The Big Oyster (2007)
“—MARK TWAIN’S description of New York for the newspaper Alta California, May 19, 1867 By 1880, New York was the undisputed capital of history’s greatest oyster boom in its golden age, which lasted until at least 1910. The oyster beds of the New York area were producing 700 million oysters a year. That is without including the oysters of New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, or eastern Long Island, all of which were sold in the New York City markets.
On almost every block of Manhattan, oysters ...were for sale from streetside stands, belowground cellars, and aboveground palaces. In addition to all this, New Yorkers ate them at home. Lida A. Seely, in her 1902 book Mrs. Seely’s Cook Book: A Manual of French and American Cookery with Chapters on Domestic Servants, their Rights and Duties, and Many Other Details of Household Management, offers this advice on giving dinner parties: Early twentieth-century New York City oyster stand MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK As soon as a guest is seated, and has taken his napkin and bread from his plate, the butler puts down on it another on which are oysters, clams, or melon, according to the season, neatly arranged on a small doily.MoreLess
On almost every block of Manhattan, oysters ...were for sale from streetside stands, belowground cellars, and aboveground palaces. In addition to all this, New Yorkers ate them at home. Lida A. Seely, in her 1902 book Mrs. Seely’s Cook Book: A Manual of French and American Cookery with Chapters on Domestic Servants, their Rights and Duties, and Many Other Details of Household Management, offers this advice on giving dinner parties: Early twentieth-century New York City oyster stand MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK As soon as a guest is seated, and has taken his napkin and bread from his plate, the butler puts down on it another on which are oysters, clams, or melon, according to the season, neatly arranged on a small doily.MoreLess
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