"As for oysters to which the Parisians are so partial, a great difference is made between those which arrive by boat and those which come by stage. These last which are distributed in baskets from the place of their unloading, from time immemorial in the Rue Montorgueil, are always fresher and more delicate.The usual way oysters are eaten is raw before the soup. Many people doubt that they can be served any other way and, at the most, permit them to be seasoned with a pinch of pepper and the juice of a slice of lemon. What would they say when they learn that there are more than twenty ways of dress-ing them? ...They are, as we have already noted, the usual, and in some ways, obligatory, preface to a winter lunch. But it is a preface which often happens to come very expensive, because of the guests lack of discretion, who swallow them into their stomachs by the hundreds because of their silly vain, self-love. An enjoyment doubly insipid, in that they bring no real pleasure and often distress a worthy Amphitrion. It is proven by experience that, above five or six dozen, oysters certainly cease to be a pleasure."