The mysterious Fanny Bay oysters from Washington state...

So, while at Hank's Oyster Bar in Alexandria, Virginia, last week, I was thrilled to see on the fresh catch board both Fanny Bay and Malpeque oysters. My favourite oysters, both Canadian, just Pacific versus Atlantic. The photo below was taken after the chalk board was updated (around 10 p.m.) and the Malpeques had been erased since the kitchen was out. I was a little shocked to see that the Fanny Bay oysters were marked with a "WA", indicating they were from Washington state. I was positive this was incorrect since Fanny Bay oysters are the dish of choice whenever Rod and I visit his parents on Vancouver Island, BC, and we drive through Fanny Bay on the way to Nanoose Bay where they live. Anyways, I didn't raise it with our server since I figured she wouldn't know and I wanted to look into it since there must be some story as to why they weren't marked as "BC" (British Columbia) oysters.

Now back home, and blogging about my trip, I decided to investigate the mysterious Washington Fanny Bay oysters. Turns out, that back in 2007, Fanny Bay Oysters Ltd. was taken over by Taylor Shellfish Farms of Washington (state). The details of the deal are in this canada.com news story. Fanny Bay's oysters remain British Columbia oysters, and their website states they are "Part of the Taylor Shellfish family of farms". So, mystery solved. Hank's Oyster Bar gets their Fanny Bay Oysters from Taylor Shellfish out of Washington and assumed the oysters were from Washington state like the company. I looked for an email address for Hank's to send them this information so that they could display the origin properly on their chalk board but there's none to be found on their website.Case closed.

For my East Coast family you'll be happy to know that the Malpeque oysters were correctly labled "PEI". Click here to learn more about Malpeque oysters.