Raw Material

An enthusiast can make almost anything interesting for a little while; things get silly only when they insist their preoccupation defines the cosmos and vice versa. Andreas Ammer has the good sense to make his Portrait of an Oyster short and cheeky, thereby keeping his adulation for the bivalve more or less restrained. For what might appear to the casual diner as an occasional indulgence is for Ammer a profound subject. “The task of writing a ‘portrait’ of the oyster,” he remarks, “involves a problem of almost quantum-mechanical dimensions.” This is the paradoxical nature of the quest: The oyster can’t see, hear, or smell us, and we can’t fully know the oyster without ending its life. To see it bare is to kill it; shucking severs the life-binding muscles used to keep its flared shell tightly closed. Finding a way to enjoy an oyster without dispatching it — Ammer notes one recipe that mimics the slippery dollop by substituting a blob of salty minced raw lamb on the...