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Digging for lala (clams) and tua tow (mussels) at Kranji Dam/Beach

Digging for lala at Kranji Dam has been an activity that I had always wanted to do although I always dismissed the activity with nothing but a little light hearted scorn. As I walked by Kranji Dam after my freshwater fishing exercises, I would see families with their spades, shovels and pails wading out during low tide to exposed mud flats to dig for the shellfish. I would then label them as crazy and nothing better to do...

But on this day, I was the one being crazy as I did exactly that! The goal was to do something different from the usual boring things singaporeans do... Armed with pink mini shovels and a single pail, we ventured down to the mud flats from the Kranji battle site.

Secret weapon - pink mini shovels from Daiso!
The amount of sandworms that were crawling around at low tide around the swamp area was freaky! They were all over the place and only went away when the tide was completely low!

Apparently we were the first ones there and we didn't really know how to go about it until fellow diggers started streaming in and we followed along with them or rather copied them! Eventually, we waded out in ankle deep water to the exposed sand banks where there were supposedly more shellfish!

As we dug and dug, we eventually got the hang of it... We slowly gathered our loot under the hot burning sun!

our loot!
Thankfully, there was a toilet nearby and we could do all our washing up there!

Here's how to get there if you are a newbie! You can take bus 925 on weekdays/sat or 925# on sundays! Free parking is available at Kranji Reservoir Carpark B!


View Larger Map

Let me put together a few more trips so I can advise the readers and wannabe diggers here on some tips on digging for the lala at Kranji! Or if any readers are keen, Email me and we can setup a trip together!

Anyway, here's what happened to the clams later on.... Tomato pasta!

After soaking in seawater
boiled lightly in ginger to get rid of sand and dirt

tomato pasta!

Comments

azariel said…
long time fan of your blog. never knew one could dig for mussels! would love to try out one day...
Nigel said…
Thanks :) I might be going again this saturday!
Zachary said…
any idea when is it a good time to go? I understand it should be low tide, but how low? at least 0.6m? or...
Zachary said…
any idea how low of a tide it should be before kranji area is good for clamming?

at least 0.6m?
Nigel said…
0.5 to 1m is ok. There r also clams found close to shore.
Zachary said…
thanks for the info nigel

Just wondering as well, are the clams safe for eating? I've learned that Algae Blooms in the waters would cause the clams to be poisonous for human consumption, and cooking these clams would not make it any safer for eating.

Hope you could shed light. Thanks mate ;)

Zachary said…
thanks for the info nigel

Just wondering as well, are the clams safe for eating? I've learned that Algae Blooms in the waters would cause the clams to be poisonous for human consumption, and cooking these clams would not make it any safer for eating.

Hope you could shed light. Thanks mate ;)
Nigel said…
Look here

http://baktao.blogspot.sg/search/label/Digging%20shellfish

Actually, I can't really tell as well lah.... but I've eaten them a few times and nothing happened!

I'm sure if something happened in that region, authorities will notify us since the water there is surrounded by fish farms!

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