Aunt Carrie's clam cakes
The queen of the clam cake:
Clam cakes are a Rhode Island specialty, as is Rhode Island clam chowder with clear broth. Places that traffic in this summer delight abound. But the finest is Aunt Carrie's in Point Judith, Narragansett, RI.
For you deprived non-Rhodians, a clam cake is a a fritter made of dough and bits of chopped raw clams, deep-fried to a profound brown. Opinions vary about who serves the best ones. Ultimately it comes down to Aunt Carrie's in Point Judith and to George's in Galilee. I am in the Aunt Carrie's camp and have been enjoying them since I was a tot in the 1940s. They are whale-like, filled with clams that now cost more than gold per pound, and have bits of burnt clam pieces protruding from the edges...a delectable interaction of crisp and soft. They are as bad for you as they are utterly satisfying.
Members of opposing clam cake camps tend to be vociferous in their loyalty. I would be glad to discuss this issue with anyone who disagrees with me. We can meet behind Aunt Carrie's at midnight. Bring a rusted harpoon and some sea salt.
The chowder at Aunt Carrie's is OK too, but not as spectacular as the cakes. Spectacular, though, are their homemade pies of summer, especially the rhubarb, deliriously delicious and and minus that artificial strawberry-goo one gags on in commercial pies. Rhubarbissimo!
Some day, after life ends, those of us who were good and paid our taxes will ascend to the land of the Great Clam Cake in the Sky, where Aunt Carrie and her penile-plenitudinous archangels surrounding the celestial Pitco Frialator, will beckon us into the eternal hereafter of the mollusk.
Link to some Aunt Carrie's stuff.
Since 1920
Addendum: On Christmas Eve, my mother used to make a version with cod fish instead of clams. And at other times of the year, squash-flower cakes, fior di zucca, very common in Italy and a Roman speciality. She would fry them in a couple of inches of vegetable oil.
Clam cakes are a Rhode Island specialty, as is Rhode Island clam chowder with clear broth. Places that traffic in this summer delight abound. But the finest is Aunt Carrie's in Point Judith, Narragansett, RI.
For you deprived non-Rhodians, a clam cake is a a fritter made of dough and bits of chopped raw clams, deep-fried to a profound brown. Opinions vary about who serves the best ones. Ultimately it comes down to Aunt Carrie's in Point Judith and to George's in Galilee. I am in the Aunt Carrie's camp and have been enjoying them since I was a tot in the 1940s. They are whale-like, filled with clams that now cost more than gold per pound, and have bits of burnt clam pieces protruding from the edges...a delectable interaction of crisp and soft. They are as bad for you as they are utterly satisfying.
Members of opposing clam cake camps tend to be vociferous in their loyalty. I would be glad to discuss this issue with anyone who disagrees with me. We can meet behind Aunt Carrie's at midnight. Bring a rusted harpoon and some sea salt.
The chowder at Aunt Carrie's is OK too, but not as spectacular as the cakes. Spectacular, though, are their homemade pies of summer, especially the rhubarb, deliriously delicious and and minus that artificial strawberry-goo one gags on in commercial pies. Rhubarbissimo!
Some day, after life ends, those of us who were good and paid our taxes will ascend to the land of the Great Clam Cake in the Sky, where Aunt Carrie and her penile-plenitudinous archangels surrounding the celestial Pitco Frialator, will beckon us into the eternal hereafter of the mollusk.
Link to some Aunt Carrie's stuff.
Since 1920
Addendum: On Christmas Eve, my mother used to make a version with cod fish instead of clams. And at other times of the year, squash-flower cakes, fior di zucca, very common in Italy and a Roman speciality. She would fry them in a couple of inches of vegetable oil.