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Decently priced good clam strips
By adamg on Fri, 08/17/2012 - 12:13pm
Cherie King wonders where she can find good clam strips at less than tourist prices.
Quincy Shore Drive?
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Liberty Bell, Melrose
Liberty Bell, Melrose
Morse Fish
Morse Fish Co.
morsefish.com
Courthouse Seafood
http://www.courthouseseafood.com/
Love Morse fish!
Very fresh, and decently priced. I've been buying fish there for years, but mostly to cook myself. But I can vouch that if you buy something prepared by them, it's also very well done and reasonable. May have to swing by there soon, I'm drooling just thinking about it!
The shore is a good bet, but
The shore is a good bet, but it's not that much cheaper. I think a clam roll is about 8.50 at the Clam Box.
Sullivan's at Castle Island
Sullivan's at Castle Island has clam strips on the menu which I can't vouch for ("Clam Strips, the Tofu of Shellfish") but I will vouch for their actual clams and that they're reasonably priced as these things go, with the understanding that we're talking about a shack in a parking lot.
Clam strips?
Anybody that eats clam strips is a tourist. ;-)
Exactly
Exactly. It really begs the greater philosophical question: can a clam strip be "good" in the first place? I think not.
This is a setup question
My thoughts exactly, who the hell from New England eats clam strips? They're not even clams. That being said, Sullivan's on Castle Island does have great clam strips.
Jump into the Way Back Machine
To about 1968, and find your self a Howard Johnsons. I think that's the last time I had "clam strips". And I'm not even sure I had them when I had them, if you know what I mean. I've been told that HoJo's clam strips were actually skate wing.
And can you bring us back some Moxie, too?
Rubber bands
When I tried them, they were as tender as rubber bands.
New Englanders like their fried clams made from steamers
Steamers being soft-shelled clams, caught in our tidal mudflats. Clam strips are usually made from a different animal, the Atlantic surf clam, a/k/a/ the sea clam, a much bigger beast which is caught way offshore. HoJo's popularized these back in the Mad Men era, but our local one over near Fenway Park only has an American-Chinese restaurant, no clams in any form.
A few reasonably-priced places that carry them: touristy seafood places like Yankee Lobster; our North Shore style roast beef sandwich joints (especially the Greek-American knockoffs of Kelly's like Royal Roast Beef in Eastie and Liberty Bell in Southie), and Morse Fish in the South End. Our best local seafood places (Neptune, Island Creek) have great fried whole-belly steamers, but no strips.
Kelly's
Kelly' just started carrying clam strips. You can get a plate with fries and onion rings for 11.95 I think. They're big, too--I think they may be razor clams.
Tony's on Quincy Shore drive is a good choice
First I have to say that clam strips are an abomination. If it doesn't have a big juicy belly on it, what's the point?
I doubt you're going to find cheap clams anywhere and if you do, think to yourself, "Is the risk of food poisoning worth the couple of bucks I'll save by eating here?"
If you're going to Quincy Shore Drive, Tony's is the place. Drive past the other places. They're not for you.
If you want to top it off with some ice cream there's a kickass place around the corner on Beach Street called Molly Moo's
Clam Strips? Phooey!
Give me bellies or give me death!
However, even though I can't vouch for the strips personally, I've had other seafood at Celebrity Pizza in Watertown and it has been excellent. They have clam strips on the menu, so you might like them.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Ok I'll be the one to say it.
Whole belly clams suck. You get a nice mouthfull of sand for each one you chew, and that sour feeling in your stomach like you just swallowed some raw jellyfish isn't too pleasant either.
It doesn't make you any less tough, or any less Bostonish if like clam strips over clam bellies.
So chalk one up for the clam strips on my end:
SCOREBOARD
Clam Bellies: 6
Clam Strips : 1
Team Strips
You have given me the courage to admit that I only eat whole belly clams to appear cool and tough, and that I actually prefer the strips.
+ 1 for strips!
that does it.
the above comment proves once and for all that there can never be any area of agreement between Pete Nice and any reasonable person.
Clam strips are for philistines!
Actually, I keed. You like what you like; no need to defend or apologize for it.
But I'd suggest your whole-belly purveyors aren't doing a very good job if you're getting a blast of sand or traveler's discomfort after eating their food. Impeccable freshness and simple measures to expel sand (feeding the clams cornmeal is a common tactic) are hallmarks of my favorite whole-belly fried clam shops. I can't remember the last time I got any significant grit in an order, and I've had a couple of dozen orders since the spring at places like ICOB, Neptune, Dube's in Salem (MA), Belle Isle Seafood, and the Clam Box (Ipswich).
Clam Box in Ipswich changes the oil at 3pm
my aunt used to meet my mom there at 3:15. Best time for fried clams!
It's probably my midwestern
It's probably my midwestern upbringing, but I agree. I keep trying steamers and fried whole-belly clams, but the texture (and the gush of juice) just sicks me out. However, I will be eternally grateful to NE for introducing me to fried scallops.
Didn't Romney say he liked
Didn't Romney say he liked seafood mentioning clam strips in particular, not knowing clam strips come from the sea, but aren't sea food.
Mr. Bland
I can't imagine Romney liking the bellies.
I wonder about Mitt and food
If my religion proscribed meat, alcoholic beverages, tobacco, caffeinated beverages, and other recreational intoxicants, I'd be taking my pleasures wherever I could get them. But it could also be that bland is as bland does.
I did run into him once when he was Governor, taking a whole brood upstairs to the private dining room at Bricco in the North End, back in the days when it was really good, with Marisa Iocco at the helm. So his taste isn't necessarily terrible.
Mormon diet
Mormons can eat meat (and I think most do).
Scripture and practice on LDS meat-eating
In one place, the Mormon Doctrine and Covenants (one of their key sacred texts) advocates the eating of meat "only sparingly", and then "only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine". But another passage suggests the world's animals are provided for man's sustenance, so go ahead and eat them critters.
There's further interpretation in the D&C that the second passage was meant to be temporary, that Smith really wanted people to mostly abstain from meat. In practice, most Mormons appear to interpret their scriptures to mean that meat-eating is just fine.
Tobacco, alcohol, and "hot beverages" (coffee and tea) are more clearly off-limits.
Plenty of precedence for these kinds of conflicts: is it "eye for an eye", or "turn the other cheek"?
A quick bit of the Google reveals that Romney is clearly not a vegetarian: http://mittromneyeatingjunkfood.tumblr.com/ But he is purportedly a very finicky, health-conscious eater. He got drubbed by Southerners at one point for peeling and discarding the crisp skin off his fried chicken.
I'm sure there's an innuendo in there somewhere
about Mr. Bland and bellies but I'm not clever enough to figure it out.
I bet Mitt sticks with good, old reliable cod. It's white and flaky, just like him and his bff, Paul.
Sorry, I didn't mean for a discussion about shellfish and seafood to turn political.
Walrus and the Ryan
Ooo, you've drawn the allusion to Carroll's Walrus and the Carpenter, and apt one, which ends:
"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none--
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.
not your fault
(unless you are anon @ 2:57). I will be SO glad when this campaign is over. Conversations about shoes, oil changes, roof shingles and fried clams (anything totally irrelevant) somehow have to be politicized by ideologues. Enough!
Kansas.
Kansas.
What's the matter?
The clam shack slide show that the Globe's been running every day for years isn't good enough for ya?