Favorite Mollusks

[rlibkind]

What are your favorite mollusks, or molluscs?

Peter, that's like asking which of your offspring is your favorite! You might have one, but you try not to show it.

To paraphrase Yip Harburg, when I'm not near the mollusk I love, I love the one I'm near.

When I visit Maine, it's got to be the belly clam, steamed and dipped in the broth, which I then drink when I've gone through two or three pounds with a couple of beers.

Of course, en route to Maine requires a stop in the Essex, Massachusetts, area, where the same clams are fried in cornmeal to perfection.

In South Philly it's hard to pass by mussels in red sauce. In Brussels it's Moules Mariniere, accompanied by frites and an Alsatian white.

And any small-sized oyster from cold, northern waters on the halfshell. (This weekend I sampled some excellent Cape May Salts, which deserve their adjectival moniker.) Except when I want fried oysters on a po' boy, when I like them large to accent the textural difference between the crunchy cornmeal coating and the creamy interior. Razor clams are pretty good fried, too.

Another fried oyster classic is to have this bivalve served atop a small mound of chicken salad. It's a Philadelphia classic with a great ying-yang of taste and texture.

Squid steak. I had some in Douglas, Alaska, just across the bridge from Juneau and it was very good.

[Peter the eater]

Pedantic note: barnacles aren't molluscs either. They're crustaceans, rather surprisingly.

How did barnacles get on that list? Thanks Dan Ryan.

[Peter the eater]

Small cuttlefish are 25 cents apiece this week at The Frootique, so it's hello mollusks and goodbye Klatsch. Now all I have to do is figure out what to do with them. They appear to be de-beaked and entrail-free which means, at least, I won't have an ink accident. Maybe some butter and fresh pasta?

The cuttlefish have been consumed!

Not very exciting, really, but not a disappointment. I'll have to find some of those famous Mediterranean recipes, or at least go to an appropriate restaurant. I cut them up and cooked them with bay scallops in butter and garlic, then we ate them as appetizers on a small mound of baby spinach.

[Chris Amirault]

No snaps, but my daughters and I ate two dozen incredible littlenecks from Matunuck Oyster Farm last night. My younger daughter had to stop because "they were so buttery even without the butter."

[IowaDee]

As a young kid in So. Cal, I can remember my parents going through some lean times.

They had a couple of friends who were skin divers. Many weekends they would drop off

abalones for us. I can still "hear" the steaks being pounded into tenderness. As a kid, my favorite part of the whole deal was the beautiful abalone shells ringing the edges of our patio. I would love to be able to sit down to a meal of abalone now!

[Peter the eater]

Lindacakes, I think "Swimming and Communing with the Bivalves" could be major attraction at the New England Aquarium.

Chris, buttery is a choice adjective.

IowaDee, I was saddened to learn our lone local abalone guy went out of business months ago. It's still on my to-taste list.

[tonyrocks922]

Scungilli (Conch) cooked in a spicy marinara sauce and served over hard Italian black pepper biscuits (taralli col pepe) is one of my favorite meals. It's so simple and so delicious. It is a Christmas Eve staple in my family.

[heidih]

Scungilli (Conch) cooked in a spicy marinara sauce and served over hard Italian black pepper biscuits (taralli col pepe) is one of my favorite meals. It's so simple and so delicious. It is a Christmas Eve staple in my family.

That sounds really inviting. Do you purchase the conch already prepped? If not, what do you have to do to it? IS it like squid that either needs a very quick cook or a long slow one?

[Peter the eater]

I did an image search for taralli col pepe and it looks like a good place for scungilli.

[sjemac]

These are my favorite: Bar clams from PEI. Big and meaty, they make an amazing chowder or marinated clam salad.

We usually get a good mix of razor clams and moon snails with them.

Edited December 10, 2009 by sjemac (log)

[Peter the eater]

Sjemac, nice mollusks. How long did it take to collect that bunch -- I assume you had at least two helpers? I find digging razors very challenging. Did you snorkel off a boat?

