Clam Chowder

When I told my class that I was interested in American food, my teacher asked us to name some foods that they knew about. My classmate Ngoc said "clam chowder!" I have always loved clams in Vietnam, but I'd never heard the word "chowder" so I asked her what it is. She said it was "a thick soup like milk." We don't usually use milk in soup, so I decided to learn more about it.

I have a friend in San Francisco who is a chef, so I asked him. He told me all about it, and said it was very famous in San Francisco. Then another friend told me it was originally from Boston, and we also had some good restaurants right here in Seattle. All of my American friends seem to know about it and love it, so I decided that I had to try it!

Clam chowder is a very old dish. I learned a lot about it from this article. The word "chowder" comes from the word "chaudiere" (which means "cooking pot") in France in the 16th Century. When the fishing boats came home, the village would have a big pot for the fish, and they would have a big celebration. But the pilgrims who came to America in 1620 didn't like clams, so they fed them to their pigs! The first mention of using clams in chowder is from an American cookbook in 1832. According to this page, in 1851 the famous novel Moby-Dick the author spends a whole chapter describing a restaurant that served clam chowder.

My friend in San Francisco also sent me a recipe for clam chowder. It looks pretty simple to me. Maybe I will try to make it myself. But first, some of my Seattle friends have told me about a restaurant in Pike Place Market that has good clam chowder. I will tell you more about that next time.