Belon flat oyster ◆

Huître plate (belon)

What it is

France was producing close to 30,000 tonnes of flat oysters a year at the end of the 1960s; then came the parasite Marteilia refringens, then Bonamia ostreae in 1979, and output fell below 2,000 tonnes, where it has stayed. What survives is a different species from the cupped oyster on the next tray, and it tastes like one — metallic, hazelnut, faintly bitter at the finish.

In the kitchen

Open it flat side up and cut the muscle high, against the flat shell, or you shred it. Serve the first water and no lemon at all — acid flattens the hazelnut note that is the only reason to pay for a flat oyster.

Goes with

Rye berries Raw-milk butter Shallot Black pepper White wine vinegar Samphire Vin jaune

Same species

Olympia oyster Oyster

In season alongside

Brown shrimp Scallop coral Dog cockle Dulse Violet sea squirt Abalone

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