I never ate oysters. I believe I tried them once and the texture did not work for me at the time and that was that. Until this past holiday, we were invited to a friend’s house for a holiday gathering and they had a huge display of oysters on ice. I gave them a glance and thought ‘how very Maine’ and went back to the cracker or cooked items on the other table.
A friend’s husband started passing a few around to old pals on the half shell. We are still the new people in town so he did not pass one to me. I said aloud to anyone standing around, “I just am not an oyster person.” Someone responded that she loved them and I asked her how she dressed them up? She took a bottle of Tito’s for a splash and a squeeze of lemon and a moment with the hot sauce and sucked it down.
Her husband said that the trick is this:
the slurp,
2 crunches,
and then swallow.
I gave it a go and it wasn’t so bad. I asked him to teach me how. At the cutting board, I learned how to place the shell and where the knife goes in at the hinge and then twist. There are muscles to sever but go gentler. And then, ready.
My first one was so hard to open. I kept placing the knife at the hinge but how deep do I go? Am I really in the right spot? And someone kept telling me not to jab said knife into my hand, noted. And then it clicked in and I turn the small knife and I have just opened my first oyster. We are all excited - well, really me being excited for myself but that can be very contagious in a party setting. So I am thrilled and I am dressing it up just like they did and I slurp, crunch, swallow.
And now, I love oysters.
I guess I will never know if it was the party setting and the excitement tethered to a memory of belonging in Maine with friends and an interactive food experience or if I actually like oysters…
My 9th Haiku Collection
When I remember to breathe
The water frigid
My entire body says,
’GET OUT’, yet I stay.
A sauna is like grief
The steam embraces
Hot, sticky, clingy, foggy
and temporary.
Homemade
I made this for you
With my hands, yes, that is true
But more with my heart.
Here behind a screen
The sun sets daily
and so often, I miss it.
Does the sun miss me?
All feelings welcome
”Mama, I am sad.
And I don’t know why I am.”
And that is okay.
Set and Setting
I disliked oysters
until a coastal Maine move.
I learned to crunch twice.
Ladies. Make it weirder.
Use your inside voice.
Like the voice I hear inside?
Yes, that one. Get free.