"The fact is, that among his hunters at least, the whale would by all hands be considered a noble dish, were there not so much of him; but when you come to sit down before a meat-pie nearly one hundred feet long, it takes away your appetite."
I recall having whale on a regular basis when I was college in Japan in 1968-69. I liked it, though its grey appearance wasn't appealing. I was always struck by how much it resembled meat in both texture and taste.
Mollusc is a perfectly legal way of writing mollusk if that's what you mean. And everyone knows that whales evolved from hungry beach snails around 50mya.
Moby-Dick
Herman Melville