Singapore 6 Bivalves Edition

你好!
    Haven't been going to the beach lately. Really busy with school stuff and training. But in any case, i still managed to do something with some of the shells that I have and Here it is! Presenting you the SINGAPORE 6, BIVALVES EDITION :)
So why Singapore 6? well, i guess this is the 6 most common bivalves eaten in Singapore. Firstly, if you do eat everyone of them. well, you have probably tasted much of the representative dishes in Singapore (and I will tell you why later.) Secondly, ya. I have them in my collection and the best part is, all of them can be found in Singapore waters!!! YAY :)

 THE SINGAPORE 6: Top; Perna viridis, Green Mussel
                                      Middle; Paphia alapapilionis, Butterfly Venus. Meretrix meretrix, Venus Clam or White Clam
                                      Bottom; Paphia textile, Textile Clam. Glauconome virens, Mud Clam. Anadara granosa, Blood cockle

 Meretrix meretrix (left) Venus clam or White clam. called La La "啦啦" (Hokkien). Included in many dishes like 面线 and others. Hokkien cuisine. Also, the zichar stalls, Malay and Chinese, sell this as a dish it self. Found along Punggol park, Changi, Pasir Ris
Anadara granosa (right) Blood cockle. Called Chee Haam (福建 Hokkien), krang (Malay) or See haam in other dialects.鲜蚶. one of the most delicious dishes on its own, it is also sold with fried rice and the famous 炒粿条 Char Kway Teow (潮州 Teochew), the most delicious dish in Singapore!!! Found almost everywhere but usually on mudflats. Punggol, Pasir Ris, Changi but suprisingly common near the food centre at East Coast, hmm... :P

 Paphia textile (left) Textile Clam. Sold in some Japanese soup and much of other dishes including clam. A common substitute for Meretrix meretrix. Also sold as a dish by itself with garlic :) delicious found at Changi :P
Galuconome virens (right) Mud Clam. Called 大头 dtua-tau (福建 Hokkien). This is one of the only 6 that is sold as a dish by itself with similar cooking styles as the rest but can also be cooked in chilli 辣椒大头Similar habitat as Anadara :)

Paphia alapapilionis (left) Butterfly Venus. No common names but usually called haam (general name for clams) Found in  兴化面 (HengHua Mee) or can be substituted by Paphia textile, subject to availability. Never seen in Singapore but probably on Ubin.
Perna Viridis (right) Green Mussel.才卵 or cai (二声) luan (一声) (福建 Hokkien) A common fouling organism found along the coast. Used to colonise the pier at Ubin but I guess they were removed and sold somewhere. Can be found along the northern coast of Singapore.

So there you have it, your Singapore 6. Do remember if you ever visit Singapore YOU MUST TRY THESE :D

Punggol Point Trip 2

Hello!

    Woke up at 7.30a.m. to go to school for project work and in the end only spent 7 minutes there... kinda like a waste of time. Anyway, I called my parents and asked if they could pick me up and realised that they were going to Punggol Point to run. COOL!!! and the best part is, it was in the morning and no one was at teh beach so i probably had the whole coastline to myself and  although i was not really equipted with my seashell bucket and stuff, still managed to get a pretty good haul... :D

reached there at about 10.15a.m. and the tide was receeding. My apologies for the lack of photos as I did not have a camera and my dad's handphone camera died somehow... but 祸兮福之所倚. i guess if i had brought that camera along i would not have enough hans to keep these shells. :)

Spent about an hour there but managed to get some pretty good shells. And the pater was clean today so i could see the bottom.

So here they are :) :

 The few usual never fail to appear... Green mussels, blood cockles but surprisingly, managed to find cowrie shells among the rocks today... and of course, many others. 3 lineated nerites and alot of monodonts I think. There are also 2 land snail shells and a mangrove seed. :D haha, picked that up for fun...

 Another photo just in case the previous one was not clear enough. :D

 Haul of the day: Fig shell, Black-lipped conch/little bear conch and a marginella shell. Not to sure if the fig shell here is a common one and for the marginella, i could not find any species that looks exactly like it... did it arrive via the new reclaimed sand?

 The mouth of  each shell...

 The fig Shell (ficus sp.), i am still unsure of the species... any help? :D

 black lipped conch...

 marginella...

Well, there are also many jingle shells and barnacles. Really impressed at what Punggol point has as looking from the situation at the beach, hmm... total opposite from places like cherating, cebu, sanibel etc. :)

My shells

Hello again!

Sorry for the long dormancy but really did not have the opportunity to visit the beach or do stuff lately... had a few exams the last few weeks and had to study for them considerin gthe fact that for one of the subjects the teacher can't teach... so today, i decided to snap some photos of my favourite shells here they are :)

 Orchid Murex, Chicoreus orchidiflorus

this guy is from Taiwan. guess i have explained the story in one of my previous post. :D it looks better without the snapshot as i could not find the right lighting for the shell. Came across this species like 3 years ago and really wished i had it and YAY!!! after 3 years...

Miyoko's Murex, Pterynotus miyokae

This other guy also comes from Taiwan. Second fav of the whole collection. i love the murexes the most but have a big problem trying to collect them simce they are quite hard to find...

Other shells that is wish I had:



Saffran Murex, Murex crocatus

Pendant Murex, Murex Aculeatus

And many others :)

台湾，野柳/九份 Taiwan trip, Ye Liu/Jiu Fen

November 20th to 29th:

    Hello, went to Taiwan during the last holiday. Went with my Taiwanese buddies to 九份 and 野柳. Firstly went to see the rock formations at Ye Liu with by TAIWANESE BUDDIES! :D Haha, mainly fossils and perculiar rock formations around... cool. had lunch there as well and the whole stretch was filled with tons of different live seafood. Got a free seashell from there as well from a nice man. :) Also went to Jiu Fen where I found a shop that sold cool seashells at a cool price! had to bargain abit although... altogether 400 台币.

 Port hloes in the rocks...

 From the top of the rock there. Clear waters belows...

 Shells and rocks litter the beach. But most of it are broken so i took just a few for a momento. :)

 Fossilised Sand Dollars.

 Ye Liu again..

 The way to eternal life.. haha :P No, this is a road that leads to the top of Ye Liu. Lookd like some scene from an ancient Chinese movie show.

 Edible Sea Urchins

 La La and lobsters. La La (Meretrix meretrix)

 Jiu Fen Street. Used to be a Japanese Quarters during the Gold Rush but eventually, the gold ran out and the place abandoned by the Japanese. The Taiwanese tehm came to re-populate the street and boom! Jiu Fen street :) actually situated on a mountain so had to climb a REALLY steep slope before getting there..

 The outside of the store. Sign = Please put the shells back in their original compartments as they all command a different price. This man also had a HUGE collection of other rare seashells but refused to let me take a picture... T_T... So sad that I was only left with 500NT and could only buy 2 shells

The orchid murex, firebrand murex and miyoko murex were purchased from the store while the other shell was given free :)

East Coast Park

Hello again!
Somewhere duing the december holidays, the school organised a beach training and since I arrived early, and the beach was empty, I decided to take a walk along the beach... Found a few shells along the shoreline with quite a number of them at the mouth of the drain... Somewhere the food centre :)

Here are the shells that were collected. Much different from those at Punggol Point due to the different wave strength and absence of rocks. Majority of them are bivalves living along the surf zone and the gastropods are mainly found near the breakwaters...

Surf clams, half heart cockles, blood clams, barnacles, venus clams, jingle shells, mussels etc... :)