1 hour ago, liamsaunt said:
@huiray, I spend a good amount of time on Cape Cod, and those clams are sometimes available in the fish market I like out there. I also find lots of their shells on the beach. The fishmonger told me that most of them are exported to Asia, they are not really popular here because of their bloody appearance. I have not bought any yet because I always go to the market with my sister and she is squicked out by their appearance. How is their flavor as compared to, say, littlenecks?
@liamsaunt, they taste somewhat more "clammy" with an "iron-y"/mineral-y edge to them. Appropriate to their containing hemoglobin. For some people the taste might be a little too "strong" or fall into the category of "challenging". I urge you to pick some up next time from that fishmonger you talked about, notwithstanding the protestations of your sister, and try them out for yourself. Well, what I can also say is that they are consumed readily by vast swaths of the population in E and SE Asia, and are an integral and essential component in many dishes too, meaning the dishes as executed in E/SE Asia (and not the Americanized versions). :-)
ETA: Perhaps one might also approach the issue of their "bloodiness" by reminding folks that rare steak also oozes BLOOD in all its RED GLORY. Yet folks greedily consume that bloody item – so, regard these blood clams in the same frame of mind.
