Nows and Forevers

When I was growing up, this was — for me, at least — the most gourmet of meals: Steamed clams.

I loved ’em. ‘Course, it helped, growing up in the Northeast and being not only close to many restaurants that served them pretty close off the boat but also having grandparents who lived right off the Atlantic Ocean and, especially, having a fisherman next door to them who gave us thousands of clams and quite a few lobsters over the years. I even loved the broth that’s made when you steam them.

I’ve even dug for clams, and especially mussels, myself, along the Massachusetts coast, and gone out on the water with that same lobsterman, as he tended his lobster traps. It’s quite a tradition.

I haven’t had them in a long time and I still didn’t have steamed clams this trip to Massachusetts. But I saw them at the fish counter at the restaurant we went to, Jake’s Seafood Restaurant and Fish Market, at Nantasket Beach, just south of Boston. (If you’re around, it’s quite good.)