Monday, June 14. Developments. The busted BP oil well continues gushing a mile deep in the Gulf of Mexico just off the mouth of the Mississippi River, but they say they're sucking up more of it than ever. But a lot of what the oil company is bringing up is being burned on the spot, with huge plumes of black smoke filling the sky. It's a wonder why none of it has shown up here. Fortunately, the winds and water currents move generally west to east this time of year. But we are two weeks into hurricane season, and nobody wants to think about what would happen if a big storm pulled an oil-topped storm surge deep inland. Another Katrina--or even another Georges--would create an unimaginable mess many miles inland.
Most of the oil-spill talk in the food world concerns the surprising shutdown of P&J Oyster Company late last week. My friend Sal Sunseri--whose family owns the century-plus-old oyster processor--says all of his usual sources of oysters are now closed at least intermittently due to the spill. But I find it hard to believe that the infectiously positive Sal would just say die. In fact, as this week would go on, P&J continued to shuck. But they, like almost everybody else, say that this will be the last week for easy availability of oysters, except for those who buy Texas or Florida oysters. That means the Acme will go on. They're a big customer for the Texas oysters. They're the same as Louisiana oysters, but from less nourishing waters.
All the above is an example of "developments on developments," which Alec Gifford and I both deplored in this space a couple of days ago. But I feel the need to update the situation for future reference.
And, really, this day brought little else to talk about. The overloaded weekend left me starting the week deep in the weeds. All I did was work today. If I ate anything, I don't remember what.
