The True Galway Breakfast

They are slimy. And it takes some talking to get some people to try them, but oysters are considered the Galway Breakfast.

Slurping down breakfast at the Galway Market.

“We live is where they like to be,” says Michael Browne who has been an oysterman at the Galway Market for nearly 20 years now. “We get a lot of rain in Galway and that makes for a good fresh water environment. Near Galway is where the fresh water meets the seawater and they just love it,” he says as offers lemon or tabasco sauce or buttermilk to add to the oysters.

The first one is often the highest hurdle. Because you either love-em or you hate-em. (Michael says most people love-em)

Not everyone is sure about trying them. And the next woman has lived in Galway her entire life and never tried one. “There’s no drama, he tells her. If you don’t like it you simply slide it back onto the shell and no one cares.” She gives it a go and she likes it. He keeps shucking for the next group in line.

Michaels wares for selling oysters.

“Oysters are filter fish,” he tells me. “They eat the nutrients in the water and clean it. So when you eat them, they clean your palette on the way down. And that means that the next thing you taste will be cleaner, fresher and clearer than ever.”

He hardly gets a break til he runs out.

You can steam oysters, stew them, smoke them or eat them on the half shell. Oysters Rockefeller uses spinach, butter, Paresan cheese and Pernod ( the liqueur) and it was named that because it’s so rich. But in the Galway Market, it’s out the bay and into your mouth for a real Galway Breakfast.