bittersweetsour: Bamboo Clam

Imagine the white juicy worm….what do you think about it? But don’t judge a book by its cover!!! Don’t let your imagination put you off because what are you looking at is actually ambal, or known as Bamboo Clam or Sea Needle. It is a distant relative of the mussel; almost fish-like flavor, which is one of Sarawak’s finest seafood delicacies. This humble creature can be found all over South-East Asia but best in mud flats of Sarawak River Estuary. Their long, tubular shells (which look like bamboo) can be anything between three and fifteen cm long, and they are able to stretch their flexible bodies much further out of the shell to suck in food particles.

Fresh Bamboo Clam

Catching the bamboo clam need skill and is an art in itself. Clam feed at high tide and hide during the low tide deep under the sand and mud. It is also to prevent the dehydration. So the bamboo clam hunter will squirt the limejuice down the hole left by the clams. When they experience the change in acidity of water, they will slowly expose themselves at the surface and they will be collected, transfer to the bucket.