18 Mar 2003
a diagram of geoduck, indicating its vital parts.
“oh my, that’s one erect gwee duck, ain’t it?”
i love eating mirugai sashimi (aka giant clam, aka geoduck). when prepared fresh, it is sweet, crunchy and absolutely delicious!!! incidentally, even though it’s spelled geoduck, it is not a duck, it’s pronounced gwee-duck and i hate that it has been misspelled. at most chinese restaurants, geoduck sashimi is ordered by the pound but inspite of the average weight of 3-4 lbs (heavy shell), you only get a plate of 20-30 thinly sliced sashimi— from the trunk only, or rather, the siphon; the chunky part that makes up the body is very tough and never served sashimi style. the portion is very stingy and it costs about $70 total. expensive? sh’yeah! well-aware that it only costs $6.99/lbs at the fresh seafood market, over the weekend j-hi and decided to buy it live from the market and attempt to prepare it ourselves at home.
i forgot who i had said this to, but a few months ago i was trying to describe geoduck to a friend. for obvious reasons, i had described it as looking like “a giant penis sticking out of a clam shell” and that person had stared at me in disbelief before bursting into laughter. i don’t think my description was too far-fetched… i mean, how else would anyone describe it?
me handling geoduck at home… as you can tell, i had to be careful where and how i use my hands to clean the clam, lest the photo becomes non-PG13 :P
perhaps all that touching and jabbing of the giant clam ruined my appetite because i did not find it enjoyable nor appetitizing to eat during dinner. perhaps it was angry because j-hi said part of its body resembled the crinkle of one’s ass. in the end, i came to the conclusion that i’d rather skip all the hassle of preparing this at home even if it’s to save money. from now on, i am going to leave the ordering and eating geoducks at restaurants, where the clam has been cleaned, sliced and served to me on a bed of crushed ice. i did not have a good experience at home at all and ended up having a tummy ache. oh well, after months of observing the geoducks sitting in the water tanks, at least i finally got a chance to fondle one in my own kitchen :)
[Ed.] FYI I’m still a big BIG fan of geoduck today. *Ahem*
-MB.
