Fried Clams

No change as of yet. The flats are still closed, we need a good nor'easter to stir things up a bit.
Clams are available though, being trucked in from other areas and frozen supplies still on hand.
Be prepared to pay, a lot of places are dropping some dishes {steamers etc.}
and changing the menu to market price for other offerings.
Chow Jim

I tried the fried clams at Micky's Oceanic Grill in East Hartford last week. Good, but not up to Essex MA standards IMHO. I followed a truck from the Ipswich Shellfish Company into the parking lot, which was a good sign! The clams themselves seemed to be fresh, and were good sized. I wonder where they came from if the flats are still closed?

Good chance they were from Maryland or Canada, parts of Jersey and maybe some areas of northern Maine.
Ipswich shellfish is a huge company and own many other wholesale/ distribution companys on the east coast.
You said the clams were of good size so my guess would be Maryland.
Most Canadian clams are smaller.
Also most clams you get have been previously frozen, sold by the gallon to restaraunts. It may also have been leftover winter harvests from our areas but those go quick this time of year. Those winter stores are also saved for the larger and loyal long time coustomers. Chow Jim

I lived on the North Shore for 25 years, and have been to all the clam spots there - some of them dozens of times! - so I'm an experienced clam-o-phile. I'm pretty sure I could spot previously-frozen clams, and I'm reasonably certain these were fresh. Maryland sounds like the most likely source from your list.

Ipswich is opening on Monday. lets hope this is over for another year.

I'm a Connecticut native, but have lived in Chicago for the past 25 years now. There's nothing I miss more than my whole belly fried clams. I'm planning a trip back to New England the last week of September and am wondering if there's any chance I'll be able to enjoy my favorite treats. Does the red tide last the entire season or does it usually dissipate later on?

quote:

Originally posted by rossus66

I'm a Connecticut native, but have lived in Chicago for the past 25 years now. There's nothing I miss more than my whole belly fried clams. I'm planning a trip back to New England the last week of September and am wondering if there's any chance I'll be able to enjoy my favorite treats. Does the red tide last the entire season or does it usually dissipate later on?

Welcome!!! I note that this was your first post. A few years ago, I too, found Roadfood as the result of a Google search on fried clams. I hear that the clam beds are reopening, but if they stay open, who knows??? In my experience, though, the good clam shacks find a way to serve clams all season. They depend on frozen and product shipped in from other areas. Some on Roadfood are able to notice when a frozen product is served. I can't tell the difference. If you come all the way from the windy city, make sure you get clams!!!!! Post a few days before you come, and this friendly group will tell you of lots of places serving clams

Thanks, I'll definitely post in time to make reservations. I'm planning this whole trip around the clam shacks. Although my wife won't touch them (native Chicagoan, what can I say?), she's giving in to my passion. This vacation is all about the clams, with maybe a lobster or two thrown in!

I have a question that I'm sure has already been asked and answered somewhere but please don't make me read this whole thread. What is a Whole Belly Fried Clam vs a fried clam? Thank you

quote:

Originally posted by Suds

Ipswich is opening on Monday. lets hope this is over for another year.

GREAT NEWS, keeping fingers crossed!

quote:

Originally posted by mmarkovitz

I have a question that I'm sure has already been asked and answered somewhere but please don't make me read this whole thread. What is a Whole Belly Fried Clam vs a fried clam? Thank you

A whole belly is just a regular steamer or piss type clam sucked from the shell breaded and fried intact.
The other option known as fried clam strips are sea clams that have been sliced into strips breadded and fried.
As far as the earlyer poster stateing his wife dosen't care for them.
I'll give you a hint if you decide to do the Ipswich area for your fix. Go to the Agawam Diner on Rt#1 in Ipswich.
The same family as The Clam Box, sister owns the Clam Box.
Same supplyer, same quality both very good.
Keeps the wife happy with more menu options, and as all GOOD diners they do their baking on premise from scratch.
Chow Jim

Jim,
I believe the Agawam Diner is in Rowley, just up the road from Ipswich. My ex taught in the Rowley School while I was attending Salem State an eternity ago. The Agawam was an institution then as it is now !! And yes, I have a good memory or two of their clams being as good as Mcintyres, another (now gone) institution in the same community.

Right you are Al.
But if you were in a watermellon seed spitting contest the seeds would land in Ipswich.
Of note to others www.boston.com {travel section} has listed some of New Englands favorite clam shacks. I did say SOME.
There are many more with some great offerings where you wouldn't expect them. I guess we all have those secret spots tucked in our back pockets.
A fear of the place getting too popular. Chow Jim

OK, I'm not one to let an old thread die.

Can anyone comment on prices this year? We just made our annual birthday trip to Bubbling Brook in Westwood. I know, not a famous clam destination, but it is a RF destination in our neck of the woods. Clams were excellent. Big, tender, sweet, rich, not cloyed by batter or fat, everything I dream of in a Summer treat. Scallops were excellent: sweet, moist, barely dusted in flour and fried to perfection.

The clam plate with decent fries and a decent (i.e. very good for New England) nappy cup of slaw was $26 and change, the scallops $16+. We enjoyed it immensely and we're not complaining. There's something great about having the old time ice-cream, fried shellfish, hot-dog stand so close and so near to horse farms despite the MacMansions growing like mushrooms that we love. But this is more than a 10% increase in a year. Is this normal this year, or did we hit a bad week, or has our standard place gone to Dover/Sherborn pricing?

