A Spanish girl was incredibly lucky when she bit into a purple pearl while enjoying a plate of clams during dinner with her boyfriend.
Natalia Freire was dining with her boyfriend at Casa Sampedro restaurant in A Coruña, Galicia, where she also works, when she made a special discovery.
According to Mirror, the young woman ordered a plate of clams, and after finishing the first one, she felt a small spherical object in her mouth. When she took it out to inspect, Natalia was both shocked and overjoyed to realize it was a purple pearl.
The girl found a purple pearl while eating clams at the restaurant. (Source: Jam Press).
“My bosses were shocked. The chef even told me that from now on, clam dishes will be served slower than usual because she has to use a magnifying glass to check each one,” Natalia shared.
She also mentioned that this discovery brought her many congratulations and questions.
“Now, more people are approaching me to talk than before. I see my family and colleagues are all happy, so this is really cool,” Natalia added.
Experts estimate that the purple pearl is worth approximately $4,300.
While all mollusks, including oysters, clams, and mussels, can produce pearls, only certain types of saltwater and freshwater mussels are used for commercial pearl cultivation.
Typically, these invertebrates feed by filtering seawater for essential nutrients, but sometimes a foreign object, such as a parasite, can enter their bodies.
To protect themselves from irritants, they will create a layer of nacre to envelop the invading object. As a result, a small, hard, spherical white object forms, known as a pearl.
Since the pearl that Natalia found is purple, it is even more valuable.
“I knew the clams here were delicious, but I never expected they could hide something so wonderful,” Natalia said.
Javier García, the restaurant owner, stated: “This is the first time in my life that I have encountered something like this. I didn’t even know clams could produce pearls. I thought they only came from oysters.”
In 2019, Kodchakorn Tantiwiwatkul, a woman from Thailand, accidentally found an orange Melo pearl worth tens of thousands of dollars while eating.
Kodchakorn had bought some sea snails for about 70 Baht from a local market for dinner when she made the unexpected discovery.
