Dishes
Hard clams
文蛤
Also called: 蛤蜊 · 蚶仔 (ham-á) · Meretrix lusoria
Smooth-shelled clams farmed on the sandy coast of south-west Taiwan, cooked fresh at seafood restaurants.
What it is
文蛤 is the hard clam Meretrix lusoria, a rounded bivalve with a porcelain-white inside and an important edible shellfish. It lives in sandy mud in shallow water, especially estuaries and tidal flats where fresh water flows in.
Where it comes from
Clams are farmed on the sandy shores of Taiwan's south-west coast, the stretch that includes Tainan's fish-pond districts.
How it is made
Restaurants cook them to order, often with vegetables, as in loofah gourd with clams (絲瓜蛤蜊). Taiwanese shoppers pick clams with tightly closed shells and tap them together: a crisp sound means fresh.
How to eat it
At a seafood restaurant, a plate of clams is one of several shared dishes on the table, eaten with rice.
In Tainan
In Qigu, Black-faced Spoonbill Canteen serves milkfish and clams from the owner's own fish farm, beside wetlands where endangered black-faced spoonbills feed from about September to May.
Where to eat it in Tainan
Sources