On Fine Dining

Oysters in aisle five

There’s a supermarket in Agadir, Morocco where you pick out fresh fish and they clean it while you wait. The waiting is the best part.

Next to the fish counter they sell local oysters — ten dirhams each, about a dollar. A guy shucks them right there. You eat them standing in the aisle under fluorescent lights.

We went for the fish. But I kept going back for the oysters.

Oysters usually mean white tablecloths and a wine list. Here it’s a grocery store. A plastic tray, a squeeze of lemon from a bin, the large trolley, pile of avocados, and sound of checkout scanners behind you.

They were better than any I’ve had at a restaurant. I don’t know if that’s actually true or if standing in a supermarket eating dollar oysters just feels right in a way I can’t explain.

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