![]() When it's ready, the skin should peel off easily. The stomach, which is dark, oval-shaped, and about the size of an egg, should be removed and discarded.Ī tough skin encases the neck and body, but it can be removed by either quickly boiling the clam meat or running it under hot tap water until the skin begins to bubble. Then, to separate the shell from the body, run the knife along the edge of the shell, being careful to cut through the adductor muscles that keep the shell and body connected. To prepare the geoduck for cooking, start by inserting a paring knife between the shell and the body at the base of the neck. Like other clam species, live geoducks can be stored safely in the refrigerator for several days, tucked into the coldest part (though not the freezer) and wrapped in a damp cloth. Some people prefer to eat geoducks with pale necks, but color doesn't influence taste. Though they may be a rare find in the American supermarket, what if you manage to find someplace that sells live geoduck? Look for clams with siphons that appear fresh, plump and firm. The majority is shipped to Asia where they get served up in Chinese hotpots or as sushi or sashimi in Japan, where they are called mirugai. They can grow up to 14 pounds and a meter long, but most are harvested at about one to two pounds. ![]() The geoduck ( Panopea abrupta), called the elephant trunk clam in Chinese, is a large bivalve characterized by a body encased by two shells and a long neck called a siphon. Outside of the Pacific Northwest, where they grow, and Asia, where they've become a delicacy, the place most people are likely to see one may be on television. (Geoduck is available in seafood stores in many big city Chinatowns, or by mail order, about $18 lb.What is a geoduck? Don't feel bad if you've never heard of the large clam before. However unsightly the beast, once the outer skin is removed (a quick dunk in boiling water and it slides right off, apparently) the snowy white neck meat of the geoduck is fabulously sweet and pure, perfect for the ceviche recipe Xinh Dwelley shares below, just in case you are brave enough to try it. (An envious chef in Seattle said, "She's the best, but then she's had more geoducks to work with than anybody else.") With their foot-long, floppy necked feeding tubes, phallic references go with the geoduck territory, but you may prefer to think of the protuberance as an elephant trunk. We proceeded through a few dozen oysters (Totten's, Shigoku, Elds, Little Skookums), her ethereal, trademark mussels marinated in a Vietnamese-style curry and much else.īut it may be with geoduck (pronounced "gooey-duck"), those most bizarre members of the clam family, that Dwelley's cooking is really unparalleled. The night I visited Xinh's comfortable, if plain, restaurant Dwelley whisked away the goose-tongue herbs and sea asparagus I'd picked on the beach that afternoon with ace forager Jon Rowley and returned them sautéed perfectly with garlic and butter, among the tastiest greens I've ever eaten in my life. A rival oysterman told me, "When I had business at Taylor's I used to time my visits so I could wander back and see if Xinh was cooking lunch for the staff that day." Now the people making time for her cooking include politicians, from the governor on down, driving the 40 minutes from the state capital in Olympia, and her local faithfuls in the shellfish community. ![]() Back at work she became even more famous for her gift for cooking. Vietnamese-born Dwelley went to work as an oyster shucker at Taylor's Shellfish, and became a five-time West Coast Shucking Champion, a woman beating man's-men at their own grueling game. Shelton's other big draw is Xinh's, owned by the shellfishing Taylor family, but run by Xinh ("sin") Dwelley, another local force of nature. The first is the sensational shellfish harvested from its brackish, nutrient-rich South Puget Sound waters, Kumamoto, Pacific, and Olympia oysters (plus specialties like the meaty Totten Inlet Virginicas), manila clams and geoducks. Sleepy Shelton has two great claims to fame.
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