▼ Café Shell Game Your next raw oyster could be your last — here’s how to gamble responsibly. BY JEN KARETNICK Regardless of where or how they get them, though, many diners love this versatile treat, which is found around the world. Part of the appeal of eating oysters in their A “OYSTERS DON’T LIKE TO BE SHOCKED. THEY DON’T LIKE BIG CHANGES IN TEMPERATURE.” uncooked form is their crisp, mineral flavor and velvety texture. The other part is the ceremony that goes along with it. First, much as you do with a wine list, you mull over which kind of oyster you want. Here, you generally choose from certain North American terroirs: East Coast, West Coast, Mid-Atlantic. Today’s oysters are typically farmed and many varieties are available, ranging from the Eastern and well- known Wellfleet to the West Coast, Japanese-derived Kusshi. Then, once they’re served, usually on the half shell nestled into a platter of crushed ice, you relish squeezing a lemon wedge over the creamy, freshly shucked flesh. You appreciate doctoring the meat — which is, yes, still alive — with any combination of horseradish, cock- tail sauce, and/or mignonette (minced shal- lots and red wine vinegar) to your particular preference. Finally, you eat it. Some people toast shells first the way you do glasses for luck, then tip the contents from the wide end of their cups directly into their mouths, savoring the liquor (the juices). Others use tiny forks to grab only the meat neatly. Some folks swallow it whole. Others first give it a light chew or two to re- lease its briny flavor. Washing down those mollusks with an iron-rich stout, a pebbly Sancerre, or a zesty bloody mary, all of which pair beautifully with a raw oyster, is another important ele- ment of the experience. In fact, drinking while tossing back a dozen oysters on the half shell is so much a part of the tradition that you can even order your oyster and drink to- gether as a bloody mary oyster shooter. What’s not part of the ritual? Dying afterward. But the fact is, being killed by a raw oyster 13 can and does happen — up to about 100 peo- ple annually in the U.S., according to the Cen- ters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In fact, 22 people have died from oys- ter-related illnesses so far this year. Vibrio, a pathogenic bacteria that cause s a comestible, raw oysters run the gamut from a luxury com- modity that begins a quality meal in a high-end restaurant to a $1 happy-hour attraction. Photo by Jen Karetnick such an unhappy event, sickens many more than that, though. About 80,000 people will come down with some kind of vibriosis each year. In the literature on the CDC’s site, it notes, “Most vibrio infections from oysters result in only diarrhea and vomiting. How- ever, some infections, such as those caused by Vibrio vulnificus, can cause more severe ill- ness, including bloodstream infections and severe blistering skin lesions. Many people with V. vulnificus infections require intensive care or limb amputations, and 15-30% of in- fections are fatal.” Indeed, the CDC estimates that about one in five people infected with V. vulnificus will die. Risk factors for death — as opposed to just getting super sick — include the ones that make you more vulnerable to COVID-19: can- cer, diabetes, HIV, being on immunosuppres- sive therapy for diseases, cirrhosis of the liver or other liver diseases, being 65 or older, and several other conditions. Unfortunately, Florida has already ex- ceeded the CDC’s estimated odds. And those odds have struck like lightning pretty close to home: On July 31, eight days after he reported to Memorial Pembroke Hospital, Davie resi- dent Roger “Rocky” Pinckney died from V. vulnificus. He had consumed the offending oyster at Fort Lauderdale’s Rustic Inn Crab- house, the Sun-Sentinel reported, on July 21 while celebrating his birthday and his daugh- ter’s high school graduation. His daughter, however, did not get sick even though she too had eaten raw oysters. And Rustic Inn, where Pinckney had worked as a busboy a couple of decades ago, passed a subsequent Florida Department of Health in- spection and is permitted to continue serving oysters. No one has turned up sick since or re- ported another illness in relation to oysters from Rustic Inn Crabhouse. Like all raw shellfish and fish, raw oysters are a delicacy that inherently carry a health risk. Only nine days later, however, Pensacola resident Rodney Jackson also died of V. vulni- ficus. He had purchased raw oysters from Maria’s Fresh Seafood Market, according to the Pensacola News Journal. Lightning, it appears, does strike twice. At least in Florida. In fact, so far this year, six people in the state have died from 26 confirmed V. vulnifi- cus infections, according to the Florida De- partment of Health. It’s unclear if these two recent deaths have been counted among them. But they do have something else in common: In both cases, the oysters were sourced from Louisiana. So what does that mean, exactly, for raw oyster connoisseurs? Should restaurants stop serving them? Should we stop eating them? Or is it just oysters from Louisiana — a Gulf state like Florida — that we need to shun? And does that mean we also need to stop eat- ing our own oysters? In short: not completely. But if you fre- quent raw bars — not to mention sushi joints and other places that serve raw fish and shell- fish, you might have noticed that such places nearly always have a sign or menu note warn- ing you that consuming such fare comes at your own risk. Even if you only occasionally snack on a crudo or a tiradito as an aperitivo, you probably see that these items have an as- terisk on the menu. Somewhere, somehow, there’s a statement, be it on the menu or posted elsewhere, in which the restaurant and its management absolve themselves from circumstances beyond their control. Like a V. vulnificus infection. Such warnings almost always include advisories to pregnant women, the elderly, and the immunocompromised that the consequences for them may be worse. So they should be even more careful in their consumption. Legally, this means a restaurant has com- plied with health department-mandated con- sumer advisories and disclosures. But restaurants and caterers, too, can and should take reasonable precautions. Alex Gilardi, who along with Brandon Mesa cofounded and runs the Lazy Oyster, a bespoke oyster pop-up and delivery company in Miami, says it’s mainly the Louisiana ques- tion that worries him. “I feel bad for the gen- tleman that passed away. I feel bad for the restaurant, although I heard they passed the health inspection. And I feel bad for a lot of bars and restaurants along the Panhandle that will take a big hit from this,” he says. “But we’ve never carried Gulf oysters. And I never suggest to anybody to have raw Gulf oysters during the summer — oysters that may come from Alabama, Louisiana, or Florida. It’s just such a hot climate.” Gilardi is largely talking about the water temperature. When the ocean heats up in the summer, the “bad” algae and bacteria in- crease. Southern residents used to know this as an old wives’ tale: Never eat oysters in the months without an r in them. That would be May, June, July, and August. Like most myths, there’s some truth behind it. These are the months when the ocean in the Southeast is the warmest, when red tide rolls in and the stink of algae reminds you that what’s in the water is also being consumed by the fish and shellfish. The problem is, we’re so used to having a place like Danny Serfer’s Mignonette offer us a half-dozen tempting options from the Northeast and Northwest that we >> p14 13 13 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | miaminewtimes.com | CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | MIAMI NEW TIMES NEW TIMES MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 SEPTEMBER 1-7, 2022 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | miaminewtimes.com
