Oysters on the Half Shell (3/9)

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Chincoteague Salts are the only oysters in the world worth eating in our opinion. Nowhere else in the world do oysters have the same flavor. Believe me, I’ve tried them!

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Written by Windy Grace

18 Comments

  1. Interestingly, that is how the people feel everywhere that harvests seafood. I lived for some time on the Oregon Coast. The people there feel that there is no crab, clams, lobster, squid, or shrimp that can compare to those that come from Oregon coastal waters. :)) I tend to agree, but I’m also biased.

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    • Hi there, Rex! Thanks for stopping by, upvoting, commenting, and now piquing my interest 🙂 I must get to Oregon to find out for myself! An added bonus, it’s on the way to another bullet on my bucket list, Seattle and the Space Needle! It’s a pleasure to meet you. Wishing you a very blessed Sunday <3

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      • Hi, Windy. The southern Oregon coast is well-known for Dungeness crabs and a huge amount of shrimp comes into coastal ports. Seattle has great fish and seafood markets, but what I love about the coast towns in Oregon is that when the boats come in, they sell the seafood right on the docks. Since moving to Montana, we’ve not had seafood often since all the seafood we get here is frozen. I love the mountains, but I do miss the fresh seafood.

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        • Good Morning, Rex 🙂 I imagine that’s a specular sight to see in person! Our local watermen used to sell from a dock here and there, but our docks are tiny in comparison to those I’ve seen on television and in pictures of the west coast. We do sell at the docks in Washington, D.C. That is where a lot of our local seafood is shipped to, fresh every day. (We are only about four hours from D.C. here.) However, I have never seen those docks in person either. I also love the mountains, and we have been entertaining the idea of relocating to the more mountainous regions of Virginia, near the North Carolina border. However, I’m also a bit partial to “home.” I’ve moved away a couple of times but I always miss the shore and find my way back. We do buy frozen wild-caught salmon and our local soft crabs when they are out of season. However, it’s never quite as good. The soft crabs tend to not crisp up as well once they’ve been frozen :/ Have you ever eaten a soft crab?

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          • I can’t say that I’ve ever had soft crabs, no. I’m partial to dungeness crabs and remember how disappointed I was the one time I paid the considerably higher price for Alaskan King Crab. Dungeness tastes better to me. LOL

            I know what you mean about ‘moving home’. I grew up at Crater Lake National Park, in the Oregon Cascade Mountains. I’m a mountain boy and every time I’ve lived somewhere besides the mountains, I end up getting homesick. I love the ocean, but I love the mountains more.

            Most of the Oregon port towns are small, but despite the size of the docks, they still sell right from there. They set up a barrel of boiling salt water and people can pick their crabs, live. They are cooked right there on the spot. The Oregon coastal town I like the best is Brookings, a short distance north of the California border. There are about 6,000 people living there (which is substantially larger than the town I currently live in). They have a crab cannery right there in town and the canned crab is sent all over the US, especially in the west. I lived north of there by over 100 miles, but my sister lived in Brookings for many years. She also worked at the cannery. To this day, she amazes me because she can completely shell a dungeness crab in less than a minute.

            The town I lived in, Coos Bay/North Bend, is to shrimp and salmon what Brookings is to crab. Coos Bay has double the number of people, though.

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    • Oysters are VERY good fried! 🙂 I also have an oyster stew recipe that is AMAZING! I stole it from my Pop-Pop when I was about 9. He wouldn’t give it to me, so I stalked him while he was cooking lol I guess I’ve always been a foodie 🙂 Thank you for stopping by, Carol <3 It's always a pleasure to see you! 🙂

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  4. Bayside Oysters can’t compare but are still wayyyyyy better than any Oysters I have ever had from anywhere else. The conditions for optimum growth and flavor are just right here apparently. I’m rather fond of the Oysters my Good friend harvests from just inside Quimby Inlet, where the cold North Atlantic Ocean water flows thru every tide, bringing clean and clear water to flow in fresh nutrients, that lack the contamination most places have, toxic contamination that has shut down oyster harvesting in many parts of the Chesapeake Bay, and many other places around the world.

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    • I can’t argue with that, Jason. However, I still, as a spoiled brat that grew up eating only Chincoteague Salts, Chincoteague Salts are el numero uno ;P They are the fattest and the tastiest. That’s why they’re world-renowned. However, yes, all of the Seaside Oysters here are good 🙂 In my opinion, oysters harvested near Oyster, in Northampton County, hold a strong second place. The name is definitely well-suited to the “small unincorporated community,” as described by Wikipedia. Bay oysters aren’t my thing and hold no comparison to Seaside oysters, but I suppose they’d be okay for stew or fritters so long as you spice them up good. I know they’re just nasty as oysters on the half shell, even if you sprinkle a little salt on them :/

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