Ingredients (makes 2 entrée-sized portions or 4 appetizers) Sorry, clams – this might become another go-to. I’ve made Manhattan clam chowder before (“red”) but never New England. This is really just starting to sound like a survey of New Jersey restaurant menus.
I love Zuppa di Clams and even raw ones on the half shell with cocktail sauce. I’ve known my father to cook three dishes, and three dishes only: 1) “Cheese eggs” (aka scrambled eggs with American cheese) 2) Linguine with white clam sauce and 3) Baked clams (see the bottom of this post for a neat trick he taught me). I always ordered the chalky New England clam chowder at Friendly’s when I was little (and we know what a big part Friendly’s played in my childhood).
I grew up eating fried clam strips with tartar sauce with my Mom at Howard Johnson’s at brunch on Sundays and at fish fry places on the boardwalk at the Jersey Shore. Some of my favorite dishes – and my family’s favorite dishes – center around this one simple ingredient. I’m pretty sure that in my lifetime I’ve done some serious damage to the clam population of the Northeast.
