On 7/20/2014 4:22 PM, Steve Freides wrote:
> James Silverton wrote:
>> When my kids were small they loved Howard Johnson's Fried clams. It
>> used to be a big deal to have dinner at the HoJo restaurant near the
>> Blue Ridge National Park. There aren't many (if any) HoJo's now but
>> what sort of clams did they use? I recall the clams as being long
>> battered strips.
>
> Funny to hear this asked about. My father always told me they were
> ipswich clams (had to look it up to get the correct spelling). I have
> no idea if that's true or not, but he seemed to think it was a cool
> thing to know.

While you can fry Ipswitch clams, they are mostly served steamed.
Harvesting them is hard... you have to dig them out of the sand one at a
time at low tide which is why they aren't a huge commercial item. The
main part of the clam is inedible and the edible portion is pretty small.

Steamed and dipped in butter... really, really delicious. An integral
pat of most New England clam bakes.

George L