Nothing tastes fresher than a newly opened clam, often at a cost one half of what you pay for raw oysters. Raw clams at Leo's Casa Calamari RAW CLAMS While oysters may have more glamour, clams are far more versatile, with their chewiness, briny flavor, and slightly bitter edge.įor clam aficionados, here’s a guide where to find some of the best clams in town, organized by dish. Around sunrise, all along the Long Island shore you can still see tongers in hip waders extracting clams from the shallow and weedy waters. As with raw oysters, raw clams are said to have aphrodisiacal powers, and there was a time when every neighborhood fish market in the city had a raw bar pushed onto the sidewalk, where young men on their way to their dates were often seen feverishly scarfing raw shellfish.Īnd today the clam remains a city favorite, and an important component of the New York State economy. Still, raw clams persisted as a favorite method of consumption. By 1950, the inlet called Sheepshead Bay was lined with at least 10 clam shacks, many on stilts, serving clams in dozens of recipes from Dutch, French, English, and Italian sources. The city’s love of clams persisted throughout the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. It was probably in the 17th century that clam chowder was invented, though some say this soup had a French origin, via Breton immigrants to Canada’s Atlantic seaboard. The Dutch and Indians were later joined by the English, who substituted the clams in recipes that had originally called for mussels and cockles back home.

We’re pretty sure the shellfish steamed up sweet and tender.Ī favorite clamming spot for both the Dutch and the Indians was Gowanee Creek - now called the Gowanus Canal. Of course, the Indians ate the clams first, either raw or by digging a pit, lining it with rocks, putting coals on top of the rocks, seaweed on top of the coals, and then throwing clams on top of the seaweed and burying them. The first clam lovers in New York City were Algonquin Indians, who carved the shells into beads for currency called wampum, which the Dutch settlers - who arrived around 1609 - sometimes accepted as payment for goods.

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