Results tagged “halfshell”

In Mark Kurlansky's 2005 book about New York City and oysters, The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell, the author suggested that given the improved environmental conditions of New York Bay, perhaps the time is ripe to start replanting the oyster fields that used to carpet the underwater surface. The City and environmentalists are now undertaking a project to replant oyster beds in the bay, not for harvesting, but as natural, or soft, anti-pollution filters.

Sunday’s Times reported on the progress of an unusual marine biology project/art installation taking place in the East River: the Electric Oyster Experiment, designed to speed up the reintroduction of oysters to local waters with the help of solar electricity, and sculpture provided by Brooklyn-based artist Mara Haseltine. Here’s the premise: electrified, submerged helical sculptures provided by Haseltine spur the production of limestone rock, shown through research to be a protective environment for wayward oysters that might otherwise have a hard time surviving. The project started at the beginning of the month; the Times reports there are currently 700 oysters growing in College Point. The folks behind the Electric Oyster Experiment have set a short-term target of 2,000 oysters; at some point in the future, the oysters will be harvested and used to seed other tidal areas around the city.

Regardless of what Key Foods has to say, not many people need 10 avocados. It is the fattiest fruit in the kingdom and supplies some 25 percent of your daily monounsaturated fat needs. Who needs 10 of these besides Super Bowl party planners in need of a mega-batch of guacamole? Key Food’s hope is that the low price per piece, $1, will bring interest, and to their credit, it worked.

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.