One reason I ask is that a business associate of the Lady Ashphalt is coming in from KC to spend a long week on the Cape. He's a fellow foodie and we're planning to meet. At these prices, we may want to take him to upscale dining, rather than clamshack.

OUCH! $26 bucks is steep. Up here on the North shore we are close to the $20 dollar area for the plate of fried clams.
I can't justify that price though. All the flats are open and the diggers are racking out on every tide. Must be other associated costs?
Your right at those prices go for the upscale spot, unless your willing to travel up here. Contact me if, I've got a spot in my back pocket that may fit the bill. Chow Jim
And as I said in another thread, Welcome back

quote:

Originally posted by Ashphalt

OK, I'm not one to let an old thread die.

Can anyone comment on prices this year? We just made our annual birthday trip to Bubbling Brook in Westwood. I know, not a famous clam destination, but it is a RF destination in our neck of the woods. Clams were excellent. Big, tender, sweet, rich, not cloyed by batter or fat, everything I dream of in a Summer treat. Scallops were excellent: sweet, moist, barely dusted in flour and fried to perfection.

The clam plate with decent fries and a decent (i.e. very good for New England) nappy cup of slaw was $26 and change, the scallops $16+. We enjoyed it immensely and we're not complaining. There's something great about having the old time ice-cream, fried shellfish, hot-dog stand so close and so near to horse farms despite the MacMansions growing like mushrooms that we love. But this is more than a 10% increase in a year. Is this normal this year, or did we hit a bad week, or has our standard place gone to Dover/Sherborn pricing?

One reason I ask is that a business associate of the Lady Ashphalt is coming in from KC to spend a long week on the Cape. He's a fellow foodie and we're planning to meet. At these prices, we may want to take him to upscale dining, rather than clamshack.

I was in Kittery and YorkBeach ME in early July and late August. A lunch of fried clams was $16-19. Wish I could find fried clams on the Eastern Shore of Maryland!!! Only one place I know of has them, Harris' Crab House. They do great seafood and crabs, but the fried clams are just ok.

Conrad

And then you don't tell me where Harris Clam Shack is????????

I have yet to find any places in MD DE or PA that have decent fried clams (well, the Samson St Oyster House in Philly did, but they closed)

A lot of NE fried clams actually come from MD. The best places in NE still dig locally, but a lot of the others just go with flow. MD is far from being a hotbed for clams, fried or steamed. Even the "steamers" you get in many places are littlenecks.

I once, on a trip to CA, went 60 miles out of my way to a Marin Cty Restaurant thet had Ipswhich Clams ( got the only order they had that night, and they were good, not great), so I"m willing to travel to Harris's.......just where is it?

OK, found Harris's on the Internet. But you said they were just OK. Worth a trip from Wilmington DE? Are they large and lightly breaded or just small and overly breaded? (That will depend on how fast my car turns South)

PS...thanks for the info and your help

quote:

Originally posted by FriedClamFanatic

And then you don't tell me where Harris Clam Shack is????????

I have yet to find any places in MD DE or PA that have decent fried clams (well, the Samson St Oyster House in Philly did, but they closed)

A lot of NE fried clams actually come from MD. The best places in NE still dig locally, but a lot of the others just go with flow. MD is far from being a hotbed for clams, fried or steamed. Even the "steamers" you get in many places are littlenecks.

I once, on a trip to CA, went 60 miles out of my way to a Marin Cty Restaurant thet had Ipswhich Clams ( got the only order they had that night, and they were good, not great), so I"m willing to travel to Harris's.......just where is it?

Sorry! Harris' Seafood and Crab House in Grasonville MD. It sits on the Kent Narrows, right off of US
Rts 50 and 301.

quote:

Originally posted by FriedClamFanatic

OK, found Harris's on the Internet. But you said they were just OK. Worth a trip from Wilmington DE? Are they large and lightly breaded or just small and overly breaded? (That will depend on how fast my car turns South)

PS...thanks for the info and your help

On the small side and more breading than they do in New England. Most of the time they are ok, but once in awhile too crispy.

That said they are better than nothing.

Conrad

Silly question, what do they DO with the BELLYS if a place serves only strips ?!!!! Hmmmmmm...........

Not silly at all.
They are two different clams. The clam strips come from the meat of a sea clam cut into strips.
The piss clam is always served whole, fried or steamed. Chow Jim

Jim,

You forgot the "and..."

and that's why they don't taste as sweet and briny and depending on the size of the sea clam and where the strip is cut from are often rubbery.

To my taste, I'll take calimari over sea clam any day.

poor me, I've never seen fried whole clams in my town, or clam pizza either.... do you think any clams might make their way into lake superior?? I could go CLAMMIN" !!!!I even own a pair of pink clamdigger pants ! so I'm all set !! Dawn

I'm so excited! Kroger's (Mockingbird) in Dallas is now stocking Mrs. Paul's frozen fried clam strips. They are the only packaged frozen fried clams for sale in all of Dallas! 

I must admit that I really, really miss Howard Johnson's.

I LOVED their clams.

I love all clams!

Me too! The last time I was in NY, I ate 4 dozen littlenecks on the half shell in one sitting!
The amazed counterman said, "boy, you must have really been hungry".

Truer words have not been said. My best friend lived in the blue house right behind The Clam Box for 20 years. The smell of them cooking while we sat on his deck was heaven. We would each throw in a few bucks and send a kid over to wait in line!

Went to the Clam Box at wollaston beach today.  They were awesome.
The clams were fresh and the bellys were huge. 

Still looking - Anyone know where in Maryland/Delaware, they have whole bellied fried clams on the menu?

Conrad