Tammy... Look!!! Part 2: This is it!

By Jermaine Beltran

"Flowing like a gummy gello through my throat..." That was my first feeling on eating the poor thing, the Tamilok.

The Tamilok is a popular dish in Palawan. The worm could be bought for only 20 pesos up until 40 pesos, depending on the location and the harvester.
The grossly unusual delicacy has been featured recently in ABS-CBN's The Correspondents with Karen Davila having to feature the worm. However, she did not try because she is pregnant.

Tamilok is a mangrove worm that is not exactly a worm. Although it looks like one, it is actually a mangrove-boring mollusk. Palawan’s natural resources boosts of large mangrove areas, especially on the northern part covering municipalities of Taytay, El Nido, Busuanga, Culion, Coron and Linapacan. These are the towns that are also frequently visited by tourists of different nationalities, according to statistics. (Pinoy Food Featured, F &B World.)


The locals who live nearby these mangrove areas have found a livelihood in collecting tamilok and selling them in wet markets and even in the streets to tourist passersby. Even in Sitio Sabang where the Underground River is located, carrying a pale of live tamilok is a common sight.

Anyway, so my father brought home some tamilok from his Palawan business trip.
From the outside, the container seemed teeming with snakes. I opened the container and there I saw which looked like Medusa's wig, just that they are not snakes.

When I saw the creature at first hand, it looked like a squid just that it had a long body and a weird head. It is slender, as if mucus is all over the Tamilok. It has a grayish with some black spot that show what they have eaten from the "bakawan" (mangroves).



To eat it, I had to "drain" out that black substance which I really am not sure if it is waste or tree remains. But my father assured that according to the gatherer of the Tamilok that it is safe to it, "just wash and drain the black icky stuff." Now, how about talking "icky"?


To newbies like me, a bowl full of tamilok is not a, uhmm, comfortable sight. To describe it aptly tamilok is fat, slimy and grayish white but please, don’t judge it by its appearance. It makes for great “pulutan” dish especially with the local drink “tuba”.

So once the black substance have been drained, I sliced off the eye-like head. "That's more like it...", I said referring to the more pleasantly-edible Tamilok.

Here comes the fun part, the actual eating.

My father advised me to cut it into pieces. However, I did not cut the Tamilok into pieces because I want to feel how it feels to eat something that long and insane delicacy. I ate it as if it was a strand of spaghetti noodles. It felt weird at first as it passed down my throat, I almost gagged but I was able to handle it.
I would confirm testimonies by people who have eaten Tamilok that it tastes better than oyster (talaba).

I concur with Davila's subjects that it really tasted like seafood. For me, it felt as if it were really squid but tasted like oyster. Ironically, "yummy" was the right word to say at that time because, not only have I conquered the disgusting feeling, but also the story that I have eaten an odd delicacy.

For the adventurous, this food could probably be considered an excellent if not ultimate test of trying out new stuff. If you have a “problematic” stomach, never mind. Just enjoy the amusing and amazing stories of people who have tasted the tamilok.

Note: Lower Photo from The Correspondents

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