Tahong can’t be more mouthwatering than this.
The sight of melted cheese just blows me away. The mega tandem of garlic and cheese topped on most dishes where it is suitable always gets me going for seconds each and every time they are served. Ahh, don’t we all?
Tahong is more popularly known in Mindanao as ‘green shell’, it’s actually the species that’s more commercial. It has the green shell, of course, with deep brown streaks on it. The other species of tahong is the brown mussel. As the name suggests, the shell is brown, but the meat is the same as the meat of green shell. In certain areas in the Visayas, like in the town of my lola in Negros Occidental, these brown mussels are called ‘tabahong’.
Today, we had this lovely dish of tahong. It’s baked garlic and cheese tahong. I just put 1 kilo of tahong in a casserole with no water, no salt and pepper, nada! Set the heat on medium and let it cook for about twenty minutes or until the shells broke open. The tahong excreted its own liquid after it cooked. Once cooked, I removed the top cover to expose the meat of the shell for baking.
I arranged them on my baking pan topping each shell meat with butter, a pinch of minced garlic and quickmelt cheese. In the end I gave it a quick dash of salt and pepper. Cheese and butter were already quite salty that’s why the additional salt wasn’t too much. The pre-baked tahong looked something like this:
Once cooked, you have the option to take your tahong to another level and top some more with chopped tomatoes and chives. Something like:
baked tahong with cheese, garlic, chopped tomatoes and chives
Not bad, eh?
Or, you may settle with the default recipe which is…
baked garlic and cheese tahong
The Eating Room 
I like the twist to the finale! Will definitely try that 🙂
Ang galing. I am making this later for dinner! 😀