Barbecued Willapa Bay Oysters

Ninety percent of the Pacific West Coast’s oysters are raised in Washington and half of these are raised in Willapa Bay, near the mouth of the Columbia River. Because this is the heart of the canned oyster industry, the giant Pacific oyster has long suffered the contumely of discriminating oyster eaters such as M. F. K. Fisher, who refers unkindly to that “tinned steamed Japanese bastard from the coast.” Shucked, washed, tinned, and steamed oysters bear little relation to t