All I’m hearing is more cocktail sauce for me.
Minnesota
No clam bakes here. I hear of fish boils once in a while, but have never been an actual witness to one.
No clambakes in California that I know of, even here in Pismo Beach…
We used to have a dedicated restaurant/picnic site here in Central NY for clambakes, sponsored by big companies or charities. Little boiled salt potatoes, corn on the cob, steamed clams, chicken, lots of stuff, for about $50 a ticket. It went out of business a couple years ago and there is talk of developers putting up a mall or apartments or something on the land. The price of clams is extremely high here, and the price of tickets probably rose, too, and got out of reach. Covid, too, put a stop to the clam bakes. People are very disappointed, but what are you gonna do.
Despite the name, the key element of a New England clambake is lobster.
No clam bakes in Chicago but I’ve been to a couple fish boils. They’ve been fund raisers, one for the Lions Club and another for a church.
Not really, as I live 300-ish miles inland.
As a kid growing up in Houston, Cajun-style crawfish boils were pretty common though, and while crab boils weren’t really a thing, if you did boil some crabs, you usually did it the same way. Shrimp were typically fried though.
I’ve been to a few northern California crab boils done by different groups raising money. Only one of them was here in Stockton, but just because I didn’t go, doesn’t mean there weren’t more of them.
A lot of them are called Crab Dinners, rather than coming clean on whether they’re boiled or baked.
No clam bakes in Maryland, afaik. I live far from the coast though.
The closest would be crab boils.
Where you’re never out of reach of the BEARS. They don’t care who they scare (you better bewaaaare).
I went to one very informal one when I was visiting Providence RI back in the late 70s. I did go to a crawfish boil when I was in NO for Mardi Gras … jeez… was that in the 70s, too? Maybe early 80s.
I’ve lived very close to the coast in California for over 25 years. I’ve guess I’ve heard the term “clam bake” but have no idea what one is.
Ah! I’ve never seen one around here. To tell you the truth, every fish boil I’ve ever been to (all in Wisconsin) has been a bit of a (bland) letdown. I’ll take a good NOLA style crawfish boil any day, though.
The classic New England clambake is lobsters, clams/mussels, potatoes, and corn. Ideally, it’s cooked in a pit dug on the beach, by hot rocks and all wrapped in seaweed. Most people cook them in a large pot by a combination of boiling and steaming.
If you can’t have one cooked the traditional way on the beach, going to a roadside lobster pound is the next best thing. But it’s not often done as a big group dinner fundraiser around here, lobsters are pretty expensive.
Cripes but if that doesn’t sound good.
I don’t disagree. That the fish is, as said, a bit bland (at best, I’m not really a fan of most freshwater fish) and a bony PITA also plays a role in forming that negative opinion. I think the plate included little boiled potatoes (always good), hushpuppies, maybe a scoop of institutional corn or green beans, rolls and butter, crumble or similar for dessert which I don’t touch, it’s not great and I’m looking for some tacos on the way home.
And that’s just the food. The speeches are straight up agony.
You’d think being around Pismo, but no. There’s a local restaurant that does a version where they dump the contents of a steam kettle full of various seafood, sausage, corn & potatoes directly on your table and you go at it with the mallets and crab picks &c. V good but expensive.
But if you’re near Cabrillo Beach (and some other beaches) you can watch the grunion run. If you have the proper fishing license, you can grab them by hand.
Don’t forget a nice Portuguese chorizo or linguica sausage too! Hot dogs if you’re going cheap for the kids.
On Cape Cod you could buy tickets to events where they did these, like a 4th of July thing.
The crab boils in Maryland are spicier and take more work to get the meat, so I kinda prefer the NE version.
I thought you could only grab them by hand.
Yes. You can only grab them by hand. But you need to have a fishing license for it.
Ah. Right. But, yes, no implements allowed.