"In February, an 8.8-millimeter white pearl was found in a clam shucked at the Lobster House in Cape May, N.J. "Odds are approximately one in more than two million," Arnold explains. To find a large pearl, particularly purple in color, is indeed rare. "I was once a partner in a clam-harvesting facility outside of Atlantic City and we would find them regularly typically very small in size and predominantly white," says Arnold. "These types of clams are both wild-caught and marine-raised all along the eastern seaboard from Florida through Long Island Sound."Ĭonsidering the number of clams harvested each year, which is in the millions, it's rare but not entirely uncommon to find a pearl. "These clams are of the species Mercenaria mercenaria, commonly known as hard shell clams," says Lynn Arnold, director of seafood for restaurant food supplier Rastelli Foods Group. The clams in the savory dish were beyond a doubt an unexpected treasure. The rare find came from Salt Air Kitchen and Bar in Rehoboth Beach, Del. According to the chef, the dish is typically prepared with white wine and garlic and butter broth, then topped with an heirloom bell pepper relish and parmesan cheese. "We were all surprised and happy for the guest - I personally cooked the clams on the given night and couldn't believe the pearl got by me," said Salt Air's executive chef, Pete Farley, of the dish, which contained clams from Cape Charles, Va. Restaurant staff were thrilled that Overland's appetizer ended up being a dish worth a lot more than its price on the menu. "As we were leaving, we heard her telling other servers, 'My customer just found a pearl in his clam!' She had never seen anything like it before either." "She said we could absolutely keep it, but she wanted to take pictures of it on her phone," says Overland. "We initially didn't tell anyone at the restaurant what we had found, as we wanted to be a bit more certain about what it was," says Overland.Īt the end of the meal, they showed the pearl to their server. (Photo: Scott Overland)Īs it turns out, they learned clams do produce pearls. Overland's clam appetizer packed a surprising ingredient: a rare purple pearl. "We also had never seen a purple pearl before." "We whipped out our phones and started what we could have, as neither of us knew clams could produce pearls we thought they only came from oysters," says Overland. When they examined the shell again, and it had an indentation inside that looked like something had grown there, they realized they probably had something that came from inside the clam. "In fact at first, before we knew it was a pearl, we thought it may have been something that fell in from the kitchen, so we stopped eating and started to try and figure out what it was." "We did not keep eating the clams," he recalls. It was toward the end of enjoying the dish that Overland made the unexpected discovery.
"Like a bead or piece of candy," he says, "my wife said it looked like one of those dot candies you peel off of paper, because the back of it was flat and it was a very light shade of purple." "When we looked at it, it was actually purple," says Overland, who initially thought it was something a chef had dropped in. "That's also good," he says of the preparation, "because if we were just slurping down clams on the half shell, we may have swallowed the pearl."Īs Overland was eating the clams, he bit down on something hard and thought it was a piece of shell. " a good lesson to not be a pain at restaurants," says Overland of the dish, which was not part of the restaurant's raw bar menu, but cooked. It's a good thing he didn't, because he'd never have discovered a rare purple pearl inside one of the clams.
"My wife is not a huge fan of bell peppers, so we asked for it without the pico, but they forgot the request and put it on," says Overland, who almost sent the dish back. "We ordered the clams appetizer, which came with a scampi sauce and a bell pepper pico ," Overland tells Yahoo Life. on a family vacation when he discovered a rare treasure on his dinner plate. Scott Overland was dining out at Salt Air Kitchen and Bar in Rehoboth Beach, Del. Scott Overland says he thought "a bead or piece of candy" was inside one of the clams he was served at a Delaware restaurant.
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