Quahog purple pearl: “Us Woman” finds $600 pearl in restaurant seafood dish

A woman from Issaquah, Washington, recently bit down on a rare purple Quahog pearl while dining at her favorite Italian restaurant.

Lindsay Hasz was dining out with her husband at Montalcino Ristorante Italiano in Issaquah, a town about 20 miles outside of Seattle, when she found a purple Quahog pearl in her dish, reports ABC News.

“I felt like I almost broke my tooth when I first bit it,” Lindsay Hasz told ABC News. “It was pretty dark in the restaurant, so it was hard to tell what it was, but when I looked at it closer, it looked totally round and perfect. Too perfect.”

A gemologist confirmed for Hasz that she had indeed nearly cracked a tooth on a rare purple Quahog pearl indigenous to the New England area, calling the odds of finding a natural, gem-quality Quahog pearl “on in a couple million.” He estimated the the object formed by secretions in the immune response system of a shelled mollusk to be worth $600.

Montalcino Ristorante Italiano in Issaquah, Washignton, where Hasz discovered the pearl told ABC News they’d seen a boost in business since Hasz find, with customers ordering the same dish in hopes of striking it rich. One hopes those customers are chewing very gingerly, as $600 might not cover the dental bill resulting from an overly enthusiastic bite of a pearl-containing dish.

Agencies/Canadajournal