unrequited love

As a child, I spent several summers on the coast of Maine, which included a lot of time down on the fishing docks of a town called Prouts Neck. The old harbor master there, Mr. Smythe, had covered his office walls with the paraphernalia of his profession: rusty crab pots, foam buoys and broken brass compasses. He had hung a few seashells from the walls, too, but one in particular positively dazzled me--an abalone shell he had brought from Southern California in the 1950s. It was seven or eight inches across, shaped like an ear, and in a way it seemed almost supernatural with its iridescent lining reflecting ordinary light into a shimmering spectacle of colors.

To my amazement, Mr. Smythe told me that abalone were once so ubiquitous in California waters that all along Newport Beach, for instance, you could find thousands of them clinging to exposed rocks at low tide. With a blunt knife or even your hands, you could pry the creatures loose, then bring the flesh home to pound thin and fry briefly in butter and lemon juice. I’ve lived in California for more than 20 years now, and I’ve often hoped for the kind of abalone abundance he described, but I’m sorry to say I haven’t seen anything like it.

Recently I asked for an explanation from Ben Beede, co-owner of The Cultured Abalone, an aquaculture farm just north of Santa Barbara. “It’s true that abalone used to grow abundantly around here,” he recalls, “but in the 1950s and ‘60s fishermen were harvesting millions of pounds every year. It didn’t take long for the population to shrink.” Then in 1997, in the wake of pollution problems and a boom in the sea otter population, state authorities decided to prohibit commercial harvesting of wild abalone. Nowadays, farmers like Beede are raising red abalone in land-based tanks that are continuously refreshed with ocean water.

It’s been so long since most Californians have seen abalone that these meaty mollusks now suffer from a severe case of obscurity, and when they do appear on menus, their prices (typically more than $50 for an entree) scare most consumers away. Beede and other farmers export the majority of their crop to Asia--particularly Japan--where abalone has been adored as a delicacy for centuries. Ancient Japanese folklore tells of heroic divers (usually women, supposedly because they could hold their breath longer than men) who risked their lives in deep churning waters to pull these precious edibles from the sea. Old-timers in Japan attribute medicinal qualities to abalone, suggesting that they provide antidotes to all manner of diseases. And Japanese poets have invoked abalone as fitting symbols of unrequited, passionate love, because unlike clams or oysters, which have two shells, abalone must live out their lives with only one.

Nothing about abalone, though, is more compelling than its flavor, which mingles the brininess of oysters and the sweetness of clams with a subtle nuttiness that no other shellfish can boast. Abalone larger than three or four inches in diameter are impossibly tough, so they are usually pounded into suppleness with a mallet. Smaller abalone, sliced thin and cooked briefly--or not at all--have the easy crunch of raw squid.

Yoshi, the head chef at Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills, tells me that for most Japanese, that crunch is a welcome indication of freshness, and the preferred way to appreciate such a treat is raw--as sashimi or sushi. It is considered a mistake to muddle its inimitable qualities with a lot of other ingredients, and only equally esteemed foods such as rice and soy sauce make suitable partners.

abalone nigiri

Makes about 10 pieces

For the rice:

1/2 cup medium-grain rice

1 teaspoon rice vinegar

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 very fresh raw abalone, about 4 ounces in the shell or 1 to 11/2 ounces removed from the shell

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1/2 teaspoon wasabi paste

1/4 cup soy sauce

Place rice in bowl. Cover with water and wash rice by rubbing it between your fingers; drain through sieve. Repeat twice more. Allow rice to drain in sieve for 15 minutes. Place rice in small saucepan with 1/2 cup of water. Cover with clean tea towel stretched under tight-fitting lid. Bring to boil over high heat, then simmer over very low heat for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and leave rice tightly covered for another 15 minutes to steam.

Meanwhile, mix the vinegar, sugar and salt in small saucepan and cook over high heat just until sugar dissolves. Allow mixture to cool. Put rice in wooden or plastic bowl and sprinkle vinegar mixture over it. Using wooden spoon, carefully distribute vinegar mixture, being careful not to break the grains. Fan rice to cool it. Cover bowl with damp tea towel and set aside.

Using an oyster knife, remove abalone meat from shell, leaving intestines behind. Trim most of black edges from abalone meat. Cut abalone meat lengthwise as thinly as possible; you should get 10 or more slices.

Mix 1/2 cup of water with vinegar in a small bowl. Lightly moisten one hand with the vinegar mixture. Pick up about one tablespoon of rice in same hand and shape it into firm, even oval. Spread tiny amount (to taste) of wasabi paste on top of oval. Lay a slice of abalone over wasabi and mold fish around rice. Continue with rest of rice, wasabi, and abalone. Serve with soy sauce.

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Jamie Purviance is the author of “Weber’s Art of the Grill” (Chronicle Books, 1999).