Is Green Goo in Oysters Normal?

[ziv]

I have ordered fried oysters in a variety of places, mostly in Appalachicola, New Orleans and the Eastern Shore, but my friend & I got them at a cafe in Philadelpia and they were different. Not only were they enormous, but they had a green gut that looked like they hadn't been cleansed properly. Is a green center normal on a large fried Long Island oyster? Is it similar to crab mustard but simply a different color? I worked up the nerve to taste it, and it was pretty gamey so I ate the non-green portions of the appetizer and left the green, but I was hoping to find out if this is something that happens if the oysters are larger and is it kind of a love it - hate it thing on the part of different diners. My friend is a foodie that grew up in New York and she was not even going to touch them, so she hadn't seen it either.

[Waitman]

Sounds like a random bivalve to me. There really isn't a cleansing process for oysters -- you eat the whole thing or you don't.

FWIW, I find that oysters from roughly the Chesapeake Bay to the Long Island Sound are larger than either Appalachicolas or your Wellfleets or PEIs.

[ziv]

Sounds like a random bivalve to me. There really isn't a cleansing process for oysters -- you eat the whole thing or you don't.

FWIW, I find that oysters from roughly the Chesapeake Bay to the Long Island Sound are larger than either Appalachicolas or your Wellfleets or PEIs.

Waitman, I agree, the Apalachicolas I have eaten were slightly smaller, but plump, compared to Chesapeake Bay oysters, and the Apalachicola ones were slightly less briney. But these Long Island fried oysters were very large. The meat was probably 3-4" long and nearly 2" across, plus breading. All 6 had some green mustard, but not all had a lot of it. The weird part is that the oysters on the half shell were small and thin, and not very well shucked, tho relatively tastey. But I failed to ask where the raw bar oysters were from. Good thing the rest of the dishes were better.

[DonRocks]

It's perfectly normal if you're the green goo.

[Ilaine]

I think what you find in the middle of an oyster is what the oyster was feeding on. Oysters are filter feeders, so they need to be harvested from clean water - clean from bacteria and viruses, but full of stuff that makes oysters fat and healthy.

Green? Sounds like algae.

Some oyster farmers grow algae to feed their oysters.

http://blueoceannotes.wordpress.com/2009/06/22/oyster-farm/

When I eat oysters, I smell each and every one first, as it's not at all uncommon for some restaurants to sell gamey oysters. I've had particularly bad luck in Philadelphia. Best oysters around here, in my experience, Hank's Oyster Bar, Clyde's/Old Ebbitt, Faidley's.

My position is, if they smell good, they are good.

[hillvalley]

This thread title should come with a warning if you enjoy slurping on raw oysters.