The scallops in the barbecue restaurant are the little monsters with a hundred eyes.

On a hot summer night, nothing is more relaxing than a barbecue in the cool breeze. Among the various ingredients in the barbecue restaurant, there is one seafood that can be said to be a must-have delicacy for barbecue, and that is scallops. Remove one piece of shell and use the other as a bowl for tasting. Under the charcoal fire, the white shell meat and garlic are boiling in the delicious juice. Anyone who has tasted the delicious taste of scallops will praise it.

So, what kind of shellfish is the scallop that everyone loves? Which part of the scallop is the crystal white shellfish?

Figure 1: Yesso scallops (Mizuhopecten yessoensis) sold at a seafood market. On the left is the dark-colored Japanese crab (Charybdis japonica)

Delicious scallops

Scallops are a traditional edible shellfish in the West. However, it was not until the past three or four decades that my country began to catch and cultivate them in large quantities and supply them to the market. Unlike most other bivalves we can eat, the main edible part of scallops is its adductor muscle, which is the milky white scallop column. The main edible part of many other edible bivalves is their axe feet that dig holes in the mud and sand, such as the clams (Meretrix meretrix) and cockles (Ruditapes philippinarum) that we are familiar with. Of course, there are also many shellfish that have other parts that are suitable for eating, such as the water pipe part and the entire soft part, which will not be discussed here. In addition to the adductor muscle of the scallop, there is a circle of soft tissue, called the scallop skirt. Although it is mostly treated as scraps when processing scallop products, it actually tastes quite good.

As an edible shellfish, scallops are very sweet and delicious whether they are fried, stir-fried, boiled or grilled. Of course, in my opinion, charcoal grilling is the best.

Figure 2: Yesso scallops (Mizuhopecten yessoensis), a popular species across the country, are sold at a seafood market in Dalian.

Figure 3: Pecten maximus

What are scallops?

Scallops, also known as sea fans or sea clams, are a type of bivalve molluscs in the order Argopectenidae of the class Bivalvia. There are many varieties of them, which are widely distributed in oceans around the world. Most scallops are eaten as delicacies, and many scallop shells are also used as processing materials for handicrafts because of their bright colors and beautiful patterns. They are made into various artworks or handicrafts and sold on the market. There are four main types of scallops that we can see in the domestic aquatic market, namely thick-shelled scallops (Mimachlamys crassicostata), bay scallops (Argopecten irradians), Yezo scallops (Mizuhopecten yessoensis) and Chlamys farreri (Azumapecten farreri).

It is worth mentioning that the flame clam (Lima scabra), which is very popular in aquariums and saltwater fish tanks, looks very similar to scallops, but it belongs to the family Lima scabra and can only be regarded as a distant relative of scallops.

Figure 4: Beautiful flame clam (Lima scabra), but it does not belong to the order Scapheiformes

Hundred-eyed "little monster"

In Journey to the West, there was a monster named "Hundred Eyes Demon Lord" who had 100 eyes on his body and emitted light that even the Monkey King Sun Wukong could not deal with. The Hundred Eyes Demon Lord was undoubtedly a monster imagined by the author of the novel, but our scallops do have more than 100 eyes.

The eyes of scallops are located on the edge of their shells, on the "skirt", with small bright spots connected like a string of beads. These eyes are simple in structure, and each small eye is about one millimeter in diameter. The eyes of scallops are simple in structure and can only detect light and dark objects, but they are much more advanced than the eyes of other shellfish. Many bivalves don't even have eyes.

Figure 5: Scallop's small eyes

Swimming shells

Having eyes is not enough. Although scallops can detect starfish or other carnivorous shellfish when their natural enemies approach them, how can scallops escape without hands or feet? This is when its powerful adductor muscle comes in handy. Obviously, scallops evolved such a developed adductor muscle not to satisfy us or other carnivores, but as a secret weapon for them to escape.

When scallops find danger approaching, they will quickly expand and contract. They first suck water into the shell, then close the mantle in front of the shell, and then use the powerful adductor muscle to quickly squeeze the water out from the back of the shell. In this way, the scallop can swim like a jet. Swimming scallops look a little funny, like a pair of dentures swimming. However, their swimming speed is not slow, reaching 50 centimeters per second, which is a very amazing speed in the slow-moving shellfish family. Because the water jets backwards, it will also stir up the mud and sand on the seabed to form a cloud of smoke, so that natural enemies will have a harder time finding the escaping scallops.

Figure 6: One of the natural enemies of scallops, the sea star (Asterias amurensis)

Image source:

Figure 3: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pecten_maximus(02).jpg

Figure 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lima_scabra.jpg

Figure 5: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Scallop_eyes.jpg

Figure 6: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:%E6%B5%B7%E6%98%9F%EF%BC%88%E6%AD%A3%E9%9D%A2%EF%BC%89.JPG