Yesterday, just a day after Alec Ee hand-carried an entire foie gras for me from his overseas trip, Freddie Tan presented me with three live conches – one gigantic one and two smaller ones.
Conches are mollusks second in popularity only to the escargot. All parts of a conch are edible but most people prefer the chewy and somewhat crunchy part. Conches are often eaten raw, as ceviches or cooked as chowders.
I boiled the giant – it weighed nearly three kilograms – conch for half an hour, and then extracted everything from the shell. Boy it was darn hard work! (The crunchy part is on the right.)
I sliced some off to taste – my goodness, the sweetness was simply out of this world – the rest I made consommé by boiling with some chicken. There was no need for seasoning of any kind – the sweetness of the conch itself did wonders to the entire pot. Also, the abalone-like texture of the conch made it a really enjoyable feast.
It was a feast all right – sure the whole episode took me from my Sunday afternoon siesta but no regrets, I would gladly give up a siesta any Sunday for an experience like this.
Thanks Alec and Freddie!
I owe you both big time!