Loaded with Shellfish～Fail-Proof Pasta

Since coming to Vietnam, I've added a few more dishes to my list of "meals I can make quickly without failing." One of them is clam pasta. The so-called vongole, I suppose. Probably. The most common bivalve around here is called "hamaguri" (clam) at the market, but to my senses, it feels quite close to Japanese asari (Manila clams).

In Vietnamese cuisine, this is a very standard, everyday ingredient — steamed with lemongrass, tossed into hot pots, or made into soup. You'll find it lined up at every single market, without fail. And what's more, it's surprisingly cheap. About 350 to 500 yen per kilogram. 【🇻🇳 Ho Chi Minh Price Info, as of January 2026】 60,000 VND per 1 kg In Japanese yen, that's about 360 yen. * I bought 1 kg of the smaller ones shown at the bottom of the photo. I had bought large clams before, but they still hadn't grown enough and were small. The smaller ones had plump, rounded shells.

In Japan, when you hear the word "hamaguri" (clam), it tends to have the image of a slightly special ingredient, but here it feels completely like an everyday flavor. In our household, the go-to dish for the morning after drinking too much is clam soup. Just simmer it gently over low heat and add a little salt. That's all it takes, yet it seeps into your body, soothing and comforting~~. Buy a big batch at the market, let them purge the sand, and pop them in the freezer, and they're ready whenever you need them — such a handy ingredient in all sorts of ways! And so, today, for the first time in a while, I decided to treat myself a little. For lunch, a pasta loaded with clams~~ Olive oil in the frying pan. Add garlic and chili, and lightly draw out the aroma. Then, grabbing them by the handful, squish squish squish, I toss in about three handfuls of clams. While they slowly warm up, in the meantime, I boil the pasta. Today, instead of basil, I'm using plenty of dill, the representative Vietnamese herb! First, I put in the stems together to add fragrance. Just as the pasta finishes boiling, the clams start to open at just the right moment. I pour the pasta in with a whoosh~~, and stir it around and around together with the broth that has come out, shaking it as I go, and the inside of the pan gradually begins to emulsify. Watching the pasta get coated in the rich, silky clam broth makes me a little happy every single time. To finish, I toss in plenty of chopped dill. It's a rough-and-ready dish, but I'm just intoxicated by being able to use the ingredients so lavishly.

【From a Vietnamese Kitchen — Foolproof Shellfish Cooking】 It's easy, it never fails, and — if I may say so myself — it's absolutely delicious. An everyday feast that's uniquely Vietnamese. This evening I bought some to prep, and they're currently soaking to purge the sand.

We get close to seawater concentration, so they spit out lots of sand~~ / Immigrant Life Ranking