Siput Remis

Siput Remis, in Malay, or crudely called as 'lala' or 'siput' by some of my friends, was my hour's work of digging at the beach as shown in the snapshot above. Talking about 'lala' or 'siput'; is a term easily confused with many other variants of shelled mollusks available in Malaysia. I had the experience of my friends ordering the wrong variant of stir fried mollusks at a seafood restaurant when nonchalantly ordered 'siput'. It was a good laugh anyway.

Transforming the hard-dug little creatures into something edible requires:

About 400 grams of siput remis
2 slices of ginger coursely minced
2 cloves of garlic chopped finely
1 tablespoon of chinese cooking wine
dash of light soy sauce
half cup water
cooking oil

Saute the garlic and ginger in oil to release the fragrance, but not until browned. Throw in the siput and cook with half a cup of water and put the lid on. The little creatures will be cooked when the shells open up to reveal the flesh inside. When most of the shells are opened after about 4 to 5 minutes of cooking, discard the unopened ones. Add the chinese cooking wine and soy sauce to taste.
Simple cooking... which requires back breaking work to dig them out.

The flesh of the siput remis won't be much to eat, but the juice that is given off is sweet and appetizing which goes well with white steamed rice.

A little footnote about the siput remis: Leave the little creatures submerged in as-clean-as-possible of seawater for about an hour for them to spit out unwanted sand trapped inside their shells. Then wash off with tap water before cooking.