Oysters gone wild? Send 'em back

WHEN it's a real scorcher outside, slurping icy-cold oysters and sipping a crisp Chablis sounds like the perfect refresher. But eating oysters in the summer isn't always a winning proposition. At some restaurants, the oysters are always fantastic, so firm and briny you're tempted to order more. But in other places they might seem unpleasantly flaccid and creamy, a result of warm-weather spawning. And unfortunately, at some spots, when you speak up about spawning oysters on your plate, you get little more than a blank stare from your server.

What gives? If the old adage advising us to avoid oysters in months without an R in their names (May to August) seems to still ring true sometimes, why is it passe elsewhere? And if oysters are on the menu, can you be sure they won't be spawning?

The old saying was sage advice when oysters were harvested and consumed locally. As water temperatures rise in warmer months, oysters spawn, or release eggs and sperm into the water. It's all about impulse, scientists say, so once one oyster begins the process, all those nearby get into the mood. Afterward, oysters are lean and languid. Spawning is hard work.

Eating a spawning oyster won't make you sick, but it's not a pleasant experience, either. When fertile, their texture is soft and creamy, and not in a good way like cheese or ice cream. Afterward, they're thin and flabby, lacking in meaty substance.

Today, restaurants often ignore the old rule and serve oysters in the summer because they have consistent access to oysters from cooler climates. In the summer, oysters are harvested from the Pacific Northwest (Northern California to Washington to Canada), Northeast (Maryland to Maine), and below the equator (New Zealand). Ordering oysters from cooler waters is a good way to hedge your bets, but it's not foolproof because spawning is about temperature, not season. "Warm" is relative to an oyster, depending on what temperature the little guys are accustomed to. Oysters from cooler climates spawn at lower temperatures than oysters from warmer waters. But even those imported from New Zealand, where it's winter now, can still be spawning when harvested.

"It's dependably unpredictable," jokes Jon Rowley, director of marketing for Washington-based Taylor Shellfish Farms. "I had a couple at lunch the other day, and I could tell they were just starting to get the urge."

Fortunately, you easily can tell an oyster is spawning.