Is the art and craft of regional shore food dying?

[Bux]

This seems to be a universal trend, the world over. Head east from the cape and you'll find half the traditional creperies in Brittany serving pizza these days. Are clam shacks and their seafood cousins holding their own against the fast food joints and an influx of CIA grads in local restaurants with homogenized menus? Are there local specialties that vary as one makes one's way along the coast and are there home grown cooks with individual specialties worth seeking out. I suppose the answer is that they're still there but less easily found and that one needs a good guide book. I much prefer New England clam chowder to New York clam chowder, but I'd never heard of any other choice until we wondered into a shack just the other side of the Rhode Island border. I didn't have to prefer Rhode Island chowder to order it the next time. It was just great to be able to order something I was unlikely to find on the menu in St. Louis or in a can in the supermarket.

[Brooke Dojny]

Hi Bux--

Your comments are precisely why I wrote the NE Clam Shack Cookbook. Homogenization is the enemy! Vive la difference! Give me a humble little clam shack, lobster pound, or chowder house any day over pretentious restaurants with over-priced mediocre food! Use my book as your guide, and add to the list with your own favorite places you find along the route.