Oysters- Chew or Swallow?

So I Prepared a few platters of local (introduced) Sydney rock oysters the other day and for the first time I noticed that some people swallow their oysters whole. To me that was a new and very unusual way of eating oysters. I've always chewed my oysters because I mean why wouldn't you? There's three distinct textures and flavours; the frill is slightly hard and salty, the main muscle is soft, creamy and sweet and the adductor muscle is firm and sweet like a mini scallop.
When you swallow an oyster all you get is the briney liquor without the flavors and textures.
So the big question is how do you eat your oyster and why?

Super Easy Portuguese Sardines

Here's a quick and easy sardine dish perfect for parties. I started off with 1kg of sardines, definitely too much for the table but they are still great the next day, possibly even better!

Method
Remove the heads and guts from the sardines, cover each fish lightly in breadcrumbs. Fry in vegetable oil. When cold* arrange on a plate and drizzle with a good olive oil and white balsamic vinegar. Garnish with chopped parsley.

*This dish can be served hot but I prefer them cold because the flavour of the fish is improved.

 

Wrasse ceviche

Made a ceviche from the wrasse I caught yesterday. Very simple to make.

1. Filleted and skinned the fish
2. Cut fillet into 1 cm thick slices
3. Made a marinade of lime juice, lemon juice, cayenne pepper, salt, sugar, finely sliced celery stem, chilli, Italian parsley and onion
4. Combined the fish and marinade in a freezer bag and left it in the fridge for four hours
5. Made a fresh salad to go with the fish, the left over juices made a nice dressing combined with olive oil.

One fillet was enough for two decent sized entrees. A refreshing and healthy snack.

December 20th Dive.

So I was finally able to go for a dive today. I haven't been in the water for almost a year due to an ear injury, even though it was quite rough and overcast it was great to finally be back in. I chose to go to Trial Bay in Kettering, it was a semi successful dive with four fish caught, I only realised that there was a hole in my dive bag (onion bag) once i got back to shore. Two of the fish must have swam/fallen out of the bag so I ended up with a blue parrot fish (wrasse) and a bastard trumpeter. 

The trumpeter was simply pan fried and finished with cracked pepper and lemon juice, simply amazing, such a great eating fish. 

I will make a ceviche salad from the wrasse and post some pics tomorrow.