Mirugai (Geoduck Clam) SushiMirugai

Mirugai / Gaper clam

Shellfish

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Veneroida, Mactridae, genus Tresus (Mirukui)

It is distributed along the coasts of the Japanese archipelago and the Korean Peninsula, and in Japan it is mainly harvested by diving fishery in Mikawa Bay, the Seto Inland Sea, and Tokyo Bay. Domestic production is extremely small, and most of the mirugai in distribution comes from China or Korea. It is the highest grade among shellfish.

The mirugai is a large bivalve about 15 cm in size. From a hole dug in the sandy bottom of shallow waters, it extends a black siphon and feeds by sucking in plankton and other matter drifting in the water. Because the way it carries a seaweed called miru on this siphon looks as if it is eating miru, it came to be called "miru-kui" (miru-eater). It is commonly called mirugai. Because domestic mirugai is ultra-premium, related species from China, Korea, or the United States are usually used. A somewhat distant species of similar shape, the Japanese geoduck (namigai), is also often used as a substitute. At conveyor-belt sushi restaurants the Pacific geoduck from Canada is common. Because the namigai has a white shell it is distinguished as "white miru," while the mirugai, with its black shell, is distinguished as "black miru" or "true miru." The season for mirugai varies by production area, but is said to be from winter to spring. Only the siphon part is basically used as a sushi topping; when the black skin is peeled from the siphon, ivory-colored flesh appears, which is lightly blanched and then pressed into nigiri. Mirugai sushi has a strong flavor unique to shellfish, with a pleasantly firm texture and a rich aroma of the sea that pierces the nose - irresistible.

True Miru: A Top-Grade Sushi Surpassing Even Abalone

Because the mirugai was once caught in large quantities in Tokyo Bay as well, it was a representative sushi topping of Edo-mae sushi. However, nowadays the price of domestic true mirugai is normally 3,000 to 6,000 yen per kg (2 to 4 pieces). Moreover, from a single mirugai you can make at most only 3 to 4 pieces of nigiri - very few. For that reason, domestic true miru is handled only by high-end sushi restaurants and kappo establishments, and ordering mirugai at a high-end sushi restaurant takes quite a bit of courage.

Mirugai sashimi, delicious despite its appearance

Is the Mirugai the Tongue of a Chinese Beauty?

In Ekiken Kaibara's biology work "Yamato Honzo," written in the Edo period, it states that the mirugai is introduced as "Xishi's tongue" (Xishi she) in the Chinese text "Senchun-shi," but in fact, in the Chinese cultural sphere a different shellfish of the clam genus has long been called Xishi's tongue.
The shell of that clam slightly resembles the white mirugai, and because the white flesh that pokes out when the shell is opened looked like a woman's tongue, it was likened to Xishi, one of the Four Great Beauties of ancient China, and called "Xishi's tongue." Perhaps Ekiken Kaibara, seeing the sensual figure of the mirugai, also thought it was Xishi's tongue.