I just returned from a two week drive exploring the Pacific coastline. I camped, gazed at endless seascapes, marveled at natural wonders, poked around in city centers, read, slept, stopped worrying about things I had no control over, and I ate a lot of clam chowder.
Road food is a worthy topic of discussion, my search was for solitude, not culinary insight. Luckily, I got both. My original game plan when it came to food was simple, I would sate myself with seafood along the Oregon coast, survive on avocadoes and artichokes in Northern California and then explore taco stalls as I drove south. I started out strong with barbecued oysters and a crab slider in Tillamook. I progressed to fatty, rich, smoked salmon collars from a roadside stand that I gnawed at like a starved sea otter. In Bandon, Oregon where it was crisp and windy and the road had been lined with fishing boats and endless surf, I had my first cup of clam chowder.
I ate a lot of chowder as a kid. There was never a shortage of clams in our world and both my Mom and Dad made great versions with big chunks of skin-on potato swimming in a fresh clam broth with a splash of milk and plenty of black pepper. But after I left home, clam chowder became a different kind of soup. It was as if there was some weird competition established to see who could make the thickest, pastiest glop of whipping cream and canned clams. I fell out-of-love with the stuff and in-love with a milk-hating husband which eventually slammed the door shut on clam chowder as a dinner option.
That first cup at a Bandon seafood shack wasn’t spectacular. It was way too thick, almost like sour cream was added, and too light on clams, but the taste gently rekindled a long smoldering fire. I moved on to vegetables. In San Francisco, I got groovy and satisfied my vegetable cravings in the Mission district with a retro/ vegan/ tofu salad. After a magnificent day of kayaking Moss Landing I polished off a platter of deep fried artichoke bottoms dipped in ranch dressing in Castroville. But when I found myself hungry in Pismo Beach, clam chowder called to me. There are plenty of fish and chips shops in Pismo, but only one place, Splash Cafe, had a line out the door. The chowder was thick, but thinned with stirring. In my book, it relied too heavily on cream, but I was pleasantly surprised with the prevalent briny clam flavor. Chances are it came from commercial clam base, but it was utterly satisfying. While I am not a fan of bread bowls, if I ever go back to Splash I will most certainly indulge.They bake hundreds of small round loaves daily then trim, butter and toast each one. Each bread bowl of chowder comes with the cylinder of warm, chewy bread interior and a crisp, toasted cap - definitely worth a side trip.
LA was a meat fest. We had carnitas and stewed spicy goat tortas at Tacos Tumbras a Tomas in the Grand Central Market, French dips at Phillipe’s, Cha Cha Chicken enchiladas and a fabulous grilled tri tip and salad at our beloved Merrill family spa and resort. The highlight, second only to seeing the Tom Tom Club live at the Getty, was Colleen’s butter-drenched red velvet cupcakes. An adaptation of a Paula Deen recipe, they will most certainly go down in the history books.
Eventually I found myself back at the Oregon coast, ready for more chowder. I had learned to look past any gooeyness and just slurp in the goodness. At the Luna Sea Fish House in Yachats, my starter cup was presented, consumed and cleared so fast that one of the servers thought she had forgotten to bring it to me and offered me another. I would have taken her up on it, but I needed to save room for the “mushroom festival special” of seared halibut with crab, chanterelles and pine nuts.
On my last day on the road, on a wooden bench overlooking the glory that is Cannon Beach, I had a bowl of chowder at Mo’s. Mo’s Restaurants are a bit of an institution along the Oregon coast. I had almost passed them by because of their numerous, nagging road signs, but I had a glimpse of their wares at the seafood festival in Tillamook on the way down and I was curious. I’m so glad I stopped. Seattle needs more places like Mo’s- casual joints devoted to inexpensive, unfussy seafood that isn’t exclusively fried. Mo’s is crowded and touristy with a good amount of kitch, but that kind of adds to the coastal/vacation vibe of the place. Chowder rules here. It is hearty, but not as sticky or thick as other locales and it is chock full of chewy clams and thin strips of bacon, kind of like Dad used to make. The table is crowded with baskets of saltines and extra black pepper is ready and waiting. A bowl of Mo’s chowder on a crisp October day at the coast is a perfect food. It has placed this soup firmly back in my repertoire.
Mom’s Clam Chowder
Recipe adapted from Off the Hook: Reflections and Recipes from an Old Salt, Roger Fitzgerald and Susan Volland, Ten Speed Press 2002
This is a very thin, simple chowder- the kind I grew up with. If you want it thicker, you need to stir in a few tablespoons of butter and flour with the frying onions and salt pork.
3 pounds fresh Manila clams, well scrubbed.
1 cup beer, white wine or water
½ pound salt pork or bacon, diced
1 onion, diced
1 pound potatoes, scrubbed and diced
Freshly ground black pepper
2 cups of milk or half and half
Salt
Oyster crackers or saltines.
Place the clams and the beer in a large pot over medium-high heat. Steam the clams until they open, 6 to 8 minutes. Discard any clams that remain tightly closed. Strain off the flavorful nectar and pass it through a fine sieve to remove and grit or shell. Add water or additional clam nectar to the liquid to make a total of 6 cups. Remove the clam meat from the shells. If you are using small calms, keep them whole. For larger clams discard the stomach and chopped the meat. Keep refrigerated until ready to use.
In a soup pot, fry the salt pork until it is crisp and brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Pour off the excess fat. Add the onions and cook with the salt pork until they are translucent, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the clam nectar and potatoes. Season with black pepper and simmer until the potatoes are tender, 25 to 30 minutes. Add the clam meat and milk and season with salt if needed.
Serve hot with crackers.
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