Wow! Check out the size of these oysters at The Botanical which are also available at the Half Moon Hotel in Brighton at $4.00 each. They are wild and from St Helens in NE Tasmania (with the hand of RRR’s Cam Smith and some tiny-looking but normal sized oysters in the background).
It’s quite a daunting prospect to eat a whole one, let alone open one. I had a nightmare last night about attempting to swallow one that wasn’t quite dead. It then clamps my mouth shut – only to be opened by the leverage of a large but rusty screwdriver that breaks most of my teeth.
What you can’t see in the pic is exec chef Paul Wilson, sweat on his brow, attempting to open an particularly stubborn one before giving up. I was tempted to pop out and get a wheel brace from the boot of my car to help out.
Cam and I cut them in half. They taste very meaty and are quite chewy. Last night they were used to make a variation of a carpetbag steak for a Stephanie Alexander event and I can’t help but think that cooking is the best fate for these cold water giants.
They are nothing like the sweet smaller ones that we ate wantonly. From Coffin Bay we had Pacific Oysters, tiny thumb-sized Kunamoto fingerlings (which I also recently tried at The Melbourne Wine Room) and Butterfly’s from Coffin Bay. NSW was represented by rock oysters from Bateman’sBay – Rusty Wire and Moonlight En Surface.
All came freshly shucked in their own juice, tasting of that fresh salty iodine of the sea but each with their own subtle differences.
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I tried eating one of these at a restaurant in Taipei once but couldn’t finish the job, it was just too much to handle. I felt like a failed porn actress!
wow, so big! chewy? do they taste like an oyster still or would you compare it to some other seeafood?
Hi Ed, they are called Angasi oysters & are native, sometimes called flat oysters. Not sure if they are distant cousins of the French Belon?
I don’t think I’d legally be allowed to attempt eating one of those…
Jesus!
I think those are just slightly scary.
Hi Gobbler!
The Moonlight Flat angassi’s that are being harvested by the Moonlight Flat Oysterage in Batemans Bay, NSW have been DNA acknowledged as being almost identical to the French belon oyster. I’m not sure about the ones in Tassie, but no doubt they are similar.
Jack
NB I think size does matter when it comes to oysters, smaller the better I say. I’m also loving the butterfly oysters that are about town and the cute fingerlings – fantastic.
Talk about Oyster porn. Yes, I think they are related to the Belon as I remember.
I had some of the best oysters at the halfmoon in brighton on the weekend.
I highly recommend it. The big ones are awesome!!! Yum
Makes me pine for New Zealand’s Bluff oysters – now close to $NZ25 a dozen at the fishmonger’s.
Bluff oysters are pre shucked unlike these beauties