The dense Manhattan clam chowder and the crispy flounder special breaded with Japanese bread crumbs and almonds are two wise choices.
There are dense little clam fritters that expand to about 10 times their size in your already distended belly, the baked quahog concoctions called stuffies, and platters of crisp fried clams served either with or without their tender, juicy bellies.
Another fine appetizer is a Peruvian take on the Caribbean soup called asopao de mariscos, a thick, brick-red broth dense with clams, calamari and shrimp and enlivened by cilantro, hot pepper and (of course) lime juice.
They order starters like the spirited, highly seasoned, dense-with-ingredients Manhattan clam chowder and the thick, rich New England clam chowder (both $1.95 cup, $2.95 bowl), or the shrimp cocktail with its six shrimp for only $5.95 and the 18 or so big chowder-type steamers for $6.95.
Start with arancini tweaked with cuttlefish, for example, then move on to a bread salad dense with calamari and clams; spaghetti alla chitarra with chiles and crab; lobster with fregola; and rabbit with sweet and sour eggplant.
On tables adorned with fresh flowers and candles in frosted glass cylinders, the most expensive noodle dish, linguine with mixed seafood, costs $13.95 and is dense with super-fresh shrimp, clams and mussels as well as huge hunks of lobster in a velvety sauce of Italian plum tomatoes, basil and garlic.
Fluid flow and associated methane availability at the JTC colony were rather low, but sufficient to maintain a dense seep community of living clams.
New England clam chowder has a dense seagoing flavor, though it's thickened with too much starch.
Monkfish was perfectly cooked on the bone and filleted for service and was served with mashed potatoes (as many things were during our time in Belgium), carrots and a rather dense sauce that would have contained clams had I not asked that they be withheld: little gray shrimp were substituted, a generous and successful improvisation.
The New England clam chowder, though tasty and dense with clams, will disappoint diners expecting the traditional creamy white preparation.
