I heard the back door to the kitchen slam, and wondered who was here. It was a Sunday afternoon and Sunday, being our slowest night of the week, was my chance to prep for the evening dinner service alone. I loved having the kitchen to myself. I’d play loud punk rock music and not worry about any lyrics offending anyone. As I looked over to see who was in my kitchen, I saw one of the restaurant’s employees smiling at me. He had a large ziploc bag in his hand that was filled with some kind of creature I’d never seen before.

“I brought you a present,” he said as I stared at the slimy contents of the bag.

“Thank you?” I replied. “What are they?”

“These are geoducks.”

“I might regret this, but…what are geoducks?”

“They’re burrowing clams with this really long arm-thing that pokes out. You can eat ‘em,” he said with that same smile still on his face.

I later found out that the ‘arm-thing’ on a geoduck (pronounced gooey-duck) is really a siphon, the geoduck is native to Puget Sound, and that these big clams are considered a delicacy in Asia with crops being shipped overseas often. In fact, geoducks are a multi-million dollar industry. With a little more research, I found out that they also boast one of the longest lifespans of any creature (well over 100 years unless harvested), and they can be found both under the sand and deep below the surface of the water.

I’m not going to lie to you. With the protruding arm, they look somewhat offensive, and I would have never guessed that anyone would find them a delicacy. Then again, when I first started cooking, I never thought I’d dig into a bowl of snails cooked in butter, garlic, and parsley either.

If you run across geoduck (which will be hard to do if you’re neither in the Pacific Northwest nor in Asia) to cook one you will first parboil it which will allow you to slip off the skin. After that is complete you can do anything from serving it sashimi style with ponzu to cooking in butter and garlic. Just know that you don’t want to overcook the geoduck. Quick heating techniques work the best. Once you are acquainted with this odd creature, you’r going to stop e sure to be a fan.