Meet Paris Oyster

“As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.”― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

Last winter I ate my first oysters in an oyster bar in Paris. We have lots of wonderful Gulf oysters here near Houston, but I've always stayed away from them.

But when I was in Paris, I couldn't resist.





The oyster bar is Calibré Huitrerie. The owner is from Brittany. He pampered us, first bringing out some free small oysters while we waited. Then he brought out free shots for us all. You don't say, “Salud!” when you toast in Brittany, we were told. Instead, you say, “Yec'hed mat!” (pronounced eeyermat).

I tried both raw oysters and cooked oysters. To the raw oysters, the chef added caviar and sea anemones. The cooked oysters had lemon, spinach, and green Tobasco sauce.

We drank champagne with our meal. Oysters and champagne. The perfect Paris meal.

When I returned home, I read Meet Paris Oyster: A Love Affair with the Perfect Food, an all-about-oysters book from author Mireille Guiliano. You sense her adoration of the oyster on every page. She shares reasons for eating them including the fact that oysters are low calorie—only ten or so calories an oyster, low fat, and, of course, delicious. She takes her readers to her favorite French oyster bar. She proposes wines to drink with oysters. She tells us about what she sees as the best oysters in the world. And, should you not wish to eat them her favorite way, raw, she offers recipes for cooked oysters.