I tried my first oyster on a trip to Halifax in the late 90s. Jason and I were on an East Coast road trip and Halifax was our first stop. “He was a bold man that first ate an oyster,” wrote Jonathan Swift. Like most people eating oysters for the first time, I felt self conscious. Oyster etiquette; how do I respond when asked if I like my oysters briny, buttery or sweet? Do I slurp or do I bite? Do I use a fork? We opted for salty, and we slurped. I can’t say that I loved them, or that I’ve ordered oysters much since. But when I do see them on a menu, I think of two wide-eyed twenty-something-year-olds slurping oysters on the water. “So have you heard about the oyster who went to a disco and pulled a mussel?” That’s the brilliant Billy Connolly. And this here is a Fine de Claire oyster, cultured on the French Atlantic coast. It’s beautiful and ugly, all at once.