When I buy oysters they are still muddied up.
So first thing is to brush away the mud with a pail of water.
Then:

1. Use your knife and chip away at the edge of an oyster exposing its gap, opening.
2. Use your knife and jam it in and twist it to open the oyster.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/NAbX4DNVT3A&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/NAbX4DNVT3A&rel=1</a>

A more detailed post with photos can be found here
http://www.myhealthblog.org/2009/09/13/how-to-open-oysters-in-pictures-and-video/


Materials for washing oysters: a pail of water and a brush

The oysters I buy at the wet market are still full of mud. I have to ask next time why they don’t clean them up before they sell them to us.


A muddy live oyster

So you get your muddy live oyster and brush it well while dipping it in the pail of water. Use a pail so you don’t waste running water via a faucet. Save water!


Use the brush on the oyster


The oyster is now clean

The oyster is now clean. Now it is time to open the oyster:

1. Use your knife and chip away at the edge of an oyster exposing its gap, opening.
2. Use your knife and jam it in and twist it to open the oyster.


Clip the oyster edge to be able to expose a gap for the knife to go in

See the video for details:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/NAbX4DNVT3A&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/NAbX4DNVT3A&rel=1</a>



Oyster opened

Ta dahh… the oyster is now open and ready to eat! Raw of course. You want that zinc to be bio available don’t you? For the germ phobic, just dip your oyster in some organic vinegar or squeeze a lemon over it.

from http://www.myhealthblog.org/2009/09/13/how-to-open-oysters-in-pictures-and-video/

My local healthfood market had oysters for sale today--first time I've ever seen them sold anywhere. I used your opening method, GS. The shells shattered and there were some shell bits in 2 of the 3 I ate. If I swallowed any I guess it's extra mineral nutrition.

The water in the oyster is a bit too salty for me, but the flesh is nicely tender and other than the salt the mild flavor was very good, and they hold together well and come out of the shell easily even when raw. I can see why they are the favorite of the shellfish to eat raw.

I also tried the wild scallops. They taste better raw than cooked (cooked taste to bitter and tough to me), but there's still a slightly off taste and they're slightly mushy, so I'm still not a huge fan--not as good as most of the fish in a sashimi platter, but better than raw shrimp (which are very mushy). Maybe it just takes getting used to. By drinking mead with it instead of water I was able to enjoy it more.

Mussels and shrimp are the only foods so far that I've encountered that taste way, way better to me cooked than raw, and mussels are much easier to eat cooked than raw. When raw, they stick to the shells and come apart in pieces and taste swampy. When cooked they taste scrumptous, hold together, come out of the shell easily and the swampiness is completely eradicated. I could eat 1000 steamed mussels or shrimp, but one raw one is one too many.  Oh well, I guess it's oysters for me when it comes to raw shellfish, and the occasional wild clams, which are too tiny to deal with most of the time. Sorry if this upsets anyone. I try to be always honest.

If wild clams were bigger, they would be my favorite shellfish to eat raw.

    That's why they add lemon I think .. to cut the bitter taste.  Oysters and scallops do taste better than clams do.  I like lemon on oyster and urchin, to cut the bitter taste of urchin and salty taste of oyster.

Interesting, it was in a supermarket called Sendiks. I'm sure it was a mix of both male and female.