Sex, Death and Oysters - A Half-Shell Lover's World Tour (Paperback)

When award-winning Texas food writer Robb Walsh discovers that the local Galveston Bay oysters are being passed off as Blue Points and Chincoteagues in other parts of the country, he decides to look into the matter. Thus begins a five-year journey into the culture of one of the world's oldest delicacies. Walsh's through-the-looking-glass adventure takes him from oyster reefs to oyster bars and from corporate boardrooms to hotel bedrooms in a quest for the truth about the world's most profitable aphrodisiac. On the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Gulf coasts of the U.S., as well as the Canadian Maritimes, Ireland, England, and France, the author ingests thousands of oysters--raw, roasted, barbecued, and baked--all for the sake of making a fair comparison. He also carefully considers the merits of a wide variety of accompanying libations, including tart white wines in Paris, Guinness in Galway, martinis in London, microbrews in the Pacific Northwest, and tequila in Texas. Along the way, he learns how to shuck, cook, and identify all five oyster species. And he manages to glean enough information from each region's scientists to debunk the myths and marketing malarkey dispensed as gospel in provincial oyster bars. Sex, Death & Oysters is a record of a gastronomic adventure--a fascinating collection of the most exciting, instructive, poignant, and just plain weird experiences on a five-year journey into the world of the most beloved and most feared of all seafoods.