I want to talk about a few things: family and friends visited, oysters and clams, newfake wood decks and real Majolica ware, the original Toll House and the Southeastern Massachusetts cranberry bogs, the Boston Globe and the Boston Red Sox.
Oysters on the Pacific Coast were lightly dusted in meal and sauteed just enough to be succulent -- how to describe the taste of fresh oysters, shucked and lightly dredged in stone-ground corn meal or flour, then sauteed perfectly and served on a plate? On Depoe Bay and on the Columbia River in Astoria two days in a row I ate these juicy mollusks.
Then in July, on Plymouth Harbor, in sight of the Mayflower II, I feasted on a lunch of whole fried clams, often called "bellies" to distinguish them from "clammstrips" -- plump, juicy and salty clams, hot and crisp from the frier. You dip each one in the tangy Tartar sauce and shake vinegar on the fries