Name: Food surprises.
Age: Well, there was a 34th anniversary the other day.
Whose 34th anniversary? A couple by the name of Maria and Michael Spressler.
They have been married for 34 years? No, it was their 34-year anniversary of visiting their favourite restaurant.
Which is …? The Lobster House in Cape May, New Jersey, which was established on the harbourfront in 1954.
Lovely. But I’m guessing there’s more to this story? So much more. Michael had chosen a clam appetiser and was down to his 12th and final clam when he bit into something hard.
A loose tooth? That was his first thought. “He actually thought his tooth had fallen out,” Maria said. It was in fact a pearl.
Hang on: pearls are found in oysters, not clams. That is a common misconception. All molluscs – oysters, clams, mussels – can make pearls, though most of the ones found round the necks of Sloaney ladies are seeded by hand. Natural pearls are worth more, potentially …
How much? That depends on size.
How big was this one? It was 8.83mm. “It’s pure white, almost perfectly round. Really very nice – a it’s the perfect pearl,” said Maria.
She would say that. What do the experts say? Who needs experts? But OK, Eddi Levi, the manager of DSL Pearl in New York, said the value of a pearl depends on its lustre. The shinier the better. A good one, of that size, could be worth $10,000. Dull and blemished, on the other hand, maybe a few hundred.
Whatever it turns out to be worth, it’s a lot better than finding a dead mouse in a loaf of bread. Yes! There have been lots of weird and not so wonderful things found in food over the years. Like an actual tooth in a block of cheese, a frog in a can of Pepsi, a condom in some chips, allegedly, and another mouse inside a tin of beans. It’s usually mice. There’s a difference here, though. Pearls are found naturally in molluscs – they belong. Condoms in chips, less so.
True: lethal spiders in bunches of bananas is another common find. Yes, but you probably wouldn’t want to find a spider in your bananas, whereas a beautiful – and possibly valuable – pearl is nice. More like finding a golden ticket inside a chocolate bar. It’s just a shame it didn’t happen on the Spresslers’ 30th anniversary …
Let me guess, that’s … Exactly, the pearl anniversary.
Do say: “The world is your oyster.”
Don’t say: “Oops, swallowed it. I’ll have a look later …”
