Terraria (Oysters & Caviar)

My two day streak of lobster ended today in Maine, but don’t feel bad for me, I did get to experience a personal culinary first–caviar on an oyster. From the minute we pulled up to The Tides Beach Club on Goose Rocks Beach in Kennebunkport I realized I was a long way from Cedar Falls, Iowa. (Though I’m sure somewhere in Des Moines you can get caviar and oyster. It’s just something I’ve never had in all my travels.)

And I learned a new word that night that I think fits this blog well; Terraria.  According to Merriam-Webster a terrarium is usually transparent enclosure for keeping or raising plants ot usually small animals (as turtles) indoors. At The Tides the authority on oysters kept using the word terraria for explaining where oysters get their flavor. The terraria he explained is the enviroment where oysters are grown. 

About three hours north of Kennebunkport is Bangor—Stephen King territory. His terraria if you will. It’s different from Hemingway’s Oak Park, which is different from Flannery O’Connor’s Georgia, which is different than Steinbeck’s Monterey County in California.

The flavor of your writing comes from the areas you are from, places you been, and where you currently live. (One more reason to pull for that “little fat girl in Ohio.”)

As a connected sidenote, it’s worth noting that some of the best-known natural estuaries for growing oysters in the United States are no longer what they were because of overfishing and polluted waters. 

P.S. Speaking of Ohio and first time culinary tastes, I had my first ever bowl of turtle soup in Canton, Ohio earlier this year. Keeps life interesting. 

P.P.S. I took the above picture at sunrise the morning after Maine got its first snow of this season.

 

Scott W. Smith