Surrounded by acres of clams
May 1, 2005 9:49 PM Subscribe
Razor clams are the most delicious clam in the entire world. On the coast of Washington and Oregon, there are acres of clams. The Washington beaches are opening for 48 hours next weekend. Grab your clam gun. If you can’t go digging, follow the action on the clam cam. This may interfere with the Seattle meetup. But above all, Keep Clam.
Bivalves suck.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 10:42 PM on May 1, 2005
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 10:42 PM on May 1, 2005
While you're clamming on Washington's Long Beach Pennisula, don't forget to visit Jake the Alligator Boy at Marsh's Free Museum.
posted by Staggering Jack at 11:34 PM on May 1, 2005
posted by Staggering Jack at 11:34 PM on May 1, 2005
Lessons learned from growing up in the Puget Sound region:
1. They're called razor clams for a reason.
2. It's more fun to dig for dozens of normal-sized clams right underneath the surface versus setting up a mini-drilling operation to get the larger clams. Razor clams and geoducks might be enormous, but you have fewer options for cooking them (chowder, chowder, or chowder).
Also, the larger clams have very un-clam like powers of cunning and guile that you wouldn't expect from something so low on the evolutionary ladder. Small clams just sit there and let you grab them. The big ones burrow deep, suck in their tubes, and do everything they can to avoid capture.
Plus you have to add in the am-I-really-doing-this? factor while you're on your hands in knees in low-tide mud, clumsily wielding a large plastic bazooka and sucking out cores of mud from the tideflats. You usually end up moving a lot of mud out of the ground, ending up on your belly and groping in your new mud-hole, looking for some grotesquely large shellfish no self-respecting mammal (besides a human) would eat.
posted by beaverd at 11:35 PM on May 1, 2005
1. They're called razor clams for a reason.
2. It's more fun to dig for dozens of normal-sized clams right underneath the surface versus setting up a mini-drilling operation to get the larger clams. Razor clams and geoducks might be enormous, but you have fewer options for cooking them (chowder, chowder, or chowder).
Also, the larger clams have very un-clam like powers of cunning and guile that you wouldn't expect from something so low on the evolutionary ladder. Small clams just sit there and let you grab them. The big ones burrow deep, suck in their tubes, and do everything they can to avoid capture.
Plus you have to add in the am-I-really-doing-this? factor while you're on your hands in knees in low-tide mud, clumsily wielding a large plastic bazooka and sucking out cores of mud from the tideflats. You usually end up moving a lot of mud out of the ground, ending up on your belly and groping in your new mud-hole, looking for some grotesquely large shellfish no self-respecting mammal (besides a human) would eat.
posted by beaverd at 11:35 PM on May 1, 2005
I thought this was a post about those bee-in-a-clamshell razors that Fred and Barney used to use. Imagine my disappointment.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:43 PM on May 1, 2005
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:43 PM on May 1, 2005
Did anyone else chuckle a bit when they saw S. patula?
posted by nightchrome at 12:52 AM on May 2, 2005
posted by nightchrome at 12:52 AM on May 2, 2005
Among the other dangers (razor clam doesn't sound good) there's an unsettling fact : these organisms (afaik) continuosly slurp and filter water for nutrients ..so during their lifetime they can absorb many kinds of pollutants including metals like mercury and other bad stuff.
So why should one want to eat something that's practically a most efficient natural water filter ...people is weird.
posted by elpapacito at 3:07 AM on May 2, 2005
So why should one want to eat something that's practically a most efficient natural water filter ...people is weird.
posted by elpapacito at 3:07 AM on May 2, 2005
Did anyone else read the part about cleaning them? It looks like it involves about 6 surgical instruments and about a half hour per clam. Maybe I lack a sense of adventure here, but that's way more information on clams guts than I really wanted.
posted by unrepentanthippie at 5:25 AM on May 2, 2005
posted by unrepentanthippie at 5:25 AM on May 2, 2005
I'm reminded of the PhD research project and allround good party line of an acquaintance a few years ago. He was investigating the effects of marine paint on coastal ecosystems. His work showed that there was a proportional relationship between the deleterious effects of marine paint and the length of a nascent penis in a female marine gastropod.
