Review: Frozen Lala (Clams)

There was one day I knocked off early, so hubby and I ended up doing our grocery shopping in one of the popular hypermarket. I was looking for the canned clams, or popularily known in Malaysia as lala, that Lilian recommended previously in her blog so that I can stir up a pasta dish ala vongole. I searched high, I searched low... none seems to be available. I got chided by hubby cos he never heard of canned clams! Some more asked me "Are you very sure??". Arrghhhh... so shelved pasta cooking plan and continued with our shopping.

Suddenly over at the frozen section, I saw him waving for me and guess what??? He shoved one bag towards me. Hohoho... it's frozen clams! I looked further in the deep chest and found they've frozen crab meat, fish, prawns etc supplied by Executive Foods Sdn Bhd. Cool, so the packet of frozen clams went into our shopping cart.



This packet costed RM5.96 and the clams looked pretty huge to me. It got defrosted along our way back.



Whilst waiting for the clam to defrost further, I chopped up loads of garlic and wiped clean some oyster mushroom. Silly hypermarket only have this type of fresh mushroom. I wonder if the locality of the hypermarket dictates what to stock up? Don't really like going there cos the aisles were too narrow. Can't wait for its competitor to open nearby but then that will be sometime next year sighhh...

I cooked some penne till al-dente. In another pan, heated up some extra virgin olive oil and stirred in chopped garlic. Next added in the clams and oyster mushroom. Sprinkled some salt and black pepper to taste. Drained the penne and add them to the pan. Stirred further and served hot with more freshly grounded black pepper and parmesan cheese. I did not use any chili flakes cos hubby got sensitive stomach.



I repeated the same steps for some macaroni since I've penne just sufficient for one person. The taste is not too bad but the clams were really hard and chewy. By the end of my dinner, my jaw ached. Hubby as usual no comment, maybe too polite hungry to say anything hehehe...



I've a bottle of creamy pasta sauce in my fridge. I can't remember the brand cos someone gave that to me. Just for the sake of testing the clams, I made one portion of it using macaroni. Stir fried garlic, mushroom and clams in olive oil. Added in the sauce. Seasoned with salt to taste. Sprinkled freshly ground black pepper and parmesan cheese. Urrghhh this sauce tasted slightly sourish... I'm not sure if it's really tasted like this or is it spoilt? Luckily only cooked a small portion. Again the clams were super chewy and I gave up towards the last bit.



My verdict: No more of this brand's frozen clams or is there another way to cook these clams since they're so chewy? Anyway, the clams looked kinda they were boiled before packing, maybe this process actually made the clams so tough.

Note: Remember to look for the canned ones at other hypermarkets.