The Big Oyster

By Mark Kurlansky

Categories: Cookbooks, Food & Wine, History

The Big Oyster (2006) by Mark Kurlansky tells the history of New York City through the oysters that once filled its harbor. Kurlansky traces the shellfish from the Lenape people and Dutch settlers through the nineteenth century, when oyster cellars and street stands fed rich and poor alike. He shows how growth, sewage and pollution destroyed the beds, and mixes in old recipes and New York characters along the way.

Recommended by 1 person