There is only one Clam Chowdah, New England clam chowder
Manhattan is an Abomonation unto Nuggan
Good lord, you add the clams with the potatoes? You must be chewing on rubber bands in your chowder.
And ME, VT and NH are “Northern New England” and VT and NH are the “twin states”.
That’s funny. I’d never given much thought to which states the talking heads on the TV box meant when they mentioned the tri-state area. If I’d had to guess I would have gone with MA, RI and NH, since Manchester, Nashua and Providence are the closest non-mass “real cities” to Boston.
That may be true, but it’s chowder is divine.
Funny, every time I read tri-state area in this thread, I hear it in the voice of Dr. Heinz Doofenschmirtz… And in all caps…
Behold! The TRI-STATE AREA!!.. Inator
I chose New England but I would say Rhode Island would be my second choice.
That Manhattan, tomato stuff is simply an affront to all that is good and holy about Clam Chowder.
I always thought of New York state as being part of New England, I guess because I have never been thereabouts.
I actually don’t mind Manhattan Clam Chowder that much. It just seems that it came about after some fish-house cook tried to make cioppino but could only find a few clams and still served it.
Just don’t let anyone in Northern New England hear you say that, them’s fightin’ words…
It’s bad enough we have to deal with Massachusetts, don’t try to foist Noo Yawk on us as well, you can keep Bloomie, Cuomo and their minions all to yourself, they’re not welcome here.
I am ok with Manhattan, but prefer N.E. However, that said, the worst chowdah I ever had was on the Cape-it was the consistency of paste; seriously, the spoon stood upright in it. No thank you. I want celery, lite on the potatoes and tons of big clams. Don’t forget to toss in the clam juice. When I resort to Campbells, I always include a can of chopped clams, and the juice. Then I take out half the potatoes.
New England Chowder is like Cream of Clam soup.
Manhattan Chowder is like New Orleans Gumbo with clams.
No real preference here but, “Clam Chowder” is NE for the win. 
My ancestry and tastebuds decree the winner to be New England clam chowder, not thick. Celery is forbidden.
New England Clam chowder is comfort food like mac and cheese.
The sophistimacated clam chowder is Manhattan. mmmmmmmm. The whole house smells good when cooking it.
True.
:dubious: OTOH, there are many such superior soup recipes. Pick one, and stand ready to die for it like an American! :mad:
If the clam chowder was that thick than it would be a clam stew. There’s nothing wrong with clam stew (in fact, it sounds pretty tasty to me). However, it’s not really chowder.
And I have to strongly disagree with you on potatoes in chowder. I hate celery so I won’t miss it if it’s not there. Potatoes are a different story. You need something like potatoes in chowder so they will absorb the flavors of the broth and the clams and add a bit of flavor of their own.
The stuff we had in a place in Eureka had no potatoes at all, instead, mushrooms. And little shrimps. Not sure if it is actually still clam chowder when you shrimp it.
Definitely the tomato-based ones, whether Manhattan or Rhode Island. I could live off those. I find the cream-based ones to be bland and way too heavy.
Yeah, that pasty type of chowder is what I hate, and I’ve seen a lot of places over-starch their chowder. I wouldn’t call it a stew, though. To me, a stew has a lot less liquid and it’s also a long, slow cooked type of thing. Chowder is a subset of soup to me, and thick chowder is like other overly thick cream-of-whatever soups. When we were kids, we loved those thick soups that had the consistency of spackle. Now, not so much.
Rhode Island is not tomato-based and has no tomatoes in it at all. It’s not cream-based like NE.