This posting is dedicated to Jan, our Bay Area biologist/writer friend, who has been researching for us safe levels and types of fish to eat. We told her we have been eating all kinds of fish several times a week. This posting should raise the ante a bit.
Although we enjoy the convenience of the food vendors walking by our door, Hiền goes to the market a half-kilometer away once in a while to find something different. Today she brought back both clams and large snails. One kilogram of clams (about 60 in number) cost 2,000 VN dong (US 12 cents), and a half-kilogram of snails cost (about 30 in number) cost 2,500 VN (US 17 cents).
For lunch, Hiền boiled/steamed the clams which we then dipped in a nuoc mam (fish sauce) and ginger sauce.
For dinner, she steamed the snails and then sautèd them in shallots, garlic, and butter (the French escargot way).
So Jan, if we are supposed to avoid bottom-feeding fish, what about bottom-dwelling mollusks?
