乐生活Tegillarca granosa, commonly known as blood clam, silver clam, flower clam, grain clam, snail, valongha, clam and so on, people in southern Fujian will take "cold-mixed blood clam" as their late dish on Lunar New Year’s Eve.
The blood of the clam is rich in heme, so the meat of the clam is bright red.
The clams are washed and scalded in boiling water for about ten seconds before eating raw. The clam blood is especially delicious, or pickled, or processed into dried products.
The mud clams like to live in the mud beaches of the inner bay or intertidal zone of the estuary where freshwater is injected. They are mostly buried at the junction of the middle and low tide zones and feed on diatoms and organic debris. The mud clam can adapt to the water temperature of 0-35 C. It belongs to the traditional shellfish culture on the beach. It is distributed all over the coastal areas of the north and south. It is cultured artificially in Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Shandong and Taiwan.
The clam has two shells of equal size, about 3 to 6 cm. The shell is very hard and white. It has a thin brown skin. The inner shell has a gray-white surface and no mother-of-pearl layer.
The shape is swollen oval and the growth line is obvious. There are about 20 radiating ribs on the surface of the shell. There are obvious granular nodules on the ribs, which are in the shape of tiles and ridges.
Sources: Wikipedia, 123rf, Alchetron, Fotolia, Best PDF Club, Bigstock, ViaNet Conchology
