Clams

On the New England side of Long Island Sound, clam shacks dominate the intersections along Rte 1.

Chowder, steamers, clams casino, baked stuffed quahogs, breaded soft-shells (whole bellied for the purist, strips for the meek).  French fries and coleslaw on the sides of oval platters and waxed paper boxes.

Covered with tartar sauce, buried in cocktail sauce, dipped in butter, spritzed with lemon. Battered and served on a grilled buttered roll. Steamed on the grill and studding a boil. Slurped raw from the shell (tastes like the ocean). Views of asphalt, marsh, and bay. On a picnic table, under an umbrella. Feed the swans.

Along this strip there is New Haven, and in New Haven is Pepe's- originator, if not perfector of the white clam pie: freshly-shucked little necks and their liqueur, a slosh of olive oil, a few throws of garlic, a sprinkle of oregano, and a whisper of parmesan. A crust that's salty, crisp, and chewy, with coal-oven char and random dough bubbles.

East of the Connecticut River, fritters are served, filled with chunks of lush clam meat in a leavened batter that puffs, golden, when fried. Rich! Wash down with lobster and corn on the cob.

Clamshells are ashtrays in a summer beach cottage, and pipe cleaner butterflies have cherrystone wings. Decorated with seascapes in miniature, they compete with starfish husks and lighthouse pins for the tourist dollar.

My favorite place for clams? Bill's Seafood, where the river meets the sound. It may not be the best (that, clam snobs report, is Lenny & Joes), but it's close, and by far the most fun. It can't be summer unless I'm seated at their deck with a clam roll, overlooking the marina and the rowdy, potbellied, clam-lovin' crowd.

Comments

[Ivonne]

I'm on my way!

[Madeleine]

Can't beat the mussels with linguine and believe it or not, the best roast beef on the shoreline--at a fish and chip joint!

[Mitzy]

I think if I were on Death Row I'd pick the Clam Strip Roll platter as my final meal.

[Patty]

This almost makes me almost like clams.

[shuna fish lydon]

It was in one of these wooden shacks between Long Beach and Oceanside that my mother fed me my first raw clams. I think I was 5. Or 6.

When I go back to NY this is what I long for.

[Ann]

I have been to bills seafood and I have to say .I like the rowdy potbelled calm-loven men the best. I would love to marry one. Just kidding.Mauras cousin Ann

[a stranger]

cant you get some healthy baked stufffed clams but with out butter havin to add

[Ann]

I rote in August that I have been to Bills seafood . But what I ment to say was that I liked the rowdy potbelled clam-loven men the best. But the seafood there is good.Ann