The Clam Bake

This was my first experience with a Clam Bake. It was an interesting trip.

Here's how the menu broke down:

1. Raw bar with clams, shrimp & oysters
2. Butlered fried shrimp
3. Hamburgers, hot dogs, lobster, salads (raw bar closed)
4. Dessert

I asked a server what we were having, and she gave me the line-up. Then I had a small choice in front of me: this was a clam bake (though none of the clams ended up being baked...), so it was seafood oriented. Should I plan for hamburger/hot dogs, allowing me seafood and Americana variety across the night, or should I go all seafood? How do you NOT have lobster? Given the fact that you spent the first part of the night eating seafood, are the lobster and hamburger/HD mutually exclusive?

These are all good questions, and to be honest, I normally have an answer for them. In this particular case, I used the brute force algorithm: eat it all.

The final tally looked something like this:

• A dozen shrimp
• 1 oyster (hate them, but was caught up in the spirit)
• 3 clams
• 1 basket fried shrimp
• 2 hamburgers
• 1 foot long hot dog (no bun... I'm watching my figure)
• 2 lobsters (no idea on weight; each was about 12-14" long)
• 2 servings of salad
• Dessert

I then slipped into a food coma and woke up 2 days later... hungry.