I have heard that drinking spirits can hinder your digestion of shellfish.

On the other hand I have also heard that drinking spirits with shellfish is a good way to combat against any possible parasites.

So it now depends on if you want any unwanted passengers in your gut or a well digested meal :)

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/reviews/diving-for-pearls-720951.html

Herewith a link.... a bit long winded (but the answer to your question is on the final but one paragraph).

Hope it helps!

I know of no hard medical reason why you shouldn’t combine the two. My main concern would be the harsh taste of the liquor would ruin the taste of the oysters.

The Boston Union Oyster house recounts that Daniel Webster routinely drank brandy with oysters every day (seldom less than six plates!)

You may find a longer article, but not so long-winded, at this address, as long as you are happy to deal with the technicalities. It gives a useful review of the field, though it does not mention the foods in question specifically:

http://alcalc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/34/2/141

The relevant points include the following.

Some people for idiosyncratic reasons, most prominently a shortage, or insufficiently active form of the enzymes necessary for dealing with histamine, react badly to a good meal of histamine-rich foods such as certain seafoods, fungi and so on. Just as bad, or worse, are foods that promote the release of histamine in the body. Remember that histamine is an important metabolite and neurotransmitter, and active in defence against foreign cells in the body. There are many triggers that can cause us to release dangerous amounts of histamine. These triggers differ from person to person, and one such trigger is alcohol, especially in people who lack acetaldehyde dehydrogenase. Both alcohol and acetaldehyde dehydrogenases are also important in dealing with histamine, and drinking strong alcohol can stimulate the production of histamine in the body, even if one had neither eaten nor drunk anything containing histamine as such. Foods such as red wine, that combine alcohol and histamine (among other monoamines) are particularly problematic, but as most of you will know, they have little effect on most people unless one overindulges unreasonably.

Similarly, most people can combine any normal foods with a reasonable impunity, suffering no migraine, no nausea, not too much flushing, and so on. However, as people grow older, some of them discover that what one's body could deal with in youth, might well cause unpleasant, or even serious, effects in the twilight of one's life, say, the years after thirty-four and a half.

It is as well to remain alert for unfamiliar symptoms, because it is quite common for people who never before had to think twice about a rich plate of wild mushroom soup with MSG and plenty of dry red wine, followed by a shellfish chowder or garlic-rich escargots or bouillabaisse, to take a long time to make the connection between the novelty of crippling migraine and the long-familiar indulgence in a heavenly meal.

Personally I have got off lightly so far, but I am a light drinker for other reasons, and I happen to dislike fresh raw seafood of practically any kind, so the point is largely academic to me.

For the rest of you, the best I can say is bon appetit and watch out!

Jon

The most likely reason for the advice is that the resaurant had previously had someone who was allergic to shellfissh eat a whole bunch, either whilst drunk or on the way to getting there and it gave them a nasty experience.

I am not allergic to shellfish. I would never eat them raw and only where I know that they are fresh and free of aything nasty.

I have eaten plenty of shelfish along with severl gallons of rum, the nice light coloured stuff. I remember once on the north coast of Haiti eating fried oysters and bananas with rum and ginger, there was this young lady..............OH dear, I' too old to have memories like that.