Clams are up

This is a nice informative story in the Daily News, for clam lovers everywhere. It seems that even though a restaurant may label the clams they serve as "Ipswich clams," they may not, in fact, be from Ipswich at all. And there is a difference.

It turns out it's become standard practice for restaurants to label their clams of the "Ipswich" variety, but there's no sinister plot to deceive the shellfish-consuming public. Instead, it's a difference of opinion on the true definition of what qualifies as a true Ipswich clam.

Are they born and harvested in the mud and sand flats of Ipswich Harbor and the surrounding Plum Island Sound? Or are they synonymous with any clam "with the belly on," as some believe?

Or, as legend holds, was the Ipswich clam born the day Lawrence "Chubby" Woodman, founder of Woodman's restaurant in Essex, accidentally knocked a whole-bellied clam into his deep-fried potato cooker, immortalizing the art of deep frying the tender clams?

It depends on whom you ask. Local clammers will tell you it has everything to do with where they were taken from the earth.

Most area experts agree Cape Cod and Maine clams are a good alternate source in the event of local closures, even if the Cape's tend to be gritty due to the fact they're harvested from sand flats, and Maine's tend to be much darker in color due to their particularly acidic, muddy environment. But most agree that the clams that grow in mud flats tend to be the best.

"Maine would be my next choice definitely," said Marina "Chickie" Aggelakis, owner of the famous Clam Box on Route 1A in Ipswich. "They're the closest things to Ipswich as far as I'm concerned."

Aggelakis advertises her fried clams as "native," which means they come from area waters primarily, except in the event of a closure due to heavy rainfall or red tide.

She purchases her shellfish from Ipswich Shellfish Co., and since her restaurant (designed to look like an open box of fried clams) attracts long lines of customers throughout the year, she demands and receives a certain quality of clam.

I always wondered why the tastiness of fried clams varies so much from restaurant to restaurant, aside from cooking techniques. My favorite fried clams always were the ones served up at either Kelley's Roast Beef at Revere Beach or Turner Fisheries in Melrose.

A local fisherman once told me that J.T. Farnum's in Essex had the best fried clams anywhere around. My brother-in-law (the one who lives in Gloucester and the sole member of my immediate family who is native to these parts) likes the clams at Essex Seafood and, I believe, the Clam Box.

My family went for an Essex River Cruise a couple of summers ago and you would not believe the number of clammers there were out there. Sometimes we see them at the end of my street.

It's literally back-breaking work and I appreciate their efforts on behalf of satisfying our love of the fried Ipswich clam - with belly, of course.