How ‘bout them … oysters ?
Despite the metropolis ’s ever - changing landscape , many would be surprised to discover that New York — magnificently nicknamed the Big Apple — could have just as easy been know as the Big Oyster for the land ’s once - plentifuloyster bedsthat were on a regular basis harvested by the field ’s Lenape tribes . The Dutch took note of these clam — specifically their gigantic size and number — leading them to view as areas such as today’sEllisand Liberty island as " Little Oyster Island " and " Great Oyster Island , " severally .
In his bookThe Big Oyster : History on the Half Shell , Mark Kurlanskyclaims"the history of New York oyster is the history of New York itself — its wealth , its strength , its excitement , its greed , its thoughtlessness , its destructiveness , its blindness , and — as any New Yorker will recite you — its filth . " For him , oyster are the real New Yorkers , the straight natives of the land .
According to Kurlansky , the most common indicator of pre - European small town in New York aremiddens — an archaeological condition for piles of domestic waste left behind by the old age . These shell heaps are found throughout the metropolis , with one specially mountainous mound reportedly giving Manhattan’sPearl Streetits name ( although these oyster were not the drop - produce kind ) . When New York ’s oyster job boomed , the cobwebby bulk of the dainty contributed to low prices . By 1860 , there were more than 12 million oyster sold in New York markets annually .
finally , huitre population wereseverely reducedby befoulment and overharvesting . Although there are somemodern effortsto bring back the oyster ’s former gloriole , the city ’s standing as a mollusc haven has become a nearly forgotten thing of the yesteryear .
