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5 Things To Know About Oysters Before You Head to Shock Top Oyster Fest

By Patty Wetli | September 11, 2015 8:09am
 Shock Top Oyster Fest runs Friday and Saturday in Roscoe Village.
Shock Top Oyster Fest runs Friday and Saturday in Roscoe Village.
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Flickr/Charlotta Wasteson

ROSCOE VILLAGE — The Shock Top Oyster Fest returns to Roscoe Village Friday and Saturday, but before you slurp down a mountain of mollusks, know what you're eating.

The origin of the species

There are five main species of oysters, which you can tell apart by the shape of their shells.

The Olympia oyster, the only species native to the West Coast, is small, round, pale and smooth. Atlantic oysters thrive on the East Coast and are shaped like a comma or teardrop.

Poet Léon-Paul Fargue compared eating an oyster to "kissing the sea on the lips." We'd like to know what sea he was talking about, because an oyster's flavor is determined by the water it's grown in and its diet.

At Oyster Fest, vendors will be serving up East Coast Delaware Blue Bay Points (slightly salty, with a mild, sweet flavor) and West Coast Purple Mountain Oysters (deep cup, with mineral notes and tastes of cucumber and melon).

Hold on to those shells

Mounds of shells, called middens, can be repurposed. They're high in calcium, which makes them an ideal addition to garden soil. Instead of tossing out the shells, turn them into fertilizer.

Don't count your pearls before they're hatched

There are edible oysters and there are pearl oysters. Two different things. The chances of you cracking open a shell and a bead falling out are infinitesimally small. Like, drop-of-water-in-the-ocean small. By the way, pearls do not form around irritating grains of sand. Oysters live in sand. If every bit of sand annoyed them, we'd be swimming in pearls, not pools.

Phew, September ends in an "R"

Conventional wisdom says it's better to eat oysters in months than include an "r." In other words, not May, June, July or August. That's when oysters spawn, and all the energy they exert in that effort leaves them with a weak and watery flavor. Winter is actually the ideal time to eat oysters.

When bad things happen to good oysters (and the people who eat them)

The forecast calls for mild weather this weekend, so there's no worry that the oysters will spoil in the blistering heat. But even the freshest oyster can work a number on your digestive system. A bacteria that causes food poisoning grows in the same places that oysters do, and remember what we said about the mollusks being what they eat and where they live. You won't know you've swallowed a bad oyster ... until you know.

Oysters are the star of the show this weekend, but Oyster Fest also features arts and crafts, non-slimy food and beverages and entertainment. The music lineup includes Trippin Billies, who close out the main stage at 8 p.m. Friday, and Saturday's headliner, Buckwheat Zydeco, who take to the main stage at 8:30 p.m.

Oyster Fest runs 5-10 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday at Roscoe and Damen. Admission is a suggested donation of $7.

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