You know those tiny little clam-like things that are about the size of your pinky fingernail, and wash up on the beach? You know… the ones that burrow down right away, and leave that little air hole. Well, you know you are on vacation when you decide to make coquina soup. (Who has time?) Luckily, my brother-in-law is a marine biologist, so he could tell me what to do, and luckily all four of us were popping the meats out after I boiled them. There were 901 of them. Yes, we counted.
But we were all surprised by how tasty the soup ended up. I didn’t add any potato or other chowdery things so that folks would know that what they were tasting really was the coquina. We are ready to open the Coquina Soup Kitchen. Except each bowl will be very expensive. It’s very time consuming.
The coquina pop right open when boiled.
The pretty shells once they are open. Who would have thought that 901 coquinas produces about 3/4 cup of meat. My daughter said she wouldn’t eat them even if she was on a deserted island. I think we know otherwise.
Back from vacation, now back to work!
Ellen Yale Photography 
Hi Ellen,
Saw this interesting blog. Out of curiousity, how long did it take the four of you to separate the meat from those 901 clams? And how long to make the soup all told?
I think it took us about 30 minutes. It seemed overwhelming to do it all by myself, so I drafted the other three, and 30 minutes wasn’t bad (instead of 2 hours). Then cooking wasn’t long. 10 minutes total? Just a guess. But the other time consuming thing was letting the coquina sit in the clean water to release their sand. No effort, but you have to give it time.
But with all the time to collect them on the beach and shell them, we figured we would have to charge a lot to have a coquina soup restaurant.
When I was a child near Clearwater Beach, Florida one of our treats was coquina soup! Most people have no idea how tiny (and colorful) these guys are. And entire Spanish Forts are made from these like the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine where Osceola was imprisoned (and escaped 3 times).
The soup was a local delicacy!