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Originally Posted by Twilight Flyer
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Well, for one Orangetxguy - because shellfish (lobster, shrimp, crabs - i.e. things with legs) and mollusks (mussels, clams, oysters) are two different things!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, in Orangetxguy's defense, most people are going to ask the same thing. It's not readily apparent to MOST people that they are two seperate things, so how you can infer he was giving a smartass answer is beyond me.
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That said, seafood allergies are not something to mess around with. If someone is allergic to shellfish to the point of putting their life in danger, eating mollusks is foolhardy at best. So Orangetxguy's question was certainly a legitimate one and I would have asked the same question.
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The shellfish is an allergy since childhood - the mollusks just started at age 53 (he has eaten smoked oysters, clams and mussels the 10 years we've been together). According to his doctor there and here at home, it's not unusual for our bodies to change -hence the NEW reaction.
That is something I do agree with. Our bodies do change. For example, I have recently developed an allergy to walnuts. Used to love the things and never, ever had an issue with them. Last year, I had some banana ice cream with walnuts in it and had a reaction. At that time, I did not realize it was the walnuts. A few weeks later, I had walnuts on a brownie and had an even stronger reaction. Yet, I can still eat pecans, cashews, and other nuts with no issues at all. So I can definitely see where his allergy expanded... I just don't understand anyone that would take that kind of a chance with a seafood allergy when it could very easily end with you in a pine box.
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Thanks TF for the "defense". And yes ..you were right in my "reasoning" for asking why an adult, whom knows of an allergy to shellfish, would eat mollusks, which are a "bi-valve" species that include scallops, squid, octopus, oysters, mussels and sea cucumber..and carry the same risk of "allergen reaction" as would crayfish, which like shrimp, crab or lobster, are crustaceans, only of the freshwater...not salt water variety.
Flood...I do know about "geoduck"..very tasty eating, if you know the proper method of preparing it. The geoduck (the harvesting of which is strictly regulated to protect the species), is a much larger version of the razor-clam. We commonly dug razor clams with shovels on the beaches of Washington, Oregon and lower Vancouver Island Canada, periodicly through out the year.
For me..there isn't anything better than a feast on the beach, that includes Dungeness crab, razor-clams, butter clams, rock fish, oysters, pacific jumbo shrimp, and mussels...all fresh caught! It was not uncommon for us to take the boat down to Westport WA, run out about 1/2 mile past the jetties, and set 4 crab pots and 4 shrimp pots, fish for rock fish while letting the pots soak.....and by mid afternoon, having 7-12 crab that were all "keepers" 1 1/2 to 2 gallons of shrimp, and half a dozen or so fish. Run back into the marina to get the fish & shrimp on ice and the crabs settled into livable water...go out to a bay east of the marina and rake up some oysters, go to the beach and dig up both variety of clams...and by 7 in the evening be boiling the crab & shrimp..steaming the butter clams & mussels (which we harvested of the pilings at the marina, while building the fire), roasting the fish along with potatoes and corn on the cobb. We bar-b-qued the oysters in the shell, and fried the razor clams, after cleaning them and cutting them into strips. Wash it all down with ice cold Red Hook. No better way to spend time with friends and family.
Doing things like that, made for some very awesome 3-day weekends over the years. Sometime's we even got to watch whales, while we were out on the water. Such activities are one of the few things I miss about the PNW.