Noreaster? Huh!

So Mother Nature gives us the bounty of the sea, right? Well, she can also deal might storm when she wants to. Last week we were east bound for Riverhead, NY and it was right through a snow storm to get there. It's one thing to deal with snow, but throw in the L.I.E. at rush hour and you have yourselves a perfect storm. This voyage wouldn't end at the bottom of the sea though, but it did begin at the bottom. You see, we were doing clams!!!!

I love em' raw, steamed, fried, stuffed, baked, on my pizza or in my pasta. The clam has give me and my family many happy meals in the past and now it was my turn to share those good times with the family at the Riverhead library.

The drive usually takes about 1 hour and 10 minutes, but on this day it took me 3.5 hours. I don't like to be late, but I took solace in the fact that my buddy Dave was there and that I had called ahead and let the folks know I was running late. The demonstration started at 6:30 and I knew I wouldn't get there until then, at least.

Through the rain and snow, I got there at just a minute after 6:30. I hope Dave is warming up the crowd. How many people could it be? It's terrible weather, maybe 15?

Well, Murphy's law is right again. If it can go wrong, it will. There was no Dave and the room had close to 30 people! Dave got tired of waiting and just assumed I wasn't coming. He of little faith. There is a buzz that he will have his shirt revoked, but it's just a rumor. Lucky for me, I had done a lot of prep and with the help of a few patrons, I was able to get the table set and started the demonstration with baked clams.

We talked about the clam, how to open it, how to clean it and how to stuff it. They turned out great! It was a relief, considering they had to wait so long for them.

Next up was the linguine with clam sauce. I have scoured the country for this dish and I am never satisfied. La Parmigiana in Southampton has a great one and Carmine's in Manhattan, also great, but I can never decide which one I love the most. I had over 100 freshly shucked and chopped cherrystone clams sauteed and dancing over linguine in no time and we had a great feed.

Crusty bread from Queens topped off the night and before long the folks had just seen the heart stopping, clam shucking, linguine tossing, quahog baking, history making, booty shaking,legendary Block Island Seafood Co!

Linguine with White Clam Sauce and the good people of the Riverhead Library