Tiny 'Clams' the Size of Corn Kernals

[PopsicleToze]

I just want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who helped me with this inquiry. I wrote up a little synopsis from your posts and sent it to him, and here is his reply,

Rhonda,

That it!

Now I know how to eat them. They eat them like we eat crawfish. (We live in Louisiana.)

Here is the synopsis I sent him:

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The very small clams you had in Spain were most likely Tellines or Coquinas, as both terms refer to the same mollusk, Donax tranculus or wedge shell. The inside bit of Tellines is about the size of a kernel of corn, the shell is about 1 to 1.5 cm long. Their maximum size is somewhere between 3 & 5 cm. They are most often served in the Valencia region of Spain plain and unadorned – just steamed open. In fact, only in the Valencian dialact is the term Tellines because for all other Spaniards, it’s coquinas.

To eat them, people use their hands mostly. If you can pick the clam out of the shell, you’d do that then put your hand to your mouth to eat it. If the clams are harder to grasp, just pick up the shell and slurp them out for the others. People claim that after awhile you get good at it.

A few comments I thought you would enjoy:

“They’re beautiful tiny shellfish and worth extricating from the shells. Maybe your friend should have more patience and eat them like the English eat (some) shellfish – with a cocktail stick.”

“They can be very tiny, but they’re worth the trouble, as they’re incredibly sweet and tender. As we say, they repay the “mao de obra” (the labour cost).”

The variance in what I find on the internet is the size of these clams. Here’s a picture of them showing the various sizes. Even though some of these are larger, it shows the smaller ones, too. Also, they vary in color.

http://216.239.39.104/translate_c?hl=en&sl...3D%26ie%3DUTF-8

Here’s something else I found confirming the small size.

Tellines Kind Tellina Return

Tellines are small bivalves which live hidden in sand. Their valves can cover various colors more or less sharp, of brilliant aspect.Cut average: 3 cm.

And here is a typical recipe:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=e...3D%26ie%3DUTF-8

[butterfly]

A day late and a dollar short, but I think your friend had chirlas. Is he American? As far as I know, we don't have chirlas in the US, whereas coquinas are pretty ubiquitous (at least on the east and Florida coasts). They are the colorful little shells that look like butterflies when they are uninhabited. I think he would have recognized them--even though they aren't really eaten, except in certain places in the south.

The chirla shells are a little bigger, but they don't have much more meat. Another possibility is berberechos (cockles), though they are bigger still.

[MiguelCardoso]

This web site (in Spanish but with convenient illustrations) should help settle the matter. As far as I can tell, it includes all the most popular and widely available clams, including a few that are very, very cheap but very boring and bland too.

[Saborosa]

Just to confuse everyone further, here in Barcelona I've only seen them called (now let me try and spell this right) 'tallerinas', which is easily confused with tallarines - tagliatelle. Though I've also seen the clams spelled 'tallarinas'. I think I'm thinking of the right clams - tiny wedge clams with beautiful purple interiors to the shells. (Mind you I've also seen these labelled as rossellos (spelling?) on a menu - but rossellos are carpet shells.)

Consistency of orthography and naming of foodstuffs (particularly seafood it seems) doesn't seem to be top of anyone's list here. Perhaps its the result of being a place with a mixed language history - native Catalan, enforced castellano under Franco and before, Castellano-speaking immigrants (and South American Spanish-speaking), Italian from when parts of Italy were in the Arago-Catalan empire.

It's all part of life's rich and confusing pageant.

[vserna]

Please don't look for socio-political explanations to spelling variations. This is run-of-the-mill stuff for dishes and natural products all over the world.