Have you heard the song "Tahong ni Carla"? Well, I don't wanna react about it. It's just... I don't know...

Yup, that's what we call it here in the Philippines. In English, it's mussels. It's one of the favorite food here that's with a shell. And I can only name a couple of dishes cooked with it.

First off, we have the Tinolang Tahong, which is literally the same as Tinolang Manok but mussels are used instead of chicken. The other one I can think of is baked or grilled tahong. Just sprinkle grated cheese on top of it and cook it until the cheese has melted.

I tried doing my own recipe before using tahong. I called it the spicy tahong. But it ended up as like the Tinolang Tahong without much of the water, and added siling labuyo to make it spicy hot.

I used to cook it oftentimes before, but with it's price going up each year, I just do it occasionally. It was actually cheap a decade ago, like 30-45 pesos a kilo. Now, you can buy it at the same price but only for half a kilo.

You have to clean it first before cooking because there are still some seeweeds in between the shells. And mind you, we use to utilize it's shell as substitute for a spoon.

Aside from tahong, I don't eat other shellfoods, neither crustaceans. I do eat talangka or crablets, soaked in vinegar and garlic, but I don't eat crabs. The large one or alimango/alimasag.

I'd rather eat tahong, though I know that it may sound so interesting to male adults here.

Have a great morning!!!