
Only eat oysters in months with an 'r'? - dnetesn
https://phys.org/news/2019-11-oysters-months-thumb-years.html
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gatherhunterer
In the US you can ask to see a restaurant’s oyster tags. All restaurants are
required to keep these tags and to show them on request. If they don’t have
them or won’t produce them, don’t eat the oysters. The tags identify when they
were harvested, when they expire and where they were harvested down to a
specific zone of a designated harvesting region. If there is a harmful
bacterial outbreak and a recall is issued then they can only comply if they
have their tags and can identify affected product. Every type of mollusk comes
with such a tag. If the restaurant is buying them cooked (i.e. canned) then
they will have to tell you as much.

EDIT: I now recall one place I’ve worked that carried canned oysters and each
can came with a tag attached as well.

There is no such thing as a guarantee of safety of any kind. With no reliable
way of detecting this bacteria until people start getting sick, the smart
thing to do is to take advantage of regulation. Also oysters are too amazing
to only eat for a third of the year. They taste best chilled on a hot summer
day.

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cascom
I’ve never heard of this - do people actually do this - or is this like
requesting to see an elevators maintenance log the is on file in the managers
office (e.g. something you can theoretically do, but no one ever does)

~~~
gatherhunterer
In restaurants the tags usually go straight to the office. In a butcher shop I
handled all of the seafood and we kept a little plastic filing box with the
tags in a folder by month. I think there is some rule about keeping them 30
days or so after the stop of sale. We were always able to provide the tags
easily because health inspectors check them. I told customers about the tags
when they asked about the safety of eating oysters. I don’t remember ever
being asked for them by a customer but once I turned away a box of either
oysters or mussels from a supplier whose tag had fallen off.

Personally I would respect a customer who asks to see the tags once to see if
the place is compliant. It’s like when a customer corrects someone who asks if
the sushi-grade fish is “fresh” or “never frozen” (being frozen at extreme
temperature is what makes it legally sushi-grade and the equipped ships are
often at sea for months, so “fresh” is just a buzzword). It’s encouraging when
consumers know the product.

~~~
bobthepanda
Is this a federal thing? Restaurant regulations tend to be local, so I’d be
very surprised.

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a3n
A bacteria dangerous to people with weakened immune systems is more prevalent
in warm summer months.

[https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/12/10/669624957/as...](https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/12/10/669624957/as-
climate-changes-is-eating-raw-oysters-getting-riskier)

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ramshorns
This is regex golf[1]: /r/ matches the eight fall and winter months but not
the four summer months (at least by some definition of the seasons based on
academic sessions or oysters or whatever).

[1] [https://www.xkcd.com/1313/](https://www.xkcd.com/1313/)

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CrLf
In Portugal we have the inverse rule about eating snails(1), even though the
snails we eat are not captured "in the wild".

(1) If you're curious, they're boiled and of the small variety, loved by the
south half of the country, disgusting to the north half. Here's an
illustration:
[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d7/59/35/d7593505490d79f4942c...](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d7/59/35/d7593505490d79f4942c2197a40aeecc.jpg)

~~~
_0ffh
Looks very much like the ones we also eat where I live. Like baked with herbs
and butter, although that variation is probably of French origin. We call them
vineyard snails, and we've got a lot of vineyards here! ;-) Now I feel like
eating!

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flowerlad
Tip: if you’re in Colorado and you see “Rocky Mountain Oysters” on the menu,
be forewarned that its not really oyster. There are no oysters in the Rocky
Mountains, oysters are seafood.

~~~
grawprog
Are these synonymous with prairie oysters?

~~~
flowerlad
Yes, they are the same as prairie oysters. They are rich in zinc, so if you
feel a cold coming then it may be a good idea to eat a few of these “oysters”.

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every
Oysters spawn as the water warms. In the northern hemisphere this would be the
months (in English) without an "r" in it. Spawning requires a lot of energy
and the oysters lose weight, texture and flavor. Warm water oysters such as
those in the Gulf of Mexico may spawn continuously, albeit at a more leisurely
rate. Their flavor tends to be fairly constant year-round although never
reaches the peak of a cold water species in the "r" months...

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oftenwrong
The article is light on information about shell rings, so I immediately went
to read more about them:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_ring](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_ring)

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ramoz
I had ordered Oysters in Ireland in November. I realized that I might be prone
to illness by eating them (every foreign trip has led to some illness for me)
but the month 'r' strategy softened me up a bit but was worried that it was a
grey zone time period from the warm summer dangers. I learned a lot about
Irish oyster farming.

I was sick the next week back in the states lol - a stomach bug.

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simonblack
In the Southern Hemisphere we need a completely different rule about oysters.

~~~
robjan
Not sure about where you're from, but aren't most oysters flown in from the
northern hemisphere?

~~~
9nGQluzmnq3M
There's plenty of home-grown oysters in Australia.

~~~
samdunham
Yeah, but they're all trying to kill you.

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metters
Germany has this rule with carp.

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rexgallorum2
If I wanted oysters, I could just walk down to the beach and get them. I tried
it a while back. Steamed them. Not bad. But I don't really care for the taste
of oysters anyway.

I suppose it's nice to know they are there as a potential SHTF food supply.

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msadowski
This reminds me of a 'rule' in Poland that you shouldn't get married in a
month with an 'r' in it.

~~~
carlob
In Italy you shouldn't get married (or leave for a trip) on Tuesdays and
Fridays.

Possibly because those are the days associated with Mars and Venus in romance
languages.

~~~
lonelappde
I thought Mars is the god of marriage, and Venus is the god of venturing. It's
right there in the name.

~~~
umanwizard
According to the OED, the Latin root of “marriage” is of uncertain origin. As
far as I’m aware, there’s no known connection to Mars.

