Oysters anyone?

The Greek goddess of love came from an oyster shell. While I hate to put anything in the same sentence as chocolate (It's just sacrilegious!), oysters are, like chocolate, an aphrodisiac. Unfortunately every year some raw oyster eaters aren't thinking sexy thoughts after eating Gulf oysters. According the New York Times, 15 people die every year from a bacteria found in Gulf oysters during the warm months.

The FDA's answer to this dilemma was; oysters from the Gulf were banned during warm months. This seemed reasonable, considering there is no way to know if an oyster has the bacteria and according to true oyster lovers (I'm really not a fan, so I'm trusting them) processing the oysters change the flavor. It just makes more sense to put a kabosh on the warm month Gulf oysters. Well you say ban and people normally start to freak out. This freak out caused the FDA to delay the ban until the issue can be looked into more carefully.

First of all I think raw oysters are disgusting. They kind of look like the blobs you see in the pictures of what babies look like in the early stages of pregnancy. Yeah gross!!! I have no idea why anyone would want to slurp down these fetisesque objects, but I've watched many a country club member do it over the summer. They would fill the tops of the shell with enough cocktail sauce that I really don't think they tasted anything other than cocktail sauce with a little bit of slime on the side.

There is always a risk involved when eating raw anything. You should never do it unless you really trust the restaurant, buffet, hotel, ect. I may be extra hopeful in the restaurant industry, but I would hope that a chef would not want his diners to die from food he served. (Pardon the use of a male pronoun. I hate saying he/she. It wastes space much like this explanation just did.)

So maybe the answer is not an FDA ban. Maybe it is just going to take a refusal from restaurant owners and chefs from selling Gulf oysters raw during the warm months. There are other places where oysters come from, so oysters wouldn't have to be taken off of the menu altogether. If only I could run the world.

If only I could finish my paper on Ghandi's Hind Swaraj. I am not dying from a raw oyster bacteria, but my body is slowly shutting down on me. I have a slight fever and just feel icky. I am hoping that a little bit of rest and relaxation will fix me all better, but unfortunately my paper is at 2.75 pages and stuck there (it has to be 5-7 pages). My aphrodisiac of choice for the night, Hershey's chocolate. It isn't slimy, and it makes me feel happier.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily