Raw Oysters

As a food lover on WeightWatchers, my antennae is up for anything with really great taste that does not use up a lot of points. I was delighted to learn recently that a dozen raw oysters are only one point! Then I saw the November issue of Real Simple magazine and it has a blurb on oysters saying that they contain more zinc than any other food. One oyster provides 13 milligrams of zinc, which enhances the immune system. Zinc is effective when you are starting to get a cold - how much better to have some oysters than to suck on zinc tablets! We recently went to King's Fish House in Rancho Cucamonga and got a half-dozen raw oysters, each from a different place and each having a different shape and taste.

For example, I believe our plate had an oyster from each of (a) Baja, Mexico; (b) Carlsbad, California; (c) Puget Sound, Washington; (d) Prince Edward Island, Canada; (e) Duxbury Bay, Massachusetts; and (f) Chesapeake Bay, Maryland.

I was quite surprised how different from each other some of them were.

Below, the outer shell of an oyster.

I have also been surprised, as I've asked recently, about how many people that eat sushi refuse to eat  raw oysters. For some, they are the height of grossness. I guess that's what Jonathan Swift meant when he said, "He was a bold man that first ate an oyster." For me, they are probably on my list of top ten foods. I love them plain and like them even better with some cocktail sauce.