For your Valentine, the 25p seafood of love
BRITAIN’S cheapest oysters went on sale yesterday for just 25p each — around the same price as a cod fish finger.
In the run-up to Valentine’s Day, Morrisons supermarket has slashed the price of the luxury shellfish, long-reputed to be an aphrodisiac. The chain hopes couples will buy them for romantic dinners at home.
Oysters sell for as much as £5 each at Harrods and Selfridges but many supermarkets do not sell them at all and Morrisons says two-thirds of Britons have never tried them.
Customers say they are too expensive, or they have never shopped in a store that sells them, or they simply don’t know how to eat or prepare them. In response, the store has created recipes and video guides.
Although many oyster fans swear they are best eaten raw off the half-shell, Morrisons is playing it safe with an online guide that says: ‘Always cook your oyster before eating it.’
Until Valentine’s Day on Sunday, packs of six 60g Pacific Oysters, cultivated on the west coasts of Scotland and Ireland, are on sale at Morrisons for £1.50, said to be the lowest UK retail price since 1991. Seafood buyer Adam Cotton, said: ‘We want to make oysters affordable enough for anyone to try them.’
Fishmongers will be on hand to ‘shuck’ individual oysters — that is remove them from their shell with a sharp knife.
This year 2,300 tons of oysters will be cultivated in British waters but nearly half will go for export. David Jarrard, of The Shellfish Association of Great Britain, said: ‘It’s great to see oysters being revived as they are nutritious and tasty.’