Around this time in the countryside, whenever the weather is clear and sunny, people watch for the ebb tide to go digging for clams. When the season comes, river clams usually lie under the mud and sand in the shallow water along the river. Grandma often ties a bamboo basket to her body and slowly wades out to the chest-deep water, diving down to catch clams. When her hand touches the rough clam shell, her feeling immediately changes from anticipation to joy. The hometown river has always loved and given people countless products.
Sometimes, unfortunately, my grandmother's hands would touch a piece of pottery, a sharp object or a fish spine, scratching her skin and causing her to bleed. My mother said that diving in the river was not easy, she had to be strong and flexible enough to endure being immersed in cold water all day under the scorching sun of the Central region. Even though nature was generous, making a living was extremely hard. In return, if you diligently dived and caught as many clams as possible, you would be able to exchange them for delicious meals and extra money to buy necessities.
River clams are only about three fingers long, with two hard shells of yellow-brown and dark brown color. Thanks to the sweet nourishment of the hometown river, river clams have plump intestines and a sweeter taste than sea clams. Clams cannot be cooked immediately after being caught, they must be soaked in rice water with a few crushed chili peppers for about a session to release all the mud and sand. After that, the clams are cleaned and processed into many delicious rustic dishes that can be eaten once and remembered forever.
Grandma often goes to the garden to pick young sweet potato shoots, cooks a pot of light, sweet clam soup on a summer afternoon. If you want to change the taste, you can cook clam soup with tomatoes and star fruit, the sweet, sour and spicy taste goes well with rice. Boiled clams or steamed clams with lemongrass are even more appealing. The chewy, fatty, sweet clam meat dipped in a bowl of chili and garlic fish sauce is delicious. Or after several hours of soaking in the water until your hands and feet are pale, your lips are dry and your face is pale, you sit down and slurp a bowl of hot, fragrant clam porridge, all your fatigue disappears, and you feel infinitely grateful for your hometown river.
I looked at my mother’s wrinkled hands, the calluses from the clam digging days were no longer there. But the memories of longing were still deeply imprinted in my heart. It seemed like my mother was missing my grandmother, the stories kept coming one after another. My mother sat there in front of me and it felt like she was going back in time to the old house by the peaceful river. My grandmother’s bamboo basket of clams seemed to sway in my mother’s eyes.
Grandma is now gone, and Mom doesn't have the strength to reach the riverbed to dig for clams. It's much easier to eat a bowl of clam porridge than before, as it's sold everywhere. But the taste can never be the same as the porridge that grandma spent her whole life preparing with love.
Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/nho-khi-mo-cat-bat-ngheu-post798595.html
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