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In the process of previewing this message, I see that others have already discussed, more entertainingly, the dishes I was going to add to the list, so I've deleted most of it. We also had pickled roasted peppers, more vinegary than my Bubby used to make, and egg creams, which were excellent since I concocted several myself. By the way, those peppers and the pickles played the role of the evening's vegetables. To paraphrase something Wilfrid said, while I found the idea of the food interesting because of nostalgic associations, this was not an exemplary rendition. I was wondering who drank all that vodka. My end of the table didn't see any once Jason changed seats. I had a great time anyway because of the company. Congrats, Simon, on sticking to Atkins, and thanks, Nina, for making the arrangements. Edit: Added last, most important, paragraph.

FC (not to be confused with FG), the Sterns would say... Connecticut.

Stirred by Steve P.’s evocation of France, I enjoyed an extended lunch yesterday at Le Jardin on Cleveland Place. Sitting in the patio garden out back with a grape trellis overhead, a French-speaking waiter, those blue-and-white street signs on the walls, and bistro food and Provençal rosé on the table, it was easy to pretend for a few hours that I was elsewhere, if not quite at Chez Georges in Paris. The tiny purple grapes were tasty, too. I recall reading that Maurice, the proprietor/chef, left a while ago; perhaps as a result, the restaurant was distressingly empty for a beautiful late-summer’s afternoon. The menu, however, now printed rather than handwritten, looked unchanged. Likewise, the food (country pâté; tuna tartare; striped bass on a bed of shredded fennel and carrot with beurre blanc, homey mashed potatoes, fresh spinach, haricots verts, cauliflower, and carrot sticks; bouillabaisse; tarte tatin) tasted essentially unchanged from my last visit about a year ago, as though the sous chef had stayed on -- though the bouillabaisse might have used a touch more fennel, salt, and saffron. When the weather turns chilly, I'll check out another old favorite, the cassoulet. Has anyone else been to Le Jardin recently? Any inside scoop on what happened? Edit: Distinguished the two forms of carrot served with the fish.

If the menu said "Woodman's of Ipswich," then the Fresh marketing boys have taken some liberties with geography in order to combine two names associated with clams. I wonder whether the Woodman's folks know.

John Whiting: "Some would argue that there is also more and more flashy food that's just not worth eating." LXT: "[T]echnical proficiency... seems to dominate today’s evaluation criteria... Unfortunately Debussy’s advice 'to preserve the mystery' when 'touching' the music, plunging into the meaning behind the notes or bringing passages to life is no longer an important element for many contemporary pianists and is no longer valued as much as the ability to blandly race the metronome... Is this really what's happening with today's approach to evaluating chefs?" Are the chef-performers themselves, professional critics, or bored consumers driving this trend towards soulless virtuosity? Discuss.

FG, Woodman's isn't my favorite brand name (so, AHR, write up your New England trip already), but fried clams as good as you've ever had demand attention. Will Fresh do them take-out, or is this the wrong thread for that question? I won't ask how they compared to the best fried oysters you've ever had.

FG, in some previous life I must have written for Time Magazine in its heyday.

Your split-infinitive goad is likewise declined.

FG, haven't we found that eG theological disputes always end badly? Put away your glove; I decline.

Them thar's fightin' words. The best ones have a sweet, almost gamy flavor. Experimentation and/or a road trip would seem to be in order.

Soft clams are also generally used for steamers, so there must be something about the way they react to prolonged exposure to heat, or maybe their soft stuff/hard stuff ratio. I once had fried cherrystones, and found them rubbery, simply awful. Similarly, isn't your favorite part of baked (hard) clams the piece of bacon on top, then the oiled, seasoned bread crumbs, then any clam juice, and only last the poor toughened clam itself?

Tommy, only if you were being intentionally subtle.

As much as I love fried food, I haven't fried at home, at least not recently. A friend and I had an unfortunate experience with frying supermarket clams when we were teenagers (bad clams); another time, I tried clam fondue (insufficient thermal mass). For those who want to try, however, and don't feel like finding and shucking steamers, here's a link to Ipswich Shellfish's clam-frying kit, which includes the Clam Box's coating.

Are we extending our search to far-off Connecticut and the wrong of the Husdon? If so, I feel obliged to mention: Lenny & Joe's -- Good, but not nearly equal to Cape Ann or Bigelow's; a little oily and soggy the last time I tried. Self-service in Madison, informal sit-down in Westbrook. Clam Castle -- OK, but not great. I recall the coating being too thin and the clams overcooked, but it's been years. I may also once have gotten a bad clam there. A old-fashioned shack with some indoor service, just across from Lenny & Joe's in Madison. FG, thanks for Bill's. I've passed it a number of times but never stopped in. Now I shall. Jason, thanks for Legal. An old friend who occasionally posts as "friedclams" likes them a great deal. According to their web site, Legal has restaurants in Paramus, West Nyack, and Huntington. Finally, just for completeness, here's a link to the Sterns' Roadfood, which launched my clam-chasing career too many years ago.

Tommy, didn't we also see her at Artisinal? Maybe she's stalking eGers. Or is that what you meant? (Too subtle for me.)

Bigelow's are top-notch if you don't mind a short journey by car or LIRR -- not for everyday consumption, certainly, but maybe that's a good thing.

