Oyster Season Beneficial to Alzheimer's disease.

　　Fresh oysters of Chesapeake Bay are all the year round landed on the fish market at Waterfront a few miles south from the center of Washington D.C. Currently they are in season. Three dozens of oysters with shells sell at only 10 dollars. If you want, you can have them shucked there. Half a dozen on the half shell sell at 5 dollars. Try to suck up the raw oyster with a squeeze of lemon and a drop of chili sauce on it. Its rich flavor and smooth feeling of passing through your throat are superb! When you eat them in a city restaurant, the price will be double.
　　Chesapeake Bay was a great producer of oysters, whose share was almost 40% over the world in the decades following the Civil War, from the later 19th century to the early 20th century. The business of fishing and selling oysters brought a great fortune to many people, while conflicts among them over the fisheries escalated. It is called "Oyster Wars" in the U.S. history, where more than 7,000 people were totally killed.
　　Recently the Western people who eat raw fish have considerably increased. They originally didn't have the habit of eating raw fish, but oyster is another story. They had eaten raw oysters from B.C. They knew eating them raw is the most delicious way for oysters. The popular cooking methods of oysters are fry, soup, grill on the half shell, and smoke. The smoked oyster is seasoned with special sauce beforehand, which is an excellent delicacy.
　　The Westerners stick to oyster because they believe it can work for resilience and rejuvenation. Actually oyster contains many kinds of mineral including zinc, which can strengthen immune system of human body and prevent elders from losing their sense of taste. Recent study reported that L-tyrosine contained in oyster is beneficial to dementia including Alzheimer's disease.
　　Japanese people have eaten oysters since ancient times as well. They started to raise them in Hiroshima in the early Edo period. At that time "Oyster Boat" which sold oysters used to come to Yodo River in Osaka, crossing the Seto Inland Sea.
　　The most popular oyster dish in Japan is Kaki-no-Dote-nabe. Kaki is Japanese for oyster: Dote for riverbank: nabe for pot. We set up a large clay pot over a fire on the table, fill it with miso (soybean paste)-soup, put oysters, vegetable, tofu, and so on, then boil them. It is a kind of oyster chowder with miso taste.
　　There is one question. Why is it called "Dote (riverbank)"? The origin is uncertain. The most reasonable explanation is that when putting miso into a pot, they build up the bank of miso along inside wall of the pot. The alternative suggestions is that it was named from Mr. Dote, a peddler of Hiroshima and the originator of this recipe. Another suggestion is that it was first cooked in the oyster boat anchored in Yodo riverbank. I wonder which one is true.