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National Calzone Day / National Fried Clams Day
donm
Posts: 10,241 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate
Way too many choices today. It's cool weather today, even here near the swamp in Gainezville, FL. So I thought a couple of nice hot food items might be nice.
National Calzone Day
Calzones take the delicious toppings and cheese of a pizza and tuck it up tight in a warm garlicky, crusty package. Also known as calzoni in some parts of Italy, like the pizza, it originated in Naples. It looks much like a turnover. As varied as pizzas come these days, so does the calzone.
The loose translation of the word calzone from Italian to English is trouser legs. This translation may explain the purpose of what essentially is a pizza hand pie. However, carrying out the task of eating a calzone while walking on two legs is mighty improbably. Consider that they’re filled with a bounty of cheeses, meat, vegetables, and sauces!
Calzone dough is infused with garlic and butter to add flavor. Sauces made from scratch with Italian herbs and spices lend that old world flair to every calzone recipe. By the time the mozzarella, provolone or parmesan melts into the sausage, spinach or whatever choice ingredients, aromas fill the air. No wonder our mouths begin watering.
So take a seat, invite some friends, and enjoy the evening savoring a well-made calzone.
National Fried Clams Day
National Deep Fried Clams Day recognizes a popular seafood item enjoyed since the 1840s.
Fried claims have been on menus in restaurants since the 1840s. They were served alongside mutton, liver and veal cutlets up and down the Eastern Seaboard. And they have quite a history, too.
According to legend, Lawrence Henry “Chubby” Woodman from Essex, Massachusetts deep fried the first breaded versions of clams over 100 years ago. On July 3, 1916, in his small roadside restaurant, now Woodman’s of Essex, it is believed Chubby served his customers the first modern-day deep-fried clams.
It was later on that Thomas Soffron of Soffron Brothers Clam Co., based in Ipswich, Massachusetts, created clam strips, which are made from the foot of hard-shelled sea clams. Soffron sold these to Howard Johnson’s in an exclusive deal, and as the chain expanded, they became popular throughout the country.
Clams are low in cholesterol and fat without breading and oil. However, when fried, they absorb cooking fat and calories.
Fried clams to New England are what barbecue is to the South. ~David Leite ~August 29, 2007, New York Times ~In A ’64 T-Bird, Chasing a Date With a Clam
Comments
Welp, I've read every comment on every thread for the past 48 hours and it seems like everyone's gone crazy because Georgia-Florida. I haven't felt like I had much to contribute, so I thought I'd pay you a visit Don.
I'm a big fan of calzones and fried clams, both. I have no stories about clams (although I'm sure there's a good joke in there somewhere). But calzones always make me think of stromboli (which is very similar), and that makes me think of Rehoboth Beach in Delaware.
In the early 1970's there was a place called Nicola's Pizza that served a locally famous stromboli which they called "nic-a-boli." The first time I tried that was, to this day, the most memorable food moment I've had in my life. Thought I'd died and gone to heaven.
Speaking of dying and going to heaven, I believe the founders of Nicola's (Nick and Joan Caggiano) have both passed on, but the restaurant survives to this day and apparently has become fairly well known. It was a tiny joint (five tables) when my family went, and now they apparently seat 400.
I haven't been back to Rehoboth in years, but those are great memories.
Just ordered Calzones for dinner.
Calzone often has ricotta cheese, while stromboli always has mozzarella cheese. Sauce is always on the side, never baked in - too messy - would mess up the oven.
I ordered my first calzone from the cute girl behind the counter at Roma's Pizza in Augusta back when it was near the original Regal Cinemas. I pronounced it cal-zo-nay and she gently corrected me. It was not love at first sight for both of us. But for me and calzones...100%
They were good too.