Seeking fried whole-belly soft clams, in or near NYC, similar in quality and style to those taken quite for granted on the Massachusetts North Shore and a few places along the Maine coast. Clams strips, cherrystones, and similar imposters need not apply. Informal, eat-in-the rough atmosphere is preferable, but sit-down is tolerable if the clams warrant. Some quick observations: Bigelow’s – Genuine Ipswich piss clams, properly prepared, in an old, funky, lunch-counterish place. Consistently good. In Rockville Centre, about 20 miles east of Midtown. Forgione’s current restaurant(s)? – The man frequently serves them, albeit not informally. What’s he up to now? Fresh – Fancy, expensive, reputed to fry clams. Not promising per Plotnicki, Brown posts. Gage & Tollner – The real deal according to Jason, served a bit preciously. Far from a shack. Johnny’s Reef – Eat-in-the-rough by the water, but disqualified for serving strips. Ditto for its competitor across the street. Lundy’s – Nary a clam found in a single sample of mixed fried platter. Clams no longer on menu separately. Used to be great. Mary’s Fish Camp – Good, but not quite soulful; perhaps too tender and delicate. Served in combo app with fried oysters. Tried once, and worth another. Sit-down but informal. Infernally crowded. Oyster Bar – Soggy crust, tired clams the last two times, most recently a year ago. Not fancy, but not a shack. River Café – Fried some clams a year or two ago (per Ipswich Shellfish, a major high-quality supplier), but not as of last month. Member input, please? Edit: Added link to tantalizing photo.

Jason, were the clams really fried, or were they the broiled rendition? Were they crisp outside, or tender? If fried, this seems like a pretty prissy treatment of what's basically New England street food. I think I'll start a separate fried-clam thread. BTW, I used to visit G&T occasionally, before and during the Edna Lewis regime, and really liked the place. (I used to do my bellies broiled.) It's been a while, though, especially for a Brooklyn boy. The gas lamps also gave them a competitive advantage during the power blackouts of the '60s and '70s.

All this talk about the concentrated essence of food minus its usual bulk and texture got me to musing about the ability to “think” in tastes. Having bought a bunch of lovely little peppers from Toby at the Greenmarket -- some tasty but mild, and a few hot little Habanero numbers -- and upon spying an aging chicken breast lying in a corner of the freezer, I was trying to decide what to prepare for dinner: a simple stir-fry, a soupy chili, something really queer with a cheese-thickened wine sauce? I realized that I was imagining the taste, tongue, tooth, and mouth feel of each of dish as I thought of it -- not just intellectualizing that I really don’t like jalapeno cheese, for example, but actually, kind of, more or less, sort of tasting it. I’m an adequate cook at best, but this seems a useful trait, and I was wondering whether it’s common, especially among the food-obsessed. Most all of us can “hear” music silently in our heads (when those voices don’t intrude), we can visualize stills and movies, sometimes in color (the ability to dream in color, I believe, varies among individuals), and any teenage boy can fantasize touch, but what about mental tastes and smells? The next step, of course, is to fantasize entire meals without actually eating them: the ultimate intellectual cuisine, and the ultimate weight-loss diet. After that, virtual restaurants… Adria, watch out! You’re already obsolete.

There's a big green awning emblazoned with the restaurant's name, and a web site even. Here's the page with their location.

FG, I have no personal experience to relate, but the Sterns might disagree about high-traffic Southern one-pass buffets specializing in just a few items. BH, whole belly fried clams are precisely what you suspect: a New England specialty of steamer clams -- minus shell, neck, and foreskin -- coated with corn flour and deep-fried. If you want to try cooking some at home, see Ipswich Shellfish Company.

FG, aren't there non-AYCE one-pass Southern cafeteria buffets? If so, your taxonomy fails. And anyway, why are you trying to censor AYCE discussion on this thread?

The new Shopsin’s is larger and more comfortable than its predecessor, with two real bathrooms. Though the new place still betrays traces of its diner origins, there are enough familiar fixtures and junk from the old place to make it feel instantly homey and comfortable, and it will grow even more idiosyncratic with time. Eve seemed more voluble and Kenny more restrained than previously, but that’s based on only one data point. I ordered from the specials board, specifically shrimp lahksa, a spectacular main-course “soup” that may or may not be related to a Malaysian dish of similar spelling. Populating a complex, reddish-orange broth -- unthickened but for (maybe) coconut milk -- of stock, garlic, hot pepper (ordered 8 on a spice scale of 10), and Southeast Asian curry-like spices with a just a hint of sweetness, were fresh, plump shrimp, snow peas, onion (or maybe shallot?), Chinese cabbage, bean sprouts, possibly other unrecalled vegetables, and vermicelli. I also collected my prizes in their limerick contest: a frameable certificate complete with ribbon, a “y” coupon cleverly offering to turn my limerick into a lime rick[e]y, and a Shopsin’s Frisbee. The contest was to explain, in limerick form, whether the new store was in fact two blocks or three blocks from the old. In the true spirit of egalitarianism, every entry was awarded a prize. Pay a visit. The food’s just as interesting, and with a higher monthly nut, even Kenny’s being polite.

Certainly, yours must be accepted as the definitive opinion, but "No" effing what? Edit: Mild profanity added.

This seems an ideal thread for my first post after returning from a vacation designed around stuffing my gut with clams and lobsters. Is this really about buffets, or about fixed-price AYCE? If it's the latter, then the skewer guys at CP qualify, whereas dim sum does not.