Love and oysters have always been closely linked. When Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, sprang forth from the sea on an oyster shell, she promptly gave birth to Eros and "aphrodisiac" was born. The mollusk's reputation wasn't hurt when the dashing lover Casanova claimed he began his days by eating 12 dozen oysters to boost his libido. The classic preparation of oysters is raw, as in "on the half shell," when they are purportedly at their most potent.
Occasionally, when a minuscule piece of foreign material enters the oyster's shell, the oyster coats the object with a protective coat of calcium and protein, called nacre. In time, the layers of nacre become what is known as a pearl. Although the price of pearls is sky-high, an oyster's most valuable function is environmental - it cleans up estuarine waters by sucking water in then spitting it out again during its feeding process.
If harvested from relatively clean waters, oysters provide one of the most nutritionally perfect foods. They may have been designed by the god of romance, but they also mightily enhance marshes and mealtimes.
