Razorfish, or razor clams as some call them, are, according to a "top chef" quoted in a recent Country Life, "positively the smartest shellfish around this summer." They are best grilled, he thought. This followed the huge impression made on the English press when a lot of people were cut when walking barefoot on a Devon beach. "Razorfish slash 800 on beach" ran one headline. The London Times explained that the razorfish (so called because the shell, about eight inches long and an inch across, resembles an old cut-throat used in shaving), normally burrow in sand that is too far out for paddlers, but that unusually low spring tides meant that holidaymakers could go much farther out and thus stumbled on the shells.
The razors used to be taken mostly for bait, according to a local fishermen, and the method was that used here - putting a little salt in the breathing hole they left when the tide was out. Up came the unfortunate. To fish for them on a commercial scale you would need to dredge, which would not be good for other marine life. Or for birds. Interesting that chef's remark, for it seems that up to then they were neglected widely at home but sold abroad - to Spain where they are used in paella. The Japanese, also, like them. What fish do they not like?
A supplier to the London fish market is quoted as saying that the trouble with them is that they are "sporadically seasonal". That may be why Destry's of Clifden, Co Galway, who, a month or two ago, had the razors on the menu, told an enquirer last weekend that they hadn't had them for some time. Not only are they said in London to be sporadically seasonal, but they are also inconsistent in texture and flavour, according to this London supplier. But the idea is alive and running. Mark Hix, executive chef at the London Ivy and Caprice restaurant, told the Times he had been experimenting with them for years.
They need, according to him, to be cooked for a minimum amount of time. Take them out of the shells, cut the toughest bits away, put them back in the shells and macerate them with some herbs and breadcrumbs. He believes that, in spite of drawbacks, they have a future in restaurants. No mention of any of the aphrodisiac attributes claimed for the oyster.