January 13, 2008	Sunday	Muharram 03, 1429

WASHINGTON BOROUGH, Jan 12: Two weeks after a Florida man found a rare pearl in his seafood, a New Jersey man found one eating fried oysters.

Mike McHenry thought he chomped down on a piece of shell on Wednesday night and instead spit 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.

McHenry’s find was rare, according to Gef Flimlin, a marine extension agent with Rutgers Cooperative Extension, who said 95 per cent of pearls are 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 milion,” 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.—AP