THE OYSTER VENDING MACHINE

On France’s Île de Ré (* translation: Island of Ré) there are lots of oyster shops, but none of them stay open throughout the night. Luckily, there’s a vending machine in town that serves oysters. The self service oyster machine was started by Brigitte and Tony Berthelot, who had been oyster farmers on the French island since 1987 and saw a market for late-night oysters. The stainless steel, refrigerated vending machine sells oysters in packages of two- to five-dozen at a cost of 6.90 euro (* about eight U.S. clams) per dozen. In addition to oysters, the vending machine offers side dishes like paté and sea asparagus.
* Finally, something to satisfy that 3 a.m. oyster craving.
* This story wasn’t really tempting my taste buds until they got to the part about the sea asparagus.
* The oysters are 8 dollars a dozen, but the machine sells a shucking knife for 50 bucks.
* Hmmm. Y’know, just like about everything I was taught in school, I have a feeling I’m never going to actually need this information.
* Ironically, the people who buy raw oysters from a vending machine in the middle of the night are themselves baked, stewed or pickled.