Gothamist has a friend who, about once a month, announces that he desperately wants an oyster. He then wanders the city until he finds one, though most of the time they disappoint him. The last place he got one was at San Gennaro the other night (uhm, not recommended). Personally though, we just never think to eat them let alone think of them as a standard New York food. So it was with real interest that we read an Op-Ed in the City section today on the history of the Oyster and the City (funny thing, the Op-Ed was written by a guy named Mark Kurlansky who has a book called, get this, "The Big Oyster: New York on the Half Shell," coming out in February...). Some things we learned: All five boroughs and the islands in the harbor were once famous for their oyster beds, some biologists think that 17th-century New York contained half(!) of the world's oysters, oyster stands were by the turn of the century as ubiquitous as hot dog stands are today, finally the city's oyster beds have been closed since 1927 due to pollution. But now that pollution in the harbor is way down, Kurlansky argues, isn't it about time we start replanting New York's waters with oysters? Sure, we say, why not.