Missing my Fried CLAMS!
I know this is a little off the subject but i wanted to take a moment to let everyone know how much you should appreciate New England and all it's bounty!
I was born and raised in Brookline right behind T. Anthony's (a fine pizzeria for those of you that have not tried it yet, i highly recommend getting a slice late one night) and i left my home 2 years ago to move to San Francisco. Now i am not going to say that the food here sucks, becuase it most certainly does not! But i am going to say that there are some things that you can get in New England that are virtually impossible to find out here, the main one being THE PERFECT FRIED CLAM. I am a strong advocate of Farnhams in Essex, as well as the Lobster Pound (also in Essex) and having chowed down on these bad boys every week for 6 mos. out of every year, i am now desperately missing this culinary delight. San Francisco is the oyster capital of America, but when you try to get a clam in this town, there is only one, and it is called a Manila clam, and basically it is like bait and it sucks and i wouldn't feed it to my cat. (well, maybe i would)
Now i know that the season is over, but i highly recommend that anyone with a car take a trip up to Essex and chow down at Woodmans, or even drive out to Quincy and get yourself some fried clams at the Clam Box. These are probably the only places still serving this late in the season.
Eat some for me and relish in the fact that there is NO WHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD THAT MAKES ANYTHING AS DELICIOUS AS A FRIED CLAM! YOU ARE ALL TRULY BLESSED WITH LIVING IN THE BOSTON AREA! TAKE ADVANTAGE AND REVEL IN THE CULINARY DELIGHT THAT IS THE CLAM!!!!
Thankyou,
Jupiter
Link: http://www.woodmans.com/
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sheila
Aug 14, 2006 08:37 PM
I feel your pain as well as your passion towards fried clam.
To make you feel better, I just went to the clam box in Ipswich last week. It was our first visit. My husband said it was the best fried clam he ever had. I agreed. But I have the faith that there will be something even better and I will keep on trying.
My motto is: Always cherish what we already have and keep our mind open for what are new.
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T. Anthony's brought me back to my student days in Allston. More than one, slightly hungover, breakfast was enjoyed at T. Anthony's. It was a relic of my misspent youth in the late 70's and early 80's. Glad you enjoy the clams at the Clam Box in Quincy, but as for me I much prefer the fried clams at Tony's in Quincy. Just a little further down on Wolly Beach and, I think, much better fried clams.
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As a one time resident I can empathize with fried clam withdrawal symtoms! But just in case any reader is ever in Nova Scotia, there is a little joint called John's in Dartmouth Nova Scotia which has fried clams of quality and generosity unsurpassed even in the Boston area. I can't recall the street but it's very near the Dartmouth hospital and on the same street. Also do not miss the milkshakes.
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OK, I've said this before and I'll say it again: Woodman's has gone Way Downhill. Farnham's is OK, the Clam Box (the Ipswich one, not the Quincy one) is good if pricey, but for clams or lobster on the North Shore, I still vote for Essex Seafood on both quality and price.
As regards T. Anthony's, I used to stop there on my walk home (corner of Comm. Ave. and Brighton Ave.) from work (at BU) for a slice. That was () 20 years ago, but if the quality of the pizza has held, I would second your recommendation. Hmmm, this may call for a field research trip... -
I am a salesman that works the north shore and I have to tell you that I find Farhnams to be very overrated. I see this place mentioned quite a bit on here and I've tried it a couple of times and was very disappointed. For the most part everything on my fishermans platter was either overcooked or undercooked, and the onion rings were awful. If you want good fried seafood try Andreas2 in Gloucester. I have not been disapointed yet
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If you're ever down in the LA area Go to Sid's Seafood House in Canoga park. It is on Roscoe, just down a little ways from the intersection of Topanga Canyon. They have excellent chowder and real Ipswich fried clams with the bellies. Almost on par with ones you can get back east. I just moved here from Massachusetts and the clams were good at Sid's, they also had Maine Lobster for reasonable prices and all the other east coast people I was with said it was good.
If you check the LA chowhound board, there was a huge thread going about fried clams -
We feel your pain.
If you're truly desperate, you could have them shipped. The Ipswich Shellfish Company, a very expensive gift-oriented seafood mail order house, will ship you the clams along with "clam box" recipe batter and instructions for frying. They charge an arm and a leg for it, but it might do the job...
I tend to crave Maryland Blue Crabs and can occasionally get a satisfactory fix from a decent mail order place in Crisfeld, MD. If the clams ship as well as the crabs do, you'll have an 80-90% experience.
