In this week's Portland Phoenix, I wrote that you should eat oysters during the holidays - share them at your holiday meal or bring them to a party instead of a ho-hum bottle of wine. Of course, I had to follow my own advice, so I bought oysters for my Thanksgiving Day celebration. (I also bought an awesome oyster knife, wooo, check me out!)
Chris Miller at Browne Trading Co. recommended Winter Points from Bath (pictured above), and so I got half a dozen of those, as well as half of dozen of the other two available varieties that day - Deep Bay from Vancouver, WA and Bagaduce from Penobscot. I loved the two Maine oysters, but the Deep Bay was a bit much for me. It tasted like really strongly of seaweed. But that's the fun of oysters, every variety tastes different.
Nonesuch Oysters from Scarborough are also a good choice, although I believe they're out for the season. I saw them available last week at Harbor Fish Market, so get 'em while they're in stock or remember the type for next year.
A dozen and a half was a bit ambitious for A. and I - we didn't make it through all of them ourselves. But we took them over a friend's after Thanksgiving dinner and had another friend over for happy hour on Saturday to finish them off. After three days, I was a little worried about the oysters' shelf life, but they were fine on their little ice pack in the fridge. (As long as an oyster is firmly closed, it's still good.)
I'm already looking for the next opportunity to bring oysters to a party.