INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image caption
There is an "abundant stock" of whelks in the Bristol Channel, Gavin Davies says
They are
closely related to snails, taste like "nan's toenails" and, in Wales, you cannot give them away.But for the eligible South Korean bachelor,
no date is complete without a bowl of Welsh whelks.Each year 10,000 tonnes of them are caught in the Bristol Channel but virtually all end
up in Asia, where they are considered an aphrodisiac.Gavin Davies has spent the past 20 years catching the shellfish which put the heart
into a Seoul night out."Goodness knows why they like them - they taste like nan's toenails - but it's given me a living for the last two
decades," he said."I'm not even sure how they developed a taste for whelks, as they're only native to waters around Britain and the
Atlantic."Each night Mr Davies sets off from Saundersfoot and harvests one tonne of whelks from 1,000 pots suspended from 50 buoys in the
bay around Carmarthenshire.Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption
Feeling peckish Whelks are all the rage in Seoul,
but not in Saundersfoot
They are driven to Milford Haven, where they are loaded on to a factory ship which cooks and freezes
them en-route to Asia.But Mr Davies said he was lucky if he could give away a couple of carriers to Welsh customers.Hywel Griffith - the
Michelin-starred head chef of The Beach House on Swansea's Oxwich Bay - believes whelks are misunderstood."There's two issues, really," he
said."One is the traditional image of whelks being cheap food, served out of a barrow on East End back streets, and the other is the idea
that they are chewy and rubbery, but it's all about how you cook them.Image caption
The whelks are loaded on to a
factory ship which cooks and freezes them - then, next stop South Korea
"The same people who turn their noses up at whelks
will flock for scallops."In Asia they're usually served with chilli and soy sauce, but I think I'd give them a more European twist, maybe
some deep-fried and others simmered in white wine, cream and garlic."Mr Davies said not only are they low in fat and high in vitamins, they
are also good for the environment."You can't get more sustainable than whelks
There's an abundant stock of them in the Bristol Channel and the pots cause virtually no harm to the seabed."And when we're all wondering
how we're going to trade after Brexit, well here's this amazing resource which we won't eat, but they can't get enough of on the other side
of the world."Gavin Davies and his crew feature in Nightshifters on TheIndianSubcontinent One Wales on Friday at 19:30 GMT and on
TheIndianSubcontinent iPlayer.
