>scallops - with guts intact, please

When we eat oysters, we devour the whole thing. Many oysters are apparently hermaphrodites, so we are eating oyster roe, sperm, gills, guts and all in one mouthful.

When it comes to mussels or clams, we throw away the adductor muscles (the chewy white bits that stick to the shell, often erroneously called the "abductor" muscles) and eat the rest.

Strangely enough, when we eat scallops, we throw away the rest (or don't get the see the rest) and eat only the adductor muscle, the white fleshy "meat", the lone posterior adductor muscle.

What's wrong with this picture?

The whole scallop can be delicious, be it sea scallop or bay scallop, including the large salmon-colored mantle. Scallop is hard to ship fresh, the main reason for separating the hardy and more presentable "meat".

When you order scallop at a good restaurant, try asking for the whole scallop and not just the white meat, and they might happily oblige you. It is also a test of how fresh their scallop really is.

>hotate & kani misonnaise - baked scallops & crab meat with miso mayonnaise, Tsukiji Restaurant, Richmont, British Columbia

>symphonie d'hamachi roti aux pistaches, scampis en risotto de riz noir et corolle de noix de Coquilles Saint-Jacques en fine ratatouille de legumes nicois et coulis safrane, La Mer Restaurant, Honolulu, Hawaii