The big oyster : a molluscular history of New York
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The big oyster : a molluscular history of New York
（A Vintage book）
Vintage Books, 2007, c2006
- Other Title
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The big oyster : New York on the half shell
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Note
"First published in the United States of as The big oyster : New York on the half shell by Ballantine books, Random House, Inc."--T.p. verso
Bibliography: p. [283]-294
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
When Peter Minuit bought Manhattan for $24 in 1626 he showed his shrewdness by also buying the oyster beds off tiny, nearby Oyster Island, renamed Ellis Island in 1770.
From the Minuit purchase until pollution finally destroyed the beds in the 1920s, New York was a city known for its oysters, especially in the late 1800s, when Europe and America enjoyed a decades-long oyster craze. In a dubious endorsement, William Makepeace Thackeray said that eating a New York oyster was like eating a baby.
Travellers to New York were also keen to experience the famous New York oyster houses. While some were known for their elegance, due to a longstanding belief in the aphrodisiac quality of oysters, they were often associated with prostitution. In 1842, when the novelist Charles Dickens arrived in New York, he could not conceal his eagerness to find and experience the fabled oyster cellars of New York City's slums.
The Big Oyster is the story of a city and of an international trade.Filled with cultural, social and culinary insight - as well as recipes, maps, drawings and photographs - this is history at its most engrossing, entertaining and delicious.
by "Nielsen BookData"
