I must admit that I'm a recent convert and I would have once said why ruin a good thing by frying them... that was before I ran into a fried oyster vendor on Queen Street in Hampton, Va. Since then I am a regular at a local seafood eatery... my favorite... fried oyster sandwich with tartar sauce.
According to the skipper on the Priscilla, a historic 1888 L.I. oyster sloop, oysters were once a cheap, nutritional and plentiful food for the immigrant masses. He also tells a story that the ubiquitous cardboard chinese food containers were first invented for shucked oysters take-out.