Oyster
Crassostrea gigas · Seafood
Top 10 pairings
A shellfish eaten live on the half-shell. Raw, it smells of clean sea air and tastes briny, savoury and metallic, with a cool note of cucumber and melon. It feeds by filtering seawater, so it tastes of where it grew.
Picking a good onedrag
Just harvested, shut tight, sea-cleanDead: gaping, cracked, sour
Live and shutBuy itCheck the harvest tag. Boil till open, then 3-5 min more. Freezing won't kill all germs.
The tapA hair open, snaps shut at a tap
The shellWhole; rough, irregular, crusted
SmellMild and briny, little else