False Elephant …. What?

Back in October, I wrote a post about my Chinese neighbourhood and the local grocery store where I found an intriguing product I’d never seen before …. False Elephant’s Snout.

Of course you know I couldn’t just it leave it at that.  My curiosity eventually won and I went back to buy a can.  The real question now was … what would I do with it?

My research indicated that False Elephant’s Snout is also known as geoduck – pronounced gooey-duck.  It is a very large saltwater clam found along the west coast of North America and is considered somewhat of a delicacy in Asia.  In my opinion, that’s just another way of saying it looks remarkably unappetizing.

The photos I found of the geoduck put me off doing anything with my new-found treasure. This one was  – shall we say – obscene.

Photo from Wikipedia

It’s now been weeks and I finally got up the nerve to open the can.  I was about to go where no reasonably sane person should go … and make clam chowder from this False Elephant’s Snout.  I couldn’t help but think of a certain post by Nancy at My Year(s) of Sweat about Cock Soup.

I had found a recipe for clam chowder using geoduck which suggested putting it through a food processor to cut it into chunks.  So far, so good.  I wasn’t gagging yet.  In fact, it looked innocently like chicken.

The end verdict?  Meh.

It might look like chicken but it had the texture and taste of rubber hose.

I won’t be rushing out any time soon – or ever – to repeat this adventure in trying something new.  The kitchen is now closed.