TY - BOOK AU - Kurlansky,Mark TI - The Big Oyster: New York on the half shell SN - 0345476387 AV - TX754.O98 K87 2006 U1 - 641.694 22 PY - 2006///] CY - New York PB - Ballantine Books KW - Cooking (Oysters) KW - Oysters KW - New York (State) KW - New York N1 - Includes bibliographical references (pages 283-294) and index; The beds of Eden -- A molluscular life -- The bivalvent Dung Hill -- The fecundity of Bivalvency -- A nice bed to visit -- Becoming the world's oyster -- Eggocentric New Yorkers -- The shells of sodom -- The crassostreasness of New Yorkers -- Making your own bed -- Ostreamaniacal behavior -- Ostracized in the golden age -- Enduring shellfishness N2 - "Before New York City was the Big Apple, it could have been called the Big Oyster. Author Mark Kurlansky tells the remarkable story of New York by following the trajectory of one of its most fascinating inhabitants - the oyster, whose influence on the great metropolis remains unparalleled." "For centuries New York was famous for its oysters, which until the early 1900s played such a dominant a role in the city's economy, gastronomy, and ecology that the abundant bivalves were Gotham's most celebrated export, a staple food for the wealthy, the poor, and tourists alike, and the primary natural defense against pollution for the city's congested waterways." "Filled with cultural, historical, and culinary insight - along with historic recipes, maps, drawings, and photos - this narrative sweeps readers from the island hunting ground of the Lenape Indians to the death of the oyster beds and the rise of America's environmentalist movement, from the oyster cellars of the rough-and-tumble Five Points slums to Manhattan's poshest Gilded Age dining chambers." "Kurlansky brings characters to life while recounting dramatic incidents that changed the course of New York history. Here are the stories behind Peter Stuyvesant's peg leg and Robert Fulton's "Folly"; the oyster merchant and pioneering African American leader Thomas Downing; the birth of the business lunch at Delmonico's; early feminist Fanny Fern, one of the highest-paid newspaper writers in the city; even "Diamond" Jim Brady, who we discover was not the gourmand of popular legend."--BOOK JACKET UR - http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0625/2005049853-s.html UR - http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0625/2005049853-b.html ER -