Vietnam: Shellfish/Sea Snails

I personally love seafood, in whatever shape or form it is in. Although, don't ask me to cook anything because I can totally get freaked out by it. Being in Vietnam I knew I should try their seafood because I was told it was uber fresh.

Here are different types of ocean creatures with shells. I really have no idea what they're called so we're both out of luck here. But if you do know what they are called, enlighten me!

Ok, this is one of the few that I know because I've been longing to try this. Blood Cockles are rare in the states and even if they have cockles, it's not the blood type. Call me a vampire but I always wanted to try it. It definitely is on the irony side but texture-wise is similar to clams. Odd thing about these creatures is they don't usually open up like clams do when they're cook, you have to manually open them which can be a pain when you just got your nails done.

One of my favorites, they might look creepy but taste just like the sea snails in the states at those Chinese restaurant. These are a lot easier to hold and "suck."

The patterns on the shell were a real eye-catcher. It tasted like conch but slightly harder and tougher. Not really a fan.

This is like a marriage between a clam and mussel which then had a baby and voila! Tasted like clam but with a softer texture of a mussel, dip it in fish sauce and it was pretty darn good.

Lastly, this weird looking shell. I actually completely forgot how this taste like, wasn't so memorable nor did the sauce work with it. Reminds of those round toffee/butterscotch candy, weird.

There were so much more in Vietnam but with the limited amount of time we had and our relatives having to go to work, we lucked out. Must be more prepare next time.