"What do you do for a job?"
"I measure female filterfeeder cocks. And you?"
posted by peacay at 5:32 AM on May 2, 2005
"What do you do for a job?"
"I measure female filterfeeder cocks. And you?"
posted by peacay at 5:32 AM on May 2, 2005
Reagrding clams, I think women should embrace their natural hairiness and forget about using razors to cater to some male fetish for sex workers and pubescent girls.
posted by orthogonality at 5:58 AM on May 2, 2005
posted by orthogonality at 5:58 AM on May 2, 2005
A while ago, I found a truism of universal proportions on a clam-digging site (can't recall where, exactly):
"Broken clams and excessive haste can cause cut fingers."
Deep, man...
posted by tpl1212 at 7:00 AM on May 2, 2005
"Broken clams and excessive haste can cause cut fingers."
Deep, man...
posted by tpl1212 at 7:00 AM on May 2, 2005
I think women should embrace their natural hairiness and forget about using razors to cater to some male fetish for sex workers and pubescent girls.
*Paging jonmc. Please come to thread 41688. Mr. jonmc to thread 41688...*
posted by Cyrano at 7:06 AM on May 2, 2005
*Paging jonmc. Please come to thread 41688. Mr. jonmc to thread 41688...*
posted by Cyrano at 7:06 AM on May 2, 2005
Fried clams are best. Chowder is down the list because it dilutes the sheer clammy goodness.
You can buy razor clams in stores occasionally, but they are a different species from Alaska and are dredged from deep water. Not as tasty as the beach-dug clam.
I had a deep sea razor clam in a restaurant in Seattle's Chinatown that was enormous and astoundingly tender. It had been poached (evidently in more ways than one...) And one clam fed twelve people. It was slightly less than two feet long.
But if you want the real thing, you have to go to the coast and dig your own. There is no substitute.
posted by warbaby at 7:08 AM on May 2, 2005
You can buy razor clams in stores occasionally, but they are a different species from Alaska and are dredged from deep water. Not as tasty as the beach-dug clam.
I had a deep sea razor clam in a restaurant in Seattle's Chinatown that was enormous and astoundingly tender. It had been poached (evidently in more ways than one...) And one clam fed twelve people. It was slightly less than two feet long.
But if you want the real thing, you have to go to the coast and dig your own. There is no substitute.
posted by warbaby at 7:08 AM on May 2, 2005
beaverd and ortho have it right.
As a clam-digger on trips to Bellingham, the smaller ones taste better, always. And you also need some french bread and heavy doses of white wine. And that's a pretty damn good afternoon.
posted by bardic at 9:28 AM on May 2, 2005
As a clam-digger on trips to Bellingham, the smaller ones taste better, always. And you also need some french bread and heavy doses of white wine. And that's a pretty damn good afternoon.
posted by bardic at 9:28 AM on May 2, 2005
geoducks might be enormous, but you have fewer options for cooking them
Travesty! - geoduck: slice the trunk into thin slices, cook it tartare (no more than a minute or so on a skillet) and serve with a light sauce made from boiling a little bit of the body in a minimal amount of water (use the water with a little tapioca starch). As for the body, they make mind blowingly amazing broths.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 12:27 PM on May 2, 2005
Travesty! - geoduck: slice the trunk into thin slices, cook it tartare (no more than a minute or so on a skillet) and serve with a light sauce made from boiling a little bit of the body in a minimal amount of water (use the water with a little tapioca starch). As for the body, they make mind blowingly amazing broths.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 12:27 PM on May 2, 2005
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No they're not! And, have you actually had every clam in the world? Okay, half of them? Okay, 5% of them? Okay, 1% of them?
Let's see, have you had any of just the 50+ the US government lists as endangered native species? GovLink
posted by Kreylix at 10:15 PM on May 1, 2005