Guinea-Bissau: Shucking Oysters in Quinhamel

Here’s an absolutely amazing experience, probably the best so far on this trip – shucking freshly wood-oven grilled oysters from the Guinea-Bissau’s vast river estuaries. Oysters grow in clusters on wood trunks sticking out of the muddy rivers that daily flood with rising and falling tides. People peel these oyster clusters off, put them into a traditional wood-fired oven for a couple minutes. Oysters opens up and the wood attached to shells gets burned a little. And then – straight to a simple table set up right outside the river and oyster beds. You shuck then open, dip into the mixture of lime juice and hot pepper and enjoy. Truly amazing!