Why would anyone want to eat oysters this small? I asked myself the first time I saw a half dozen Olympia oysters on the half shell. I was newly obsessed with learning the flavors and textures of raw oysters. Grand Central Oyster Bar in Manhattan was — and still is — the Harvard for general oyster education, so it was my classroom. Its menu lists 256 oysters, named for the places they are farmed or wild harvested. Not all are always available, but the name Olympia had a nice ring to it, so I thought I’d take a chance and try a half dozen.
From the Oyster Bar’s shucking stand came a plate of six tiny oysters, each about the size of a 50-cent piece, with meats so small they hardly qualified as morsels. But after eating a couple, I was intrigued. They had big flavor for such little guys — the earthiness of an estuary, a sweet and briny taste; nuttiness; and something metallic and coppery, like pennies in a stream.
The last time I ate at the Oyster Bar, though, they weren’t available. “Olympia oysters are not the biggest movers in this restaurant,” executive chef Sandy Ingber says. “Our customers have a hard time spending the same, or sometimes more, money on a thumbnail-sized oyster. I personally enjoy them. Our general manager adores them and really wants them to sell.” But, evidently, sell they don’t.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Eater
