Geoduck pronouced “Goo-ee-duck”, scientific name of Panopea generosa, is a big saltwater clam with a long siphon which can easily grow to a few feet, the siphon would be its mouth where large amount of water is suck in to be filtered for plankton as food. Chinese call the geoduck the "elephant trunk clam" for obvious reason.
Looking at it through an aquarium, one cannot imagine how such a weird looking creature can be eaten. I suppose being at the top of the food chain helps us to be adventurous.
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Not available locally, Geoducks are imported from the US or Canada and in this case from Mexico. It is known to have a long life span of more than a century, speculated to be because of its sedentary lifestyle of not experiencing much wear and tear in addition to having few natural predators as in the wild it lives by burrowing itself into the sea bed sheltered and protected, people would be its biggest predator I would think.
The local chef recommends that it be eaten almost raw with a short dipped in a hot boiling broth. It taste exactly as you would imaging it would taste like, slimy if too raw, leathery if overcooked with a strong flavor of clams. Some of my friends compare it to abalones, for me it is far from the unique taste and texture only abalones can have.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
The Geoduck Meal
Friday, April 9, 2010
Wasps
Species of wasp comes from two main categories, solitary wasp or social wasp. The name itself is self explanatory, with the solitary wasp generally living alone while the social wasp lives in colonies and in nests.
Wasps have also been documented to play an important role in natural biocontrol with almost every pest insect species having at least one wasp species that is a predator or parasite upon it, which helps to keep pest insect species population in check.Wasps like bees have modified ovipositors which they use to sting and inject venom.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Bracket Fungi – Ganoderma Tropicum
Fungi apparently can neither be classified as plant or animal as they have characteristics of each. They have no chlorophyll like plants which makes them in turn not requiring the sun to survive and at the same time take away the ability to manufacture their own energy. Food for fungi is obtained from dead and decaying matter. 
Fungi play an important role in nature by recycling nutrients through breaking down decaying plant and animal matter and returning important elements such as carbon and nitrogen back to nature.Saturday, March 6, 2010
Blue Carpenter Bee – Xylocopa Caerulea
I cross path with this magnificent looking blue bee recently and was curious about what type of bee this could be, it certainly is not the sort of bee you see every day. 
Searching the web to satisfy my curiosity proof to be challenging and I finally have to seek help from a website I had used previously for insect identification and it too was facing difficulties initially, fortunately they have a very well informed contact that was able to give guidance and pointed out it is a carpenter bee of the genus Xylocopa. 
Carpenter bees cannot prepare wax and therefore do not built nest as in the common honey bees we know of. Their nests are tunnels burrowed in flower stalk or wood, therefore the name Carpenter bees.
It is also not clear as to whether the male or female has this blue colored body. The information from a sighting of a similar blue bee in Singapore states that the female is mainly black but at the same time says it is not sure how the male looks like.
At the very least, it is confirmed this bee can be found in Peninsula Malaysia and Singapore. 
A stamp issued by the Singapore postal authorities illustrates a specimen that is black in color. 
For those who are interested to know more, do visit the site mentioned below which has help me in attempting to identify this particular bee.
