If you want to order a good clam dish Be careful when you go to restaurants: What they’ve given you so far might be a different bivalve. Maybe it’s delicious, but that has little to do with what you want.

This pass is so common that experts have even dubbed it the “zamburiñas scam.” It’s pretty much a cat inside a rabbit in a seafood restaurant version.

What is Zamburiña and what is not?

The first thing is to clarify what “zamburiña” is. In fact, this name refers to a very specific species. Mimachlamys variabut in practice we misuse the term to refer to other species of pectinids, bivalve mollusks named for their distinctive comb shape.

It is a loose use of the term and similar ones This means that when a customer orders scallops at a seafood restaurant, they may encounter something different on the plate. Similar, yes; but it is not the special bivalves of the Galician estuaries that I have in mind. Of course, as a result, price and taste differences also arise.

Photos showing the outside and inside of the right valve. Image A) corresponds to “Mimachlamys varia” (zamburiña); B with Argopecten Purpuratus (Pacific scallop) and C with Aequipecten Opercularis (volandeira).

To check how frequent this “change” happens, a few years ago a group of researchers from the University of Oviedo went to 12 supermarkets, small businesses and 20 restaurants, mostly in Asturias, and looked for the good ones, zamburiñas. that is, they are original ones. Mimachlamys varia.

His conclusion was surprising. AND Not very hopeful. Of the 148 seafood samples they collected, 49% were mislabeled. And although “zamburiñas” (which means the same thing as the word) were offered on the menus of the 20 restaurants they visited, in no case were they actually the kind that were actually cooked.

What does fraud consist of?

What did they offer customers? In poorly labeled products, the majority were volandeiras, not zamburiñas (Aequipecten opercularis). What was served to customers in restaurants was Pacific scallops (Argopecten purpuratusIt’s a species produced through aquaculture, frozen, and native to the coasts of Peru and Chile, the researchers recall.

Something similar happened in 2023, when the Research Team program at La Sexta went to three restaurants with biologist Juan Junoy. They all wanted zamburiñas. And they all took the same thing: a plate pacific scallops.

The key: the matter of names… and similarities.

It is important to know what they serve us. It’s more a money issue than a food issue. At the end of the day, fresh scallops from Galicia, which are scarce and expensive, are one thing, and seafood carried in freezer rooms on ships from Peruvian or Chilean waters is quite another.

“Although the substitutes found were not nutritionally remarkable, economic impactsOviedo experts admit that due to the price difference between the species studied and the type and origin of substitute products, and even health may be important.

How do I know if I have been served zamburiña?

Although it is easier to detect change if the differences between them are known. As Junoy remembers SpeechThe secret is in the details: The most consumed scallop in Spain is pecten jacobaeus And P. maximusIt stands out with its size, concave valve with a white interior, and flattened dorsal valve with a reddish to violet color. Its outline is circular, and its ears (the two tips visible on either side of the crown) are equal in size.

Volandeira, one of the bivalves sometimes substituted for scallops, is similar to scallops, despite some differences that Junoy points out: smaller, their ears are irregular and their colors vary from pink to orange. Another key difference is that the two valves are concave.

Pacific scallop (Argopectem purpuratus) This animal, so common on menus, has a shape similar to that of the volandeira; with circular features, unequal ears, concave valves and violet coloration. The important thing is that it is bigger. “It is a species native to Peru and Chile. Because of its origin, what they offer is a defrosted product,” says the expert from the University of Alcalá.

There are more clues to know if we are a victim of the “Zamburiñas scam”. Authentic, Mimachlamys varia, is a smaller species at about five centimeters and is slightly oval, almost teardrop-shaped. The biologist also slides two features This, apart from the longer shape, helps identify them: They have a large number of radial ribs running through the shell, often more than the rest of the species, and their ears are very different from each other: one is small and the other protrudes disproportionately.

There are clues when looking inside.

“If we open it, the adductor muscle immediately stands out in a central position, which, together with the gonad, makes up the majority of food, that is, the food we eat. Pectinids are hermaphrodites. The so-called corals are the female gonad, orange or reddish in color, flanked by the whitish male gonad, except for the zamburiña, which is brown.” he explains.

Pictures | A. Munar (Flickr) and University of Oviedo

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