Contents

• About
• Origins
• Aftermath
• Search Interest
• External References

About

La palourde royale (the Pacific geoduck, Panopea generosa) was a viral video that originated in Québec, North America and later spread throughout the French-speaking world. It featured the laughing fit of the two hosts of the television culinary show Des kiwis et des hommes (aired on the channel Radio-Canada) because the Pacific geoduck, cooked by the Vietnamese-Quebecer chef Tri Du, resembled a penis (due to the remarkably long siphon of the species).

Origins

Des kiwis et des hommes was a culinary program that aired on Radio-Canada between 2005 and 2012 and was hosted by Boucar Diouf and Francis Reddy. During the 21 May 2010 program, the Vietnamese-Quebecer chef Tri Du, owner of the restaurant Tri Express in Montréal (specialized in sushi), was invited to show the hosts how to clean up and cook Pacific geoduck sashimi. The mollusk is unknown in Québec; this specimen was captured in British Columbia.

At first, the mollusk was covered, and already, the hosts were warning the viewers to expect to be surprised. Boukar Diouf mentioned that despite he was an oceanographer, he never saw that during his life. Overhelmed with laughters, he passed the torch to Francis Reddy to continue the interview.

Francis Reddy asked if the raw mollusk wasn't too rubbery. The chef Tri Du answered that it wasn't, not like a candy (bonbon). Hilarity ensued again since the valves of the geoduck resembled testicles.

The first step was to clean the mollusk to remove any sand, but while the chef cut the shell, it squirted. As he opened up the mollusk, Boucar Diouf was surprised by the shape of the visceral ball that could be extracted. This part was discarded as it is not edible.

Boucar Diouf : C'est quoi ça ? (What is that?)
Tri Du : Ben… c'est ça ! (Well… it's that!)

Tri Du then demonstrated that it only took 10 seconds to boil the geoduck in boiling water.

Tri Du : Après ça tu vas [l']enlever, et ça va devenir dur. (Then you will remove [it], and it will become hard.)
Francis Reddy : Ça va devenir dur ! (It will become hard!)

Afterwards, Tri Du explains that it's necessary to remove the membrane at the surface of the siphon… which resembles a condom.

Tri Du : Tu frottes comme ça, là. (You rub like this, innit.)
Boucar Diouf : Tu frottes comme ça ! (You rub like this!)
Tri Du : Arrête de me faire rire ! (Stop making me laugh!)

Now it's time to cut the geoduck in thin strips. A curiosity of the animal is that it hardens as one is cutting it; as it is almost raw, the muscle still contracts itself. Finally, he decorates the pieces with small incisions at the extremity.

Finally, the geoduck is served in a martini glass, on a bed of two-coloured algae.

Afterwards, the chef Tri Du prepares maki. He then adds cucumber sheets, strips of tuna, salmond and caviar of flying fish, smelt, tempura and a sauce of yogourt, mayonnaise and wasabi. The ingredents are then all rolled in the cucumber to make maki, and he cuts it in four pieces. The four maki are then served in the martini glass with the rest.

This episode was by far the most famous of the entire show. It was later mentioned in another episode about barnacles (balanes), in which Boucar Diouf mentioned that the barnacles had the longest reproductive organ, which Francis Reddy compared to the geoduck.

Aftermath

Eigth years after the original broadcast, the three men gathered once again in the restaurant of the chef Tri Du, the Tri Express, to attempt to cook once again the geoduck without laughing. It was a special broadcast for the radio show Tout un matin of the channel ICI Radio-Canada Première. Now Francis Reddy animated On est pas sorti de l'auberge on television and Boucar Diouf animated La nature selon Boucar on the radio.

It was revealed that before the original broadcast, Tri Du asked Francis Reddy if he wanted a mere recipe, or a spectacle. Francis Reddy answered he wanted a spectacle.

Boucar Diouf, in his quality of oceanographer, mentioned that his colleague Pierre Blier of the Université du Québec à Rimouski studied various species of palourdes (clams, bivalves), because these species could live for centuries^[1].

Twelve years later, the viral video was yet again commemorated for their "silk" anniversary" (noces de soie). The two animators mentioned they were quite tired to still talk about it^[2].

Search Interest

External References

^[1] BOUCHARD, Jean-François. « Le secret de la longévité des palourdes multi-centenaires », Université du Québec à Rimouski, 24th January 2013, URL : https://www.uqar.ca/2229-le-secret-de-la-longevite-des-palourdes-multi-centenaires/

^[2] « Noces de soie pour la palourde royale des Kiwis et des hommes », Radio-Canada, 19th May 2017, URL : https://ici.radio-canada.ca/tele/blogue/1033266/noces-de-soie-pour-la-palourde-royale-des-kiwis-et-des-hommes