WHAT IN CLAM-NATION?

Size Counts: THE TRUE BREAKDOWN

The smallest legal sized quahogs are one-inchers, the littlenecks. A small step larger and you have cherrystones, topped by the top-necks (aka countnecks) and all the way up to the Large Marge's of the bunch the CHOWDER CLAMS. 

Quahogs are hard shelled as opposed to
soft shell clams aka steamers.

Quahogs are filter feeding creatures that purify our coastal areas most abundantly from Cape Cod to New Jersey. Water is taken in through a siphon at which point plankton and other matter is passed over the gills of the animal and into it's stomach. The filtered water is then expelled via another siphon. A large clam can filter about a gallon of water in one hour. What is more sustainable than that? YOU TELL ME.

 

Maybe you think clams are boring. Guess what? THEY'RE NOT. There are no boring clams. Does this look boring to you? 

Wampum Jewelry
in it's natural habitat.

At one time, you could pay your tuition at Harvard University with Wampum:

Veritas Clam-neritas Alumnus
Pay us en Wampum-itus

While preparing this seasonal staple I have one piece of advice to you is to KEEP IT REAL.

The competition is stiff out there and the best chance you have at survival is makin' it original. Look at this friggen' guy:

He is rich, he has tons of wampum and he's wearing antlers for god's sake, he looks amazing. Despite the fact that he's probably one nut short of a full holiday fruit cake, he is KILLIN' it because he is doin' his own thang.  

  

Bust out a little Old World Flava into yo' dish and make a linguini with clam sauce. Or go RAW: Clams on the half shell are always appreciated during the holidays. Don't forget to keep the cocktail sauce extra spicy. 

Santa loves a hot clam!

Somebody please give me a HOT CLAM!

I'm turning into such a fat shit off 

these cookies and milk...

Razor Clams to the Rescue 1/04/11

RAZOR CLAMS TO THE RESCUE

Hoping to add some punch to your January menu? I don't blame you. Things can get dreary and bleak after the holiday craze comes to an end. I'm talking about the short days and long cold nights all alone in your frigid apartment (stop being a miser and turn the heat up already). There you are frozen, stiff as a popsicle, crying to your long distance girlfriend via "Face-time" on your new iphone-4 she bought you as a belated-Hanukkah / sorry-I-couldn't-help-myself-but-cheat-on-you-with-the-sexy-new-upstairs-neighbor-from-Italy present:

"WAHHHHHHH!! How could you!?!, I thought I could get over this, but I SOOOOOO CAN'T you heathen wench!! I don't care how many ipods you buy me, nothing will make up for you being an icy, mean and heartless devil-woman!"

Then you hit the street and decide that in order to punish that beastly knave for her wrong doings you will drink yourself into a frenzy. You look to the right and see Joe's Saloon. "Perfecto" you say to yourself, this will do. You order 18 shots of whiskey and 18 Pabst Blue Ribbons. You order 18 rounds for everyone in the bar. You max out your credit card and they kick you out onto the frozen sidewalk. You are drunk, sobbing and weak as a woodchuck. Although you know you should go home and sleep until April, you utilize your Iphone to buy a one-way ticket to your girlfriend's apartment in L.A (Brilliant idea, by the way). You hitch-hike to JFK airport and somehow make it there without getting mugged or killed. You board the aircraft, promptly barf on the red-head in the next seat over, and pass out. When you wake up you have landed in L.A. and you have no idea why or how you got there. Still behaving like an alcohol induced zombie, you cab it to your soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend's place and start ringing her doorbell incessantly. When she doesn't respond, you climb the fire-escape, perch on the awning of the small eco-friendly laundry-mat below her second floor apartment window and scare the living daylights out of her. The cops come, you get arrested, bada-bing-bada-boom, you are in jail.  Don't let this happen to you. Buy some razor clams and don't lose your mind to the "winter-blahs".

Actual Important Facts Below:

Razor clams are from Long Island. They are hand dug from the sand by clam-diggers. This must be done when the tide is very low; hence an abundance of razor clams around the full moon. The speed at which a razor clam reburies itself is very important to the clam digger because the faster it burrowS, the faster the digger must dig. Razor clams are "cold-blooded" organisms. Low temperatures make the clam sluggish and slow, that's why clam diggers love months that end in "R".

Clam Digging Nuns in Long Island

Crustaceans and Mollusks from New Zealand - Striped Bass and Lobsters

Let us discuss an assortment of specialty crustaceans and mollusks from New Zealand.



                                                                let the good times roll...


These products include some of the most delicious diamond clams and sweetest picked kona crab meat I have ever tasted.  A fabulous substitute for the standard cockles and manila clams you have been serving, these products from kiwi-land might be the zest your menu needs.

Find out more about what other exotic clams we are eating and whether or not we have the crabs. Oh yeah, and get your mind out of the gutter.
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 STRIPERS: Lean, mean and green.
The amount of female striped bass that can reproduce (female spawning stock biomass) was estimated at 55 million pounds in 2004. This estimate is well above the recommended biomass threshold of 30.9 million pounds and the target biomass of 38.6 million pounds. Stripers are not overfished.  In fact, many advocates for the Connecticut lobster fishery are saying that the striped bass are to blame for the dwindling lobster population in CT waters. These advocates are even using this as a reason for why the government should not impose a fishing moratorium on lobster.

Save a lobster, eat a striper.

Line caught fish are better for the environment. Line fishing minimizes by-catch. Nothing funny about that now is there?