Air-Flown Fresh Goose Barnacles

TAST­ING NOTES FROM THE CURATOR

The goose bar­na­cle has two parts, the top being its claw-like shell and the bot­tom being a tube rem­i­nis­cent of a goose’s neck. It uses this tube — dark, with rub­bery-look­ing skin — to hang onto cliff­side rocks. Beneath this skin hides its prized meat.

Briny and some­what sweet, some peo­ple say the meat tastes like a cross between lob­ster and clam; oth­ers claim it tastes some­what like octo­pus or scal­lop. The meat of percebes is plump and juicy and, no mat­ter where you land in the debate about what their intense taste reminds you of, you must admit, they con­tain the essence of the sea.

PREPA­RA­TION OR PAIRINGS

It takes all of five min­utes to pre­pare percebes. Place them in a pot of salt­ed min­er­al water and allow this to come to a boil, so that the shell­fish becomes ten­der. Drain the water and serve imme­di­ate­ly, lemon wedges on the side com­plete­ly option­al. You might also steam them with white wine or sauté them in olive oil. The sim­pler the recipe, the bet­ter you will enjoy the nat­ur­al sea fla­vor of this curi­ous-shaped mollusk.

A HAR­VEST FRAUGHT WITH DANGER

Part of the rea­son percebes are so cov­et­ed is the inher­ent dan­ger in col­lect­ing them. Perce­beiros in thick wet­suits use crow­bars to hack them from the rocky cliff­side in the part of the Atlantic called the Cos­ta da Morte, where huge waves crash against the stones. The more vio­lent the waves, the hard­er the percebes cling to the rocks and, sup­pos­ed­ly, the tasti­er they become. It’s the high price — in all sens­es for all involved — to be paid for such a delicacy.

DIS­CLAIMER ON AVAIL­ABIL­I­TY OF PRE-ORDERED AIR-FLOWN ITEMS

This is a pre-ordered item at The Bow Tie Duck and will only be avail­able while the pro­duc­er from over­seas is able to sup­ply and allow air-flown deliv­ery. Because this item is sub­ject to sea­son­al avail­abil­i­ty, we require a total min­i­mum quan­ti­ty of 3kg to be able to ship. If the min­i­mum is not met by our cut-off date, we will have to delay the entire ship­ment. In case of deliv­ery delays, deliv­ery can­cel­la­tions,​“out of stock” notices, or​“out of sea­son” notices after pur­chase, you will be con­tact­ed by our Sup­port Team. You will receive a refund or prod­uct replace­ment, or you can choose a new deliv­ery date for your item. In choos­ing to place an order, you agree to the terms and have read that this par­tic­u­lar prod­uct is not on-hand. After a short wait, you will receive your orders fresh from the source.

Storage Instructions

Store your fresh shell­fish in the fridge, keep­ing the tem­per­a­ture between 0 to 5°C. Place it in a bowl with ice at the bot­tom — or if you have the room, place ice in a large bowl, then place the shell­fish in a slight­ly small­er bowl to sit in the large one — and cov­er every­thing up with a wet paper tow­el. To enjoy them at their fresh­est, please con­sume them with­in 48 hours.