Oyster platter at Maxies
Photo by Val

Preparation:

This week I watched:
Anatomy of a Scene prompt: The Shape of Water
Penn Cove Shellfish, Tastemakers
Eat Like a Fish, Bren Smith. FYE Common Read
Farming While Black, Leah Penniman, EcoFarm 2020 Keynote 
This week I read:
American Terroir, That Totten Smell
The Cooking Gene ch. 5-7

#4a Tasting Lab: Oyster

Oysters at Maxies
Photo and video by Val

I was able to go out with a group of oyster lovers for my first oyster experience at Maxies in Milwaukee. I cannot say how proud I am of myself, I literally have no words, for trying an oyster. I honestly believe that being surrounded by the right people will help you accomplish anything. If I had not gone out with this specific group of people, I do not think I would have actually tried an oyster.
Now on to the oysters. There were to differed oysters from New Hampshire, wish I had written them down, that I could clearly tell had been grown in a bag. They were served with lemons, horseradish, mignonette sauce, and cocktail sauce. I was actually very surprised at the smell, I always pictured them smelling so awful, but it was a nice ocean smell. I squeezed a little lemon on my small little oyster, the one in the video with the fork poking at it, and opened my mouth and in it went. I could only handle chewing it a couple times before the texture got too much for me, but I do have to say the taste was actually nice. Would I eat a bunch of them, no, would I try an oyster again, yes, if it was the right situation.

Photos by Val

Resources/Required Reading/Browsing:

“Evergreen Shellfish Garden Reseeding and Revitalization”
Exploring the Geography, Glories of Oysters
The Geography of Oysters
The Essential Oyster
3 Feet Under [trailer] – geoduck clam documentary

Lab Practice: Oyster Flavor Evaluation

Video by Val

Val’s Notes
“You don’t have to actually eat an oyster to enjoy them.” -Emily Wilder
Shellfish are a huge ecosystem benefit.
A single oyster can filter 30-50 gallons of water per day.
When oysters thrive people thrive.
The best time to eat an oyster is mid-winter. They go into a sort of hibernation state and are much sweeter.
Taylor Shellfish Farms grows four different oysters. They are either beach grown or grown in a mesh bag.
The Pacific oyster accounts for roughly 90% of all farmed oysters. This specific oyster was originally from Japan.
Oysters grow from the hinge and the abductor muscle is the sweetest part.
When going out to eat or purchase oysters ask for the harvest tag, this will tell you when and where they were harvested.
When eating an oyster smell it first before you eat it.

#4b: Foodoir: Your Story of Tasting Place

“What’s in a name? Certainly something of a face but not really a full identity.” Page 83
“Christmas meant real coffee, oranges and penny candy, whole barbecued hogs, pecan pies and syrup cakes, black walnut taffy, possum and yams, corn liquor and ham….” Page 105
“Both Alan and Toni are native African Texans drawing on the heritage that enriched Texas with okra, collard and turnip greens, black-eyed peas and other cowpeas, rice, watermelon, hot peppers and other spices, a variety of sweet potatoes, and other staples of the Afro Creole culinary world that would become key in the vocabulary of Texas “eats.” All the things my cousins enjoyed growing up- beans and rice, rice pudding, okra and tomatoes, gumbo, spicy stews, black-eyed pea caviar, greens, fried poke salad, pickled okra, and watermelon rind- are all signs of the Africanizing presence of blacks in Texas cuisine. Out influence across the South conquered more territory than any Confederate army ever managed.” Page 112
-Michael Twitty

Before I was two years old my mother divorced my biological father and took back her madden name. My bio father was an alcoholic and my mother did not want me to grow up around that. I have no memory of him as my father at all. My mother married my dad when I was four years old. My dad Jim has been and will always be my father. As I got a little older, I started to realize that my last name was not the same as my mom and dads and I wanted that to change. In second grade my bio father allowed me to hyphenate my last name to Eide-Dingman. I was so happy to have the same name as all those that took me in as if I had always been one of them. On my 17th birthday my parents surprised me with the paperwork to legally change my last name to just Dingman. I couldn’t have been happier. For me it was all about knowing that I was officially part of the family that loved me and that I no longer had my bio father looming over my head everywhere I went.

I don’t think I could ever ask for a better family to take me in as one of their own.

Some of my fondest memories are when we all went on vacation to Puerto Rico for my parent’s ten-year anniversary. The first night we were in Puerto Rico we stopped at a road side stand for chicken. I don’t think I will ever get this memory out of my head. The guy pulled down a whole cooked chicken, slapped it down on the cutting board, swung a machete through the air, and chopped off the chickens’ head. Being only 13 I honestly did not know what to do with myself. When we brought the food back to our villa and we sat down to eat it, it was some of the best chicken I have ever had. It went so well with the rice and beans; I actually ate it all!