CLAMS
The largest clam ever recorded was found in Okinawa in 1956, it weighed 750 pounds.
The world's oldest (formally) living animal.
In October 2007 a team of British marine biologists working north of Iceland dredged up what may have been the worlds oldest living animal -- an Ocean Quahog clam from 250 feet deep turned out to be over 405 years old. Unfortunately they realized the clams extreme age only after they had cut through its shell to count its growth rings.
Early French immigrants to Canada made a hearty soup called chaudree from salt pork and fish. (Chaudree derives from the Latin calderia 'caldron'.) When Breton inspired chaudree crossed the Canadian border and moved down the eastern seaboard of the United States "chowder" American style came into being. Maine, ever practical and plain, fostered a simple chowder using pure water, clams, salt pork, and of course, potatoes. The dairy-rich state of Massachusetts chose to make its brand of chowder with milk, while Manhattan and Connecticut versions added tomatoes. Thus started the famous food controversy, still-if ever-to be settled, as to whether chowder should be made with tomatoes. Perhaps one of the most famous gastronomic controversies in American history arose when Assemblyman