About big clams

In this day and age, if you speak out loud, you're afraid of being criticized.
An exclusive story told by the late owner....

------The following is a story I heard before the owner passed away.------

The other day, I received a question from a customer about the "originator of Grilled Large Clam."
I confirmed with the owner.Let me write about it.

When the museum opened, it was around 1970.
At that time, the store had not yet moved to its current location.
The store was located next to where Takanoya is now.

At that time, we had a chef dispatched from Nagoya Chef Association,
One of the people who was dispatched to this facility at that time,
Apparently the owner had asked, "Is there anything that could become a specialty of Irago?"

At that time, the owner's relatives who lived on Himaka Island
Apparently there was a suggestion to use large clams, which are caught in abundance on the island.

If you call them "giant clams," some people might say, "No!"
So you should know that its real name is "Uchimurasaki."
But on the island they are called "giant clams,"
He was told that he would like to try selling it that way.

During the conversation with me,
When the owner was in junior high school, he went to Himakajima Island.
When you go to the beach and dig in the sand with your arms in the water up to your shoulders,
He said it reminded him of the large clams popping out one after another.
Back then, you could harvest so much that you had to throw it away.

-----
When I was discussing with the chef about the seasoning of "big clams",
It's delicious when grilled with soy sauce and sake,
Apparently they decided to try releasing it without making too many changes.

At the time, they started selling them for 500 yen for a plate of two (250 yen each).
Now that I think about it, it seems cheap,
It seems like it was quite an expensive setup at the time.
There is a reason for this.
If it's too cheap to be a local specialty, it will lose its value.
I decided to set it a little higher.
Although it was expensive, it was still popular.

When they were first sold, clams were caught in abundance on the beach (where there was a little seawater),
Because they have a lot of sand in them, it takes a lot of time and effort to prepare them.
It seems like he was something that could be thrown away.
Apparently there were a lot of negative comments about selling these "giant clams."
But don't worry about that, just sell it as a specialty of Ryugu no Yado -Yado!
It seems that they continued selling without giving up.

After about three years, the number of nearby shops that carry it has increased,
After about 10 years, it became famous.

At that time, the way to obtain "large clams" was as follows:
I heard that the large clams were delivered by a fishing boat operator in Himaka.

At that time, guests were taken on fishing trips by fishing boat operators.
Apparently they also had some large clams delivered to them.

At the time, clams were caught in abundance and were not even noticed.
Now, the catch is getting smaller and smaller, making it very expensive.

How about adding green onions for seasoning? We may also hear from you, such as
From the beginning, this facility has focused on simple seasoning with soy sauce and sake.
We still offer it today without any changes.

The specialty of Irago is the "large clam".
It has become quite well known now.
I wrote it because I wanted to leave behind the fact that there was such a secret birth story.
I would be happy if you could remember even a little bit when eating large clams.

I'm not very good at writing, so I'm sure there were many parts that were hard to understand,
Until the end Thank you for reading.　　　　　　　　　　　　2023