I like them all but prefer New England. Although I suspect if I ever had the Northwest (white w/smoked salmon) it would become my favorite!
Jasper White has made a fortune by purveying inferior food at very high prices.
I repeat: CELERY is NOT to be added to clam chowder-you might as well open a can of Campbell’s clam chowder, and be done with it.
Clams have a delicate flavor, which is ruined by all the extraneous crap that “chefs” like Jasper white add to them. And do NOT use that horrible “Old Bay” seasoning-that crap will destroy your seafood!
Huh. I seem to be one of the few who prefers Manhattan-style to New England. If you’re gonna make a soup with lots of cream and fat, gimme broccoli-cheese! I think the tomato base benefits more from the addition of clams than cream soup does.
On the other hand, I had no idea there were more than those two types. Rhode Island sounds like it might be even better, and might even be closer to what I’ve had as Manhattan, which wasn’t a creamy tomato soup-type broth, but a thinner broth somewhere between minestrone and gazpacho, with lots of tomatoes in it.
My special-recipe New England clam chowder was one of the ways I won the heart of the future Mrs. Siam Sam back when we were students in Hawaii. A simple recipe:
Open one can of Campbell’s New England clam chowder
Plop it out
Heat in microwave
Serve hot
She’d never had it before. Can’t find it over here in the groceries, but plenty of restaurants serve the dish.
I don’t mind celery in my clam chowder, but I feel much the same way about bacon (instead of salt pork.) It ruins the clams delicate flavor. (I’ve gotten used to it, so I don’t mind. But, still, salt pork is better if you want to taste the clams.)