted to eat some. So, I fried oysters.  Mark ate oysters.  He was happy.  The folks that were given oysters were happy.  All is well.  I think tomorrow we shall eat shrimp.  I have no qualms about eating shrimp...small or huge!