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|  | |  | | | A Geography of Oysters: The Connoisseur's Guide to Oyster Eating in North America | | | | | SKU:
mkpg-11-10-02787 | | In Stock | | Availability:
Usually ships in 1 business days | | | | | | Passionate and playful, this is the first comprehensive guide to identifying, serving, and savoring one of America's original and most delicious foods.
Considered one of the great sensual foods since the time of ancient Rome, eaten in the United States since its earliest human habitation, oysters are now seeing an American renaissance. Like wine and cheese, they owe much of their flavor to terroir, or the specific environment in which they grow--indeed, oysters are the food that tastes most like the sea. Today, there are at least two hundred unique oyster "appellations" in North America, each producing oysters with a distinct and consistent flavor--some merely passable, others dazzling.
Beautifully written and illustrated, A Geography of Oysters is an indispensable guide to the oysters of America, describing each oyster's appearance, flavor, origin, and availability. Readers will learn how to shuck, how to pair wines and oysters, and how to navigate a raw bar with skill and panache. The book includes recipes, maps, black-and-white photos, and a color guide, as well as lists of top oyster restaurants, producers, and festivals. Painting a picture of the quirky characters who farm oysters and the gorgeous stretches of coast where these delicacies are found, A Geography of Oysters is both terrific reading and the guide that foodies of all types have been waiting for.
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| | Product Details | | Author: | Rowan Jacobsen | | Hardcover: | 304 pages | | Publisher: | Bloomsbury USA | | Publication Date: | September 04, 2007 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 1596913258 | | Product Length: | 8.48 inches | | Product Width: | 5.88 inches | | Product Height: | 1.01 inches | | Product Weight: | 1.08 pounds | | Package Length: | 8.4 inches | | Package Width: | 5.7 inches | | Package Height: | 1.3 inches | | Package Weight: | 1.05 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 10 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 10 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 24 found the following review helpful:
Fantastically thorough book about oysters Dec 11, 2007
By Harry Popsicle
"goozman"
I love oysters. I don't know why, but I just do. Every now and then I get strong cravings and I just have to have them. I also have a lot of books about oysters because of it. "Consider the oyster" a great book, and others. But they are all mainly cook books with very little detail about the oyster, where it comes from and it's history.
This book is incredibly well written, witty at times and very informative. You can learn how oysters are farmed and their various techniques. Things I didn't even find on wiki. I learned how they get to harden those shells. I purchased some Carlsbad Blondes, and those shells would just snap in half. Terrible oysters. I know why because of the book.
I'm not sure how the author did it, but it seems he has had the incredible opportunity to sample a great many oysters. I can see his tax return $1000 spent as "research" for his book. What a great way to do research. Upon one of the authors great descriptions, I ordered three dozen Hama Hama's. They were fantastic.
The author picks five or six farms and gives incredible detail about the location, the owner/farmer and his/her history and the oysters themselves. This is a book to own now, because it is relavent now with the current oyster farmers listed. It is a chance to learn about the worlds best and to learn how to sample them.
The only thing I would have loved to see in the book, would be a travel guide on how to visit the various farms the author so nicely listed. That's one of the things I plan on doing is to travel up and down the coast visiting oysters farms along the way. I would have loved this book to have a guide like that.
There is a section on "what kind of oyster" person are you? But I didn't find that very useful or informative. A very minor drawback for an incredibly informative book on oysters. Every connosieur(sp?) should have a copy. A book for oyster lovers by an oyster lover.
15 of 15 found the following review helpful:
Slurp o licious Sep 10, 2007
By Angelo J. Piccozzi
"Oyster Farmer"
Jacobsen has turned the art of eating oysters to a higher level.
You can't wait to finish the book so you can start trying out his great recommendations. Whether you're an oyster novice, blindly feeling your way around the oysters beds, or, a seasoned connoisseur, this book is a must read. Great work Rowan!!
17 of 18 found the following review helpful:
Geograpy of Oysters Sep 17, 2007
By Thomas Christopher Greene
This book was one I bought as a potential reference book, however once i picked it up I just kept reading it. This is far from a dry review of oysters it is funny and insightful. My oyster vocabulary has blossomed.
Three friends have requested that I stop talking about oysters and buy them a copy for their birthdays.
It tells about the oysters and then how to get them delivered to your door for dinner. I love this book.
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Love Oysters but a Little Perplexed by Them? The Answers Are Here. Jun 18, 2008
By mirasreviews
"A Geography of Oysters" is the guide that I've been looking for. I love raw oysters, but they have a mind-boggling number of names and farming methods that I never could sort out. The people selling them are of limited help. I've read books about oysters, but they said little about particular species or origins. Now Rowan Jacobsen has made sense of it all in this practical guide to oyster eating in North America. Like European wines or single malt whiskies, oysters taste like the place they come from, so Jacobsen takes us all over North America to learn how and where 132 common oysters are farmed. Although there are some recipes in the back, "A Geography of Oysters" is primarily dedicated to raw oysters, so this is for those of us who like to slurp the slimy things out of their shells.
The guide has three parts. The first, "Mastering the Oyster", tells us about the 5 species of oyster that are cultivated in North America, explains the life cycle of an oyster, oyster harvesting, farming, and hatcheries, how different methods of cultivation affect texture, taste, and shelf life, how and why season and place affects taste, and how modern aquaculture has created an environmentally beneficial, diverse oyster industry. It's a solid introduction to oysters. The meat of the book is the second part, "The Oyster Appellations of North America". This is where we get an ostreaphilic tour of the continent. For each region, state, or province, Jacobsen provides a history of oysters in that region, followed by how, where, and other particulars for the major oysters in that area.
The final section, "Everything You Wanted to Know about Oysters but Were Afraid to Ask", gives advice on how to choose an oyster, storing oysters, shucking oysters, serving oysters, wines that go well with oysters and those that do not. Jacobsen prefers his oysters raw but offers 21 recipes -which will presumably be reserved for those unfortunate occasional bland oysters. There are several recipes for mignonette to top your oysters, oyster stew, and oysters roasted, baked, fried, pickled, and even drunk. That's followed by notes about safety, nutrition, and a helpful list of oyster bars, festivals, and growers that ship direct. As the man says, we don't eat oysters because we are hungry. We eat them to experience them. "A Geography of Oysters" will help you experience more oysters.
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
Delicious Reading Feb 18, 2009
By Gayle
"Fernglen Gayle"
Rowan Jacobsen writes about oysters in beautifully descriptive language, with offbeat humor thrown in. I've recommended this book even to those who won't eat a raw oyster, but love great writing and have a curious mind. If you are an oyster aficionado, then you simply must read this book! But, be warned, you'll then be on a mission to try as many of them as possible, immediately.
"At some level, it isn't about taste or smell at all. Because an oyster, like a lover, first captures you by bewitching your mind." -Rowan Jacobsen
See all 10 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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