The flavor comes from the filling, which is something like a clam soft-serve; the air baguette itself is only slightly more delicious than a communion wafer.
The pièce de résistance, however, is the mother of all moquecas, justly called a sinfonia, with octopus, shrimp, clams, soft-shell crabs and pollock-like fish called badejo.
New England fried clams -- fried soft clams, that is -- were supposedly invented on July 3, 1916, by a restaurateur named Lawrence Woodman, known as Chubby.
WHAT WE LIKED Grilled sardines (special), shrimp Alba, borsetti, gnocchi alla Alba, chicken scarpariello, linguine with white clam sauce, soft-shell crabs (special), quail (quaglie) with polenta, apple strudel, coconut mousse pie.
Others, such as cockles and clams on soft shores and mussels and oysters on rocky coasts, can occur in densities high enough that they dominate entire habitats and assume important roles in nutrient cycles.
But New Englanders often call soft clams "Ipswich clams," because the best ones come from the mud flats near that town, so my wife, Betsey, and I went right to the source.
So-called Ipswich clams are soft-shell clams dug from the coastal mud flats north of Boston.
More traditional dishes using ramps are ramps with eggs, fried ramps with potatoes and potato and ramp soup, but today you'll find roasted ramps on pizza, ramp "pesto" tossed with linguine (clams, anyone?), soft-shelled crabs and ramps, (hmmm...), coq au vin with ramps and bacon (yum), cauliflower soup with cheddar and ramps (I want that) and ramp potato pierogies (I imagine a stampede).
Fried food remains a specialty, as evidenced by a generous plate of whole fried clams, coated with a flaky, nubby-textured crust that crunched appealingly against the clam's sweet, soft bellies.
That way you can have a variety of treats, like unagi (freshwater eel), octopus, striped bass, fatty or baby yellowtail, jumbo sweet shrimp, green fish roe, live orange clam and spider (soft shell crab with avocado).
