Pearl found in plate of oysters

An American man found a pearl while eating fried oysters at a restaurant, just a fortnight after another man found a rare pearl in his seafood.

Mike McHenry thought he had bitten on a piece of shell and instead spat out a pea-sized pearl.

“You might break your teeth on it if you crunch down too hard,” said McHenry, 60, of his discovery at Russo’s Ristorante in Washington Borough, New Jersey on Wednesday night.

Gef Flimlin, a marine extension agent with Rutgers Cooperative Extension, said the incident was rare, because 95% of pearls were cultured for production, unlike the naturally formed pearl McHenry found.

Russo’s owner, Rick Giacobbe, said it was the first time in his 33 years in the restaurant business that a customer found a pearl in an order of oysters.

"It’s unusual to find one in this type of oyster – like one in a million,” McHenry said.

Not quite.

Last month, George Brock of Royal Palm Beach, Florida, found a rare iridescent purple pearl in his plate of steamed clams while dining in South Florida.

Brock’s purple pearl may be worth thousands but it appears McHenry’s isn’t quite so valuable. A jeweller noted that the pearl was misshapen and discoloured.

“It’s a souvenir. I’ll put on my bar, maybe,” McHenry said.