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There was a time when half a dozen oysters and a few glasses of champagne referred to extravagance and luxury. Today, few haute cuisine menus are not headed by an oyster seasoned in the most diverse ways. Its consumption has increased by 145% between 2008 and 2021, according to Statista sources, and it is not surprising that we will see more oysters than ever, both in restaurants and in markets and even bars.
“The oyster is one of the icons of our territory,” explains the chef of the Citrus del Tancat restaurant (Tarragona), Aitor López. “The Ebro Delta oyster is produced just a few kilometers from the restaurant and is of the highest quality”. According to the chef, these oysters have nothing to envy to the French ones. “They are the same species of oyster and have great finesse”. From Musclarium, whose mussels and oysters come out of the rafts in the bay of Alfaques, Albert Grasa explains that the environment where they cultivate them is privileged: “We are in a sea sheltered by the arms of the delta, where the fresh waters of the Ebro River and the salty waters of the Mediterranean Sea converge. This means that the amount of plankton available for the mollusks to feed on is very high”.
Precisely, the availability of national oysters is making ordering a portion cheaper than in the past. “My oysters,” says Grasa, “can be found in bars and restaurants between 3 and 5 euros a piece, sometimes more depending on the preparation and the establishment. At 18 euros a half portion, enough to satiate the appetite for saltiness and iodine of one or two people, oysters are no longer prohibitively expensive. “However, for many they are still pigeonholed as something expensive or reserved for a certain type of event, such as weddings,” comments López. “It is the duty of producers and restaurateurs to enhance their value and disseminate how to eat them”.
These efforts are paying off. Today, it is not uncommon to find oysters in bars or simple restaurants, where they were not expected before. This is the case of the Meshi-Ya Sakamoto restaurant (Barcelona), which offers Japanese daily menus with the possibility of incorporating an oyster as a starter, the famous El Doble (Madrid), where they coexist in the same display case as salad and anchovies, or El Celler Panotxa (Barcelona), a bar inspired by heavy metal where David Huertas offers Daniel Sorlut’s Norman oysters, specifically, the 3 gauge. No one would imagine finding them in a wine cellar, to the rhythm of the band AC/DC.
The growing interest in oysters is noticeable. Establishments such as Ostras Thierry, in Barcelona, or Ostras Pedrín, in Madrid and Valencia, have the bivalve as the main protagonist of their gastronomic offer. Antonio González, co-founder of Ostras Pedrín, explains that they bet on oysters with an idea in mind: “To combine the popular bar with a gourmet product, but affordable, where you can come and have a beer or a glass of cava, some olives or some oysters”. They state that their motto has been to popularize oysters, facilitating their consumption, both in terms of price and accessibility and proximity. “In Spain we have very good oysters and we love to make them known. That’s why all the oysters on our menu, except the Gillardeau, are national”. Currently, and according to Order APA/771/2021, Spain can produce oysters in different areas of Andalusia, Asturias, Balearic Islands, Cantabria, Catalonia, Galicia, Balearic Islands and Valencia.
For those who still think that they are too expensive, you just have to know how laborious it is to grow them. The fry must be fixed on a rope, arranging them in a helix, to ensure their good feeding and shape. They will spend two years in the water and some of them will fall into the jaws of predators such as the blue crab or will not resist a change in temperature, which will cause a loss for the producer. The survivors will be extracted with great care, but it is possible that some of them will break, having to return to the sea for a month to recover. Their shells will be cleaned one by one and will pass 24 hours through the purifier, filtered seawater, free of toxins and bacteria. Finally, they will be carefully placed in boxes, concave side down so they don’t lose water. “The oyster is not expensive, it is very costly to produce,” says Grasa.