A woman enjoyed a priceless meal at a Tennessee restaurant last Thursday when she took a bite into an oyster and found 50 pearls inside.
Toni Elliot, 53, was dining at Puckett's Boat House in Franklin when her teeth scraped something hard after biting into an oyster, ABC News reported. After alerting her server, the restaurant's general manager Greg Hargest came over to tend to the customer.
"I went over to see if she was OK, and she goes, 'Oh yes, I just found this pearl in my mouth!'" Hargest told the station. "She started pulling out more pearls from her mouth, and the whole table started laughing."
One by one Elliot fished out baby pearls from the oyster, discovering a total of 50 inside the salty delicacy. Restaurant staff said previous customers have found pearls in their oysters, which come from the Gulf of Mexico. But never has anyone found as many as Elliot.
Oysters, a type of mollusk, create pearls as a way to trap foreign substances that slip inside the shell.
Hargest said they cleaned the pearls for Elliot and placed them in a cup so she could keep them.
"It was her oyster, so they're her pearls," Hargest told ABC News. "It's like winning the lottery. She was so excited to have them."
Elliot did not immediately return the station's request for comment.
