Cannot recommend enough doing a cold read of the Wikipedia article for clam juice out loud for eliciting wonder and disgust in a post dinner crowd. There was shouting from the room next door. I was very nearly crying by the end.
@marzipanandminutiae @anghraine @freetoflythecrimsonsky
A geographical story in three parts (with thanks to @freetoflythecrimsonsky for pointing out that clam juice is a regional ingredient and no one outside New England understands it, and also that we can probably blame the concept that you should use the leftover water from steaming clams on the Puritans taking a zero-waste mentality to an extreme).
To be clear, I can understand adding it to fish-centric dishes for extra fishiness, since that’s not terribly different to, say, oyster sauce, but it was the Wikipedia section on its use in beverages that drove me into hysterics. To quote (please imagine a rising pitch of incredulous horror throughout, audience contributions added in square brackets, my emphasis etc etc):
Some restaurants and bars in the US serve shots of pure clam juice. For example, the Old Clam House in San Francisco, California serves a shot glass of hot clam juice [‘…ew’] at the beginning of each meal. In the early 1900s in the United States, clam juice was purported to be a hangover remedy. [‘as an emetic?!’ — my horrified audience]
The Everleigh Club, a former brothel in Chicago, Illinois, that was in operation from 1900 to October 1911, would serve iced clam juice and a tablet of aspirin as a starter for breakfast, which began at 2:00 in the afternoon. [indistinct scoffing and some juvenile chortles]
In the United States in the early 1900s, clam juice was used as an ingredient for various beverages at soda fountains. Beverages prepared with clam juice included hot clam juice, HOT CLAM SODA, [‘WHAT?!’ — visiting sibling in the next room, who let out a blast of steam from the iron in shock and promptly came in to hear better] hot ginger clam broth, hot celery punch, hot clam cream, [‘that might actually just taste like a sad bisque?’ — tentative commentary] clam night cap, tomato clam broth and others.
I mean…hot carbonated clam water. There’s no coming back from that. That’s the devil’s drink. No wonder New England’s full of horror stories, it’s cursed by clams.
[whispering] Just wait till they find out about Clamato.
NO.