[nakji]

I love mussels, but despite the abundance of every other sort of life, marine or otherwise, available in markets in Asia, I've never seen one here. Maybe I'm too far South? I always try to eat my fill when I'm back in Nova Scotia.

In Vietnam, there's a great street dish called "Bun Oc" - in Hanoi they use "lake snails", whatever they might be, make a rich broth with them, and serve them in a bowl with rice vermicelli, broth, and all the soup fixings - cilantro, lime, etc.

In my Chinese class the other night, we were going over flavours. She said that things like shrimp, abalone, and scallops have a flavour called "xiang". We went back and forth for a while on what it might be an English alternative until we settled somewhere near umami, although she was quite clear it was sea-based, and things like tomatoes or cheese were not xiang flavours. Can anyone shed more light on this? Do mollusks have an elusive sixth flavour of their own?

[Peter the eater]

Arctic surf clams are available through Clearwater. They come from 200 - 300 km off the coast in deep cold water. These ones were later cooked but I think the best way to enjoy the mild-tasting bright pink clam foot is in raw, hokkigai sushi style.

[sjemac]

Sjemac, nice mollusks. How long did it take to collect that bunch -- I assume you had at least two helpers? I find digging razors very challenging. Did you snorkel off a boat?

Took about 45 minutes. We have a "secret" spot that we can walk out to at dead low tide and dig them out of the sand bars. We use a pitchfork and wheeled golf bag carrier to hold the bucket. Digging razors is a pain. They are way more abundant than the bar clams but we break so many of them digging them that we generally leave them alone as I don't like the waste. We do up a nice boulliabaise with the razors, moonsnails, softshell clams, mussels, rock crabs and whatever ocean fin fish we happen to catch. The bar clams, we shuck live and then freeze for later use after eating a bunch the first night.

I eat the bar clams (quahogs too) raw quite often too though they have to be shucked and the rather large gut bag removed.

Edited December 11, 2009 by sjemac (log)

[nbaines]

I haven't had it in a while but I used to visit the Bahamas a lot and in Nassau and Rum Cay Conch is eaten as readily available as chicken is here in the UK. I used to eat it almost every day. So many ways to have it. Oysters are always a favourite, I just love the burst of the ocean as you crush them on the roof of your mouth..

[Dejah]

In my Chinese class the other night, we were going over flavours. She said that things like shrimp, abalone, and scallops have a flavour called "xiang". We went back and forth for a while on what it might be an English alternative until we settled somewhere near umami, although she was quite clear it was sea-based, and things like tomatoes or cheese were not xiang flavours. Can anyone shed more light on this? Do mollusks have an elusive sixth flavour of their own?

Was your Chinese class in Cantonese? If I say xiang phonetically, it means "fishy" and maybe not in a pleasant way... I can't imagine xiang being used to describe fresh shrimp, scallops, or abalone unless the term was spoken by someone who doesn't like seafood at all.

[tonyrocks922]

Scungilli (Conch) cooked in a spicy marinara sauce and served over hard Italian black pepper biscuits (taralli col pepe) is one of my favorite meals. It's so simple and so delicious. It is a Christmas Eve staple in my family.

That sounds really inviting. Do you purchase the conch already prepped? If not, what do you have to do to it? IS it like squid that either needs a very quick cook or a long slow one?

Unfortunately, the only conch I know how to get is from a can. Out of the can, into the sauce, and simmer.

[Peter the eater]

Unfortunately, the only conch I know how to get is from a can. Out of the can, into the sauce, and simmer.

Canned seafood is occasionally better than fresh, in my experience. I don't know about conch, but some mollusks benefit greatly from solitary confinement. Spain also takes canned seafood very seriously.

[Kouign Aman]

Cracked conch: cut into strips, battered and fried. Sweet and wonderful.

Then probably undefined clam varieties, then mussels, then scallops.