Xishi Tongue Clams 西施舌
Xishi Tongue Clams is featured among the local specialties of Shandong.
Image notes
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Xishi Tongue Clams (西施舌) are a prized sea clam of Rizhao (日照), Shandong, and the name is also used for the white, delicate soup made from them. The name, literally "Xi Shi's tongue", refers to Xi Shi (西施), the celebrated beauty of the ancient state of Yue. Rizhao Daily (日照日报) calls the clam a seafood found only in Rizhao.
Ingredients
The species is Mactra antiquata, a clam that lives in sand from the lower intertidal zone and shallow sea down to about 20 metres. Chinese Wikipedia notes that a larger share of this clam is edible than in most other bivalves, and that the innards are usually removed so that only the meat is eaten.
Where it comes from
Rizhao Daily retells how the clam got its name. The late-Qing scholar Wang Xu (王绪) was served, at a shop's opening banquet, a soup of large Rizhao sea clams that was white, fine, tender and smooth. It had no name, so the owner asked him for one; thinking of Xi Shi, he wrote "Xishi tongue", and the clam has carried the name since.
The same article retells a story from the memoirs of Kong Yiqian (孔益千), a staff member attending Mao Zedong in Jinan (济南) in the winter of 1956. Mao told him that Shandong produced Xishi tongue and that it grew on the shore of Rizhao County, and after eating it praised it as very fresh and delicious.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.