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Above, a freediver is working on pearl oyster farming lines in Rikitea, French Below, a pearl technician harvests a South Sea pearl from four a year old Pinctada
Polynesia. The Gambiers are a high place of pearl farming in Polynesia. maxima oyster in Autore pearl farm at Malaka village, Indonesia. Indonesia
©Alexis Rosenfeld/Getty Images exported over six tons of pearls in 2020. ©Robertus Pudyanto/Getty Images

From the district of Marnnes–Oléron come the more around Rømø and the Limfjord: at low tide, shoals of oysters
common Fine de Claire. Also cultivated in France in that arrived in the area in the 1980s emerge, and fishermen
selected farms are those chosen by the Gillardeau family, can harvest them.
laser–marked and considered the ‘Dom Perignon’ of oysters Among the most exclusive, considered among the best
precisely because of the attention paid by this Maison in the world and therefore very expensive, are the oysters
d’excellence, which has been breeding them for over a from Bluff, a small maritime resort in New Zealand with
hundred years. pristine waters. Here, oysters have been fished for over a
Matured for four years in Bannon Bay in Ireland, the hundred years only in the summer season, from March to
Regal variety lives at the mouth of the River Slaney, where August, in only ten million pieces, to protect their natural
the fresh water gives it extreme fleshiness. Another rare habitat. It goes without saying that they sell out immediately.
and delicious oyster is the Kumamoto, small and with a The best way to taste them is to attend the annual festival
sweet, creamy flavor, found only in luxury restaurants. In that celebrates them. The most expensive by far, however,
Australia, one must try the Sydney Rock, a gem with a soft is the Coffin Bay King oyster. It takes seven years to produce
texture and a sweet note at the end. Then there are wild and is farmed in southern Australia. It can weigh up to a kilo
oysters, such as the Danish ones fished in the Wadden Sea and a single oyster costs up to $100.

Protagonist Food 113