Of course you can't duplicate the experience of sitting under the seagrape and mangrove trees on Meads Beach in Anguilla at Blanchards Beach Shack, but you can enjoy an approximation of a Blanchards Big Bowl at home. The Beach Shack menu advertises "a full meal in a … [Read more...]
Clam Pizza
Adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook, edited by Ruth Reichl (2004). When we lived on the Eastern Shore, littleneck clams (called "nicks") were an everyday part of our menu. One of Jane and Michael Stern's Roadfood books talked about New Haven clam pizza, Frank Pepe's pizza in … [Read more...]
Brandade de Morue
For years I kept reading about brandade, but it wasn't until we went to Paris in 2011 that I tried it at Brasserie Balzar on Rue des Écoles, chosen because of Adam Gopnik's story in the August 3, 1998 issue of The New Yorker about Brasserie Balzar in its earlier years. Not … [Read more...]
Linguine with White Clam Sauce
Bill Buford's story in the September 6, 2004 issue of The New Yorker, "The Pasta Station", includes directions for making pasta with clams at home. I love this dish and whenever we find some nice fresh Cherrystone Aqua-Farms clams from the Eastern Shore of Virginia, we make it. … [Read more...]
Pickled Shrimp
My first taste of Pickled Shrimp was at a SAS potluck Christmas party in 1980 when systems programmer Bill Blair brought a gallon jar of wonderful pickled shrimp. I ate far more than my share of them. The recipe below is from Saveur magazine's October 2011 issue. Also keep in … [Read more...]