How to Clean & Eat a Geoduck

(soft music) – Greetings my beautiful lovelies.

It's Emmy.

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nNw today I'm gonna be tasting something I've been wanting to taste for years, and it is a geoduck.

So geoduck has such an interesting name, you may have seen the spelling and didn't know is pronounced gooey because it's spelled g-e-o-d-u-c-k, it looks like geoduck butit's pronounced gooey duck.

It's actually comes from Nisqually word for this creature, which is a very long-lived clam.

The average age of theseclams is 140 years.

It's the largest bivalve on this planet.

(crowd cheers) And it looks very, very phallic.

Now, I've eaten plenty ofphallic things on this channel, including a banana candle, including actual penis, in penis ox soup, but this definitely takes the cake.

My lovelies, I give you the geoduck.

(laughs) (instrumental music) Okay, my lovelies, I present to you the geoduck.

Isn't it amazing? Look at this.

This phallic portion is the siphon, The clam lives in the sand, This siphon goes all theway up to the surface, this stretches, at leasttwo times its length.

And that's how the clam breaths.

It's a bivalve there are two shells, and I'm going to be eatingit raw sashimi style, and this is the partthat's really coveted, this is the siphon orthe neck or the shaft.

– [Man] What! – I know, I know.

(laughs) The clam, inside here is the stomach, In Japan, they boil the stomach and can be eaten andthen this top part here is sometimes called thebelly or the breast.

It can be deep fried or itcan also be sliced thinly and eaten sashimi style as well.

So here we are geoduck.

So the reason why I decidedto do a video about geoduck is because I recentlyread an article in Eater which I'll put the link down below, which talked about how somebusinesses are really struggling because there has been a hugedrop in demand for geoduck because of COVID-19.

So I thought in solidarity and in support, I would purchase a geoduck, it was $80, it was overnighted to me, it smells (smells) of the ocean, perfectly fresh, it came packed in ice, just overnighted to me super fresh.

I also purchased a box ofoysters, a sampler pack, it's my husband's birthday, and they too were beautifully packed, they came with a shocker, just top notch quality.

So during this tumultuous times, I think it's really importantto support small businesses like Taylor Shellfish, so that's why I am goingto have my first taste of geoduck.

(laughs) So I watched a few YouTube videos on how to prepare this beautiful thing.

And I will put the links down below they include BeckySelengut's and Chef Step.

So thank you guys foreducating me about this, this beautiful thing.

So we're gonna quickly blanch the geoduck and that's gonna allow us to remove this skin covering the shaft.

I mean, I know I know, double entendres let's do it.

Put the geoduck into a bowl — it's so big, it barely fits into the bowl.

Hat to bend the shaft but.

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Now I've got some boiling water and we're gonna this over the clam.

So look how the skin isalready blistering — we're just gonna put it inthere for about 15 seconds.

Not much time at all.

All right, so I think that's enough time– it's already puffed up — and dunk it in some ice water, to cool it back down, because we're gonnaeat this sashimi style, meaning we're gonna eat this raw.

So the geoduck siphon has a really prized, great crunchy texture, and we wanna preserve that — we don't wanna cook this;we're gonna be eating it, like you would eatoysters on the half shell, we going to eat this raw.

The reason why we're blanchingit is to clean it up, and also to get it out of its shell withlittle bit more ease.

Give thanks to the geoduck, give thanks.

And now we're going to takethe geoduck out of its shell.

Take a knife and just run it beneath the shell here.

(instrumental music) We're going to loosen it.

(instrumental music) From this side.

I'm gonna pry it apart, look at that Isn't that incredible? Look at this.

The shell looks actually very similar to what we call steamershere in New England.

It's kind of a thinner shell, but each one of theserings represents a year.

So beautiful specimen here.

So, same thing on the side we're gonna.

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That smells so good, it smells of the ocean.

So right here is the stomach.

Look at that.

(laughs) Amazing, look at that, I mean if that doesn't look like testes, I mean Mother Nature you are incredible.

We're gonna cut that right there, and in Japan they boil this and this can be eaten so I'm gonna set this aside.

Now this beautiful part here that was holding the stomach is called either the breast or the belly and it's much softer in texture and this can be sliced and fried or also eaten raw like sashimi.

So I'm gonna taste that as well, I'm gonna cut this right at the base here, so we're gonna peel all of this off, I know, are you men out there cringing? Don't worry doesn't hurt, its all good.

So we're gonna pull that off and there is the geoduck siphon.

And here is the skin on the outside so you can really see how far the geoduck siphon really can stretch.

Look at that! It's probably three timesthe length of it now incredible, incredible.

Slice this open, butterfly, (instrumental music) And this is what it looks like inside and as you can see there's some sand in there some muck so we're gonna rinse that out.

(instrumental music) Now we're gonna thinly slice this, (instrumental music) oh my gosh, I'm so excited about this, I remember reading about geoduck years and years and years andyears and years ago.

And I thought, someday I'm gonna go to Seattle and taste geoduck myself.

I still might do that.

(laughs) In the meanwhile, I can do a beautiful thing and order it online and have it come right to my doorstep.

Beautifully fresh and amazing.

But someday I will have itin Seattle someday I will, I would love to actually go fishing for geoduck.

I love digging for clamshere in Rhode Island.

Our clams that we love todig for are called steamers, they look a lot like a geoduck, but they are a fraction of the size.

But it is so much fun — it's like treasure hunting; it's just a delight.

Now I'm gonna put these on a plate, lets serve this sashimistyles just like this.

Alrighty, so there itis the beautiful geoduck all ready for me to eat.

Oh, I'm gonna slice up some belly too, because I really wantto taste that as well.

This part is really tender, much softer and consistencythan the siphon.

(curious) I'm so curious to test this.

Okay, so am gonna put thebelly portion over here.

One of my favorite things inthe world is going clamming with my boys and eatingraw clams on the beach.

It's just.

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it's perfect, it's really what it is.

So Becky recommends a squeezeof lemon juice, soy sauce, and a little bit of olive oil, but I'm gonna do this sashimi style and just have it right outof the ocean as it came.

So let's get a taste.

I'm so, so excited! Alrighty.

Itadaimasu! (chews) (soft music) So delicious! It is so sweet.

That is the sweetest clam I've ever had — and we eat plenty of clams.

I love nothing more thangoing clamming with my family, I love the whole processof treasure hunting, digging, finding, feeling triumphant when you find a clam.

We have a couple differentvarieties including steamers which are my personal favorite, but we also have cherry stone and little necks and quohogs, and we love taking thequohogss or the little necks and smashing them like cavemen on a rock, We meaning my family, particularly my kiddos, and just eating the clamsright there on the rock with a little bit of sand, just gritty and just grinning with the joy of eating clams on the shore.

And this reminds me of that — it just tastes beautifully of the sea just a little bit salty, but mostly, it is sweet, it is sweet.

It has a beautiful, beautiful flavor.

(chews) And a delightful crunchy texture: it's toothsome; it's just delicious.

It's not overly salty.

Sometimes, if we haveoysters on the half shell, they're almost too briny with saltwater, this is just the perfect balance of just umami is really what it is, which I feel likesometimes an overused word, but it's of the ocean.

It simultaneously sweet and salty, but this is so so sweet and the texture is phenomenal.

(chews) So that was the tip of the siphon, it has a much bigger crunch, more cartilaginous.

Yes, that's what the crunch is like — kind of like the cartilage that you canfind in the keel of a chicken, that kind of cartilaginouscrunch — it's delightful.

Once you get closer tothe base of the siphon, the crunch is still there, but it's not as hard.

Delicious.

Okay, now let's try the belly.

(chews) The belly is delicious too: a completely different texture; a much tender texture; more similar to a quahog; not so chewy; and has a great clammy flavor to it; but still so sweet.

Geoduck is incredible, definitely one of my favoriteshellfish ever, ever, ever.

It's so scrumptious, so scrumptious, so much to be thankful for in this beautiful world, so, so much, including very ancient bivalves.

Thank you.

And thank you guys so much for watching, I hope you guys enjoyed that one; I hope you guys learned something; big thanks to Bright Cellarsfor sponsoring this video.

If you'd like to receive50% off your first box of six bottles of wine, click the link down below, take the test and get started.

Thanks again for watching, I hope you guys enjoyed that one, I hope you guys learned something, I hope you guys are hanging in there.

Thanks again for watching.

Please take care Share this video with your friends follow me on social media like this video, subscribe and I shall see you in the next one.

Toodaloo! Take care.

Bye.

(instrumental music) Hello, welcome to the geoduck show.

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