I visited the beoysteraware.com website and was surprised at the information that I found there. According to their site you could be at risk for a serious illness from a bacteria called Vibrio vulnificus this occurs more often in summer months than winter and you can get it 2 ways. First by eating raw or undercooked seafood that is contaminated or by an open wound in contaminated seawater.

A healthy person can tolerate this and will not have any diverse effects, but according to their site if you have any of the following health problems which I do you should only eat fully cooked seafood. “Liver Disease (from hepatitis, cirrhosis, alcoholism, or cancer), Iron overload disease (hemochromatosis), diabetes, cancer (including lymphoma, leukemia, Hodgkin’s disease), stomach disorders, or any illness or medical condition that weakens the body’s immune system.”

Some people like sushi which I’ve never tried, but I happen to love raw oysters (don’t like fried oysters) I didn’t like reading the warning, but then I read about the 3 post-harvest processes that the Gulf Coast oyster processors have developed so I can still eat my oysters raw I was very excited and found that to be interesting reading because I had never been aware of any of this before. It’s an interesting site that I recommend and they even have a recipe book that you can download. If your an oyster lover then you might want to check them out.

I love gulf oysters and the first time I tried a raw oyster was 20 years ago at an oyster feed, I’m sure many of you are saying  gross at this point and so did I. I swore I’d never eat those yucky looking things. The only reason I went to the feed was to gamble and drink beer, of course back then you didn’t want to give me a dare because I would have to do it just to prove something to myself.

The first time I saw an oyster I thought, Oh Yuck, how in the world can someone swallow that slimy looking thing. When I tended bar they would do oyster shots and I would have to look away I couldn’t stand to even look at them. My boyfriend knew about my aversion and dared me to eat one at the feed, well 20 bucks was on the line so I put some Tabasco on it, loosened it from the shell, picked it up, threw it in my mouth, swallowed and drank lots of beer.

I’m still not sure if it was all the beer or I simply liked the combination I sat down and ate 2 dozen and I’ve liked them ever since.