If you've ever been to New York City then you'll know there are certain cuisines that

are considered quintessential dining.

There's the giant slice of pizza of course, then there's the bagel, and the New York hot

dog.

There's the chopped cheese you can find in practically any bodega throughout upper

manhanden, or the hot pretzel stands you can also find on any street corner.

As long before any of these foods entered the New York food scene there was that most

humble of all the bivalves, Yoyster.

Blue points Rockaways, Cape Cards, saddle rocks, buzzard bays, shrewsberries, the list

goes on.

Oysters on the hashel, fried oysters, oyster pudding, oyster stew, oysters pompadour, oysters

agonkin, oysters olive newberg, oysters on toast, oysters fried with bacon, oysters baked,

stewed, pickled, fricosseed.

There was a time when New Yorkers couldn't get enough of the aquatic delicacy, and it was

the oysters that paid the price for it.

Back in 1763 the first oyster restaurant opened up in a dingy basement on Broad Street.

Pretty soon similar oyster establishments began springing up all over Manhattan.

These weren't your typical oysters either.

Long before Henry Hudson first sailed down the river that now bears his name the Lenape

who occupied the land were plucking oysters big enough to fill both hands from the plentiful

beds that became what we now know as New York Herber.

Archaeologists have discovered Mounds of Oyster shells called Middens, any of which measure

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