Geoduck special dish and suprising advantages

29 Aug

Geoduck special dish and suprising advantages

29.08.2013
Every stand today
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Geoduck special dish and suprising advantages

Geoduck, also called elephant trunk clam, is a bivalve mollusk living in salt water. In natural environment, geoducks live buried deep in the sand of ocean beaches or beaches with coral in warm ocean area. They can adapt to water environment with fixed salt concentration, tide rising and falling or mud flat at the brackish water river mouth. In Vietnam, there are many geoducks in Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Khanh Hoa… Geoducks reproduce deep sand in the spring, and grow up quickly in the condition of natural environment or good raising environment. This kind of clam is high-nutrient food. Many studies showed that their meat contains about 16 types of amino acid. In the past, geoducks only lived in natural environment, and were a valuable and rare special food. Today, they are raised as goods; and geoduck industry has high economic effects.

Raising geoducks does not badly affect on water source, have few losses because of natural disasters or epidemic diseases, does not cost much effort. Therefore, a household can raise about 10 thousands of geoducks. After being born, geoducks experience many metamorphosis stages and become breed of level 1 (3 – 5 millimeters big). A month later, they will become breed of level 2 with the shell of 2 – 3 centimeters in length. With two raising forms: hanging method (using cages or fixed frame) and bottom method (raising on natural flat or improved flat), geoducks can be harvested in 12 -15 months. During the raising time, geoducks do not need to be fed because they eat natural plankton in the ocean.

Geoducks do not have attractive appearance because of the dark gray “skin” covering the meat inside. When swimming in the water, their body can stretch out of the shell for 10 centimeters in length. Cooking geoducks is very complicated. We have to wash them gently with warm water. After that, separate their two shells and take the meat at the side out (remember to be very careful so as not to break it). Use hotter water to peel the skin outside in order to take the white meat then wash them again with clean water.

Because of being high-nutrient food (many people say that this kind of shellfish is the first choice of men who are finding “fortify kidneys and virility” food), most of the dishes made from geoducks are displayed on the plate with two shells. If they are grilled, people put their meat on a shell and then grill them over burning coal; after that, they put spring onion oil on the surface. There are people who want to enjoy the special sweetness of geoducks, so they only eat grilled geoducks. Being tough, crispy but soft and sweet are the qualities of geoducks that no kinds of shellfish can compare with. That is why grilled geoducks can only served with salt and chili mixed with lemon juice.

Besides grilled geoduck, steamed geoduck is also delicious. We can mix geoduck meat with sliced ginger, a little wine, sesame oil, and spices such as soy sauce, salt, pepper and steam them in 5 minutes. During the time of steaming geoducks, we stir-fry green sprouts and small spring onion. For displaying, we put two shells in the middle of the plate, green sprouts and small spring onion around the edge, and geoducks on the shells; after that, we dust a little pepper and coriander on the surface.

Moreover, geoducks can also be mixed with vegetables, fried with mushrooms, cooked in soup or porridge, which are very delicious.

Foreigners like eating geoducks as sashimi served with mustard. Dishes made from geoducks are also displayed on the plate with two shells as “evidence”, which is similar to Vietnam.

(Extract from Saigon Businessmen Weekend)