Comments on: Foraging for Ambilang or Sand Worms…

By: Footloose

Footloose — Sun, 13 Apr 2014 00:05:01 +0000

@GetterDragon1 What you raise is a valid point and a situation that mercifully has been gradually getting better of late. Food writers and editors who have genuine interest and deep familiarity with local food ways or have established contact with local knowledgeable cooks and bloggers are introducing previously unknown food to a mainstream public. With visiting travel writers though who depend mainly on local guides who are not by themselves necessarily interested in food, all they are going to get is a taunting to eat balut and that’s hardly the foreign visitor’s fault.

By: Getter Dragon 1

Getter Dragon 1 — Sat, 12 Apr 2014 15:55:55 +0000

I’m always amused too that there is so little written about Filipino food ways. Especially by western or Filipino-American writers. There’s always extremes of gross-out or indifference which is an injustice in such stories. Also the references of the world influencing Filipino cuisine. It just borders the cliche. Its like every time there has to be either an excuse or apology. Filipino food and food ways are just as interesting (and if not better) than other foods and dishes from around the world. I think we just need to stop with the prefacing with the Spanish or whatever influence and showcase Filipino food on its own. Through the years I have been happy with MMs musing as its probably the only blog that bridges this gap and is one of the best maintained sites that I have read.

By: len

len — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 12:50:18 +0000

I used to see locals in Boracay harvesting sandworms a few years back. Last Christmas when we stayed in Cayucyucan beach in Camarines Norte, sand worms are abundant but it was so hard to catch one. My kids tried to catch one because we were amazed on how they form patterns on the sands during low tide. I think the locals in Bicol are not using it for food.

By: Ken_L

Ken_L — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 12:21:29 +0000

More appetising than the Australian beach worm https://lunar.thegamez.net/fishingtips/fishing-with-worms-tips/beginners-guide-to-cod-fishing-from-the-shore-and-beach-580×412.jpg

All the sea creatures harvested by foraging are getting very scarce in Australia, to the extent the government has imposed strict limits on the numbers anyone can have in their possession. Not too many years ago you could get a bucket of pipis (beach clams) in an hour at low tide – now the popular beaches have none. Those sand worms must be fast growers!

By: gadgets

gadgets — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 12:10:40 +0000

these look very much like the razor clams sold here in the UK

By: Susan

Susan — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 12:08:31 +0000

And I thought I’ve heard of every food imaginable!

By: Eva Mondragon

Eva Mondragon — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 07:45:00 +0000

MM – Gonads???

By: Marketman

Marketman — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 23:35:33 +0000

Footloose and Connie C, wait till you see the post on roughly 400 gonads in a bottle for sale on the same beach, just PHP50 or $1.10. :)

By: Footloose

Footloose — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 23:09:11 +0000

Oh how I envy your derring-do with exotic foodstuff ConnieC. Perhaps, in a life and death situation such as if I ever get threatened with being nudged off the edge of a precipice, I might be persuaded to partake of a plate of sand prepuce.

By: Connie C

Connie C — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 21:32:16 +0000

Another educational post.

I do not have Footloose’s encyclopedic mind and fertile imagination as my mohel-lish days in the nursery while in pediatric training ( and I did quite a number of what was then a routine procedure) did not even come to mind, but I recall having to psyche myself that the tamilok ( similar in form to the ambilang though not in texture perhaps) is a mollusk and not a worm before I even tried it.