The Safety Third Compound is in the HIGH country of Colorado. Any direction on the bike spoils me. Ripping through the mountains fast and loud is as much a part of Wind Therapy as meditating at the top of the Continental Divide. Turn left and an hour over those mountains there is a little spot with the best carrot cake. Turn right and go about an hour over those mountains and there is a little spot with the best Cuban sandwich.
Colorado is a diverse paradise for vistas, food, and people. Turn the corner on a Colorado highway and you could be surrounded by some of the highest mountains on the continent. Some old mining towns have one small main street donning a coffee shop and local elk jerky operation. Ski resorts just across the divide will litter the hillsides with million-dollar ski in ski out castles.
Spend the day on a loud motorcycle and you get a little salty. Covered in bugs, smelling like gas, going deaf from the wind- and let’s not forget the joys of eating and peeing by the roadside. Feeling a little grubby, without a chance to scrape off the road maybe until tomorrow. Today Aspen is the dot on the map for gas, lunch and just getting off this bike. Perhaps a swank luxurious Aspen hotel lobby will offer a better peeing option. I’m really very good at guesting my way by most front desks.
Aspen has been a playground for wealthy and famous people for decades. I’m not wealthy or famous, but I have a few good stories about this town. It’s never out of place to see a man wearing a full-length beaver coat speaking too loudly into a cell phone about his jet situation. A cool thing about being in a town with that kind of money is you can get plenty of life’s creature comforts. Quite literally a creature that comforts me on many levels has just washed up in Aspen. It’s about to get even more salty on these Mean Streets. (RIP EVH)
The oyster gives me a taste of where it’s from like a postcard reminder that other things are happening here on earth. To taste the coast of Prince Edward Island or the tides of Washington in the middle of the mountains in Colorado you can’t help but feel grateful to be alive. Growing up in the mid-Atlantic, I’ve been shucking oysters since I was a kid. I was crabbing and fishing at 5 years old, so I can set a trap. Oysters are something you fill up on fast, before somebody else does. I’ve worked in restaurants that served .25 cent oysters for happy hour. I’m familiar with piles of shells, parasitic worms and bloody cuts from sharp shells while shucking for hours.
There’s a butcher/deli in Aspen that is filled with boutique sauces and artisan ingredients, along with typical fresh meats and seafood.
I’m a couple days from Baltimore and I’ve been living in Colorado for more than 20 years so fresh oysters will catch my eye. If you saw the quality of these oysters and had missed the taste of the ocean you’d be down. I’m not dining at the Aspen Oyster Bar and I’m pretty shellfish with what I can rarely treat myself to. I came into the Butcher Block to perhaps order a deli sandwich and instead on ice in the case were a few dozen east coast mollusks. A bowl of rock filled seawater!
I asked the kid behind the counter if I could get some oysters, and he asked, “Roosters?” I shot back, “You have roosters?” It wouldn’t be unheard of for a butcher shop of this quality, in Aspen, to have capon. Anyway, back to the oysters. “Are those Malpeques?” No turning back now. I just let this kid know, I know my way around the oyster beds. “There’s a couple Shigokus hanging out down there.” When you get oysters you don’t want something that’s been “hanging out down there.” I let him know I’ll call those “rescues” and in my bag they go offering some west coast flavor.
Now I’m curbside with my bag of Malpeques and It’s about shucking time! The tool is one of the greatest snowboarding tools invented. I don’t know who came up with this one first, but the ergonomically designed driver has been reproduced many times. It carries the extra bits in the handle and has a small hex nut wrench, what is this thing called? It’s that thing you hand to someone so they can tighten their bindings while asking “Why does this thing smell like fish?” This small torque ratchet is a must for the pocket when shredding. It’s saved me on the board and bike, today it’s intention has evolved. Just using the standard screwdriver bit and setting the drive we have an oyster knife. There’s a whole process for not going to the hospital while trying to open oysters. The glove is a helmet for your hand. Sure, you can pop wheelies without a helmet, but a little slip and you might not be able to eat oysters on a curb in Aspen.
My brown butcher bag of fresh oysters took me back to past days on Market Street in Baltimore. I wanted half a dozen and the baker’s dozen included those Shigokus. These things would be around $60 before tip, shucked at the local Aspen oyster bar and I walked for $15. Now that isn’t a cheap lunch but it’s about the same as a deli sandwich made with processed ingredients. The human diet also needs variety, and my gut biome hasn’t seen the ocean in a long time. Ironically, this town was built on the poor health of the World through factory farms and advertising food that keeps you fat and stupid. Oh sorry…oysters.
Oysters happen to be chock full of zinc and other minerals your body doesn’t naturally produce. Your immune system gets a vitamin E and C boost. There are also anti-inflammatory and antioxidant perks, so you get some brain and heart benefits.
Along with zinc, iron, and B vitamins you get Omega 3 fats that better brain function by improving memory and mood. Oysters have always been considered an aphrodisiac and research does show mood changing effects from these vitamins and minerals.
Maybe you’re not ready to dive into the next available oyster bed but shucking a fresh gift from the earth is pretty rad. Aspen is the home of the X Games and I just zoned out opening oysters, dude. People walking by look over my shoulder and confirm what they are thinking. Yep the raw bar is open!
Yeah oysters, eat them they’re good.