How Rocky Mountain oysters became Colorado’s strangest local delicacy
Kevin Farrell
6 hrs ago 
The culinary scene - and greater citizen population, really - of Denver, appears to be split on the city's complicated relationship to Rocky Mountain oysters. It seems impossible to get any consensus on whether the dish is a local delicacy or a novelty dish hanging from the city's neck like the deep fried genitals of an albatross. You see, these oysters aren't bivalves in the manner that mussels, clams or other sea life might be recognized. The most popular - or at least most infamous - oysters in Colorado are harvested from the scrotums of bulls. Testicles, guys. Rocky Mountain oysters are bull testicles.
Sorry to be explicit, but even while visiting Denver earlier in the month, I had to spell out to more than one new-to-the-city local what the oysters on scattershot gastropub menus (and baseball concession stands) across town really were. The responses ranged from incredulous to comical, with a lot of head cocking thrown in for good measure. "Seriously?" was a common refrain. Seriously.
Rocky Mountain oysters, which also go by other names like prairie oysters, mountain tenders, calf fries and cowboy caviar, date back to the rancher explosion resulting from manifest destiny exploration of the American and Canadian West. As farmers settled in what is now the central and western United States at the urging of a federal government that wished to see territorial government outposts lay claim to Native American land, settlers found themselves living in remote areas that wouldn't see railroad supply chains built for decades. Cattle ranching and farming were necessary ways of life on the frontier.
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http://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/foodnews/how-rocky-mountain-oysters-became-colorado%e2%80%99s-strangest-local-delicacy/ar-BBMFndo?ocid=ientp#image=1
