Queen conch

Lambi

What it is

In 1992 the queen conch became the first large-scale fishery product ever listed on CITES Appendix II, so a crate of lambi crossing a border now travels on an export permit, like ivory or orchids. The animal takes three to five years to build the flared lip that marks it as adult, and once that lip forms it stops growing longer.

In the kitchen

Cut away the orange operculum and the dark skin, then pound the white foot down to about five millimetres before anything else happens to it. From there it is two windows and nothing in between: forty-five seconds on a hot grill, or ninety minutes in a colombo.

Goes with

Colombo powder Lime Garlic Thyme Onion Chili pepper Coconut milk Bay leaf

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