Philippines/Palawan: Eating Tamilok Wood Worm

(a mini post) A gastronomical experience not for the faint-hearted – the Tamilok wood worm! It looks like a long slimy gooey worm, but actually it’s a bivalve mollusk (like a clam or oyster) that evolved to completely lose its shell. They live and feed on rotting mangrove trees, eating out neat hollow burrows. After fishermen pull them out of the wood, they are washed and kept in salty water. To eat it, you dip it into vinegar and lime juice with chopped onions and then swallow whole. It tastes like an oyster but earthier and thicker. They only love in Palawan in Philippines.