O = Oysters

I'm ashamed to say after nearly five years of living in New York I've never visited the legendary Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station.....well until now that is.

After a busy day at work I rushed into Grand Central, not to catch a train home like the thousands of commuters, but on a mission to get to the Raw Bar as quickly as possible.

As I bypassed the trashy chain yuck junk food stands I have to admit I was a little worried this was going to be a huge letdown but fear not my friends it turned out to be a wonderful gem of a place. If you've never been and fancy a visit, my advice would be to not sit in the restaurant area or the relatively new sushi bar bit, sit good and proper at the original oyster bar where the buckets of oysters in ice and freezing water are waiting for your eating pleasure. It's not glamorous, it's definitely overpriced and it's a little dirty but it's oodles of fun. I mean what is not to love about an Oyster Bar? Little small creatures who've given up their squishy little lives to let us wash them down with some crisp cold bubbly, bliss.

There's a big old list to choose from - 29 different oysters in total. Plus a list of over 30 Catch of the Day fishy items and a whole host of other scrummy snacks, including the obligatory Lobster Roll, which I can hand on heart say was fantastico, almost as good as Cyril's in East Hampton, not quite, but very close.

We asked our server to choose a selection of the best he had. We tasted a range of teeny tiny sweet ones which reminded me of a great day out at the seaside in good ol' Blighty, that great sea air taste. Others were huge, real big boys, a little intimidating but definitely tasty.

One thing you gotta love about oysters ladies is that they're a moment on the lips but thankfully not a lifetime on the hips! Lets face it there ain't that many tasty little morsels out there we can say that about.

 As we watched tired city workers rush to catch their commuter train home we pondered over our faves - Kumamoto (Oregon) and Wellfleet (Massachusetts) - polished off the
last of our champers and meandered home, feeling a little like tourists again. Brilliant.