There's abalone. And then there's the geoduck.
On Good Food this past week, Evan Kleiman had a captivating (and a bit giggle-filled) interview with filmmaker Justin Bookey on his documentary, 3 Feet Under: Digging Deep for the Geoduck Clam. Bookey explains that there's more to the geoduck than...er...meets the eye.
Geoducks (pronounced gooey-duck) are found exclusively in the Pacific Northwest, have a devoted following of connoisseurs, and can best be described as...bearing a certain resemblance to male anatomy.
There are only 2-3 days a year when the tide is low enough to go geoduck digging, and since they're buried three feet deep in wet sand, this can be quite a chore! The pictures on the documentary website of this digging process tell it all.
Aside from the guts, a geoduck is entirely edible. The 'trunk' or 'outer' portion can be peeled and served sashimi-style. Bookey describes this part of the clam as "crunchy but fairly tender" with a sweet taste like lobster.
The inner "breast" part of the clam is very tender and can be sliced up for stir-fries.
Be forewarned--the combination of "rare" + "difficult to harvest" + "exotic" = very pricey. Bookey says that geoducks will sell wholesale for $15-$20, and you'll have the most luck finding them on the menu at Chinese restaurants.
Has anyone ever sampled this delicacy?!
Related: When Will You Splurge for Expensive Ingredients?
(Photo Courtesy of Duckumentary and Coolbellup Media, Inc.)
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Oh man, that's the perfect, um, counterpart to my abalone photo. LOL!
I see geoducks all the time in Chinatown and Manila Market. I haven't eaten one yet, though. I may have to sample one!
view Kathryn Hill's profile
Geoducks! I've never tried one, but whenever I can, I like to direct people to this photo. It's mesmerizing. (For the record, not my photo.)
view squidlette's profile
I saw a re-run of iron chef last night where Alton Brown said there were too much food in the world to eat before he eats geoduck.
view revolution9's profile
Squidlette, those photos are...impressive, to say the least. Plus that's a lot of geoducks! That guy must have made one huge mess of chowder!
Also, I refuse to believe that ALTON BROWN, Lord of the Asphalt, has never eaten geoducks. I say we express-mail him one immediately.
view EmmaC's profile
Mike Rowe (who is a hero of mine) helped harvest these oceanic private parts and hilarity definitely ensued on a great episode of Dirty Jobs. Oh, and these things spit/squirt water just like it's male look-a-like does. Oddly funny, yet disturbing. And just as the article says he took some fresh geoduck straight to a chinese restaurant where they cooked it up.
As adventurous as I am, culinarily speaking, I would still try these but this is one thing where you can't help but think of what it used to look like...especially with me being a guy and all.
view goldfixe's profile
oh, wow. Before looking at the title of this post I thought it was a photo of a guy holding a severed arm up..... so I'm relieved it's just a geoduck. whew.
view Rachel Chew's profile
I'm not really a seafood fan so I can say with some certainty that I'm NEVER going to eat one of these!
view Tiamat_the_Red's profile
Geoducks are super tasty...a very sweet, similar to scallops, with a slight crunch.
Some friends of mine went to dig for geoducks. It's ALOT of work, not to mention, once you get one, cleaning them is a pain.
They weren't always so expensive, in the early 80's, my mom used to buy them to make congee with (much to the shock of my Hong Kong relatives). But later geoducks were exported to asia, and the price went up.
Boiling them too long makes them chewy, it's best raw, stirred fried or added to soup at the end.
view gnomatic's profile
A local clam digger almost died digging for a geoduck when the sand sucked him in. Took hours to free him as the tide came relentlessly in...
view CleanSimple's profile