Synopsis
Before New York City was the Big Apple, it could have been called the Big Oyster. Now award-winning author Mark Kurlansky tells the remarkable story of New York by following the trajectory of one of its most fascinating inhabitants–the oyster, whose influence on the great metropolis remains unparalleled.
For centuries New York was famous for its oysters, which until the early 1900s played such a dominant a role in the city’s economy, gastronomy, and ecology that the abundant bivalves were Gotham’s most celebrated export, a staple food for the wealthy, the poor, and tourists alike, and the primary natural defense against pollution for the city’s congested waterways.
Filled with cultural, historical, and culinary insight–along with historic recipes, maps, drawings, and photos–this dynamic narrative sweeps readers from the island hunting ground of the Lenape Indians to the death of the oyster beds and the rise of America’s environmentalist movement, from the oyster cellars...
The New York Times - William Grimes
The culture of the oyster cellar also provides a feast for the author, who notes, shrewdly, that the oyster resisted the usual status markers assigned to food. Although cheap, it was consumed by rich and poor alike, sometimes at the same street stalls. Unlike the lobster or the canvasback duck, its value was not a function of scarcity. "It was one of the few moments in culinary history," he writes of the second half of the 19th century, "when a single food, served in more or less the same preparations, was commonplace for all socioeconomic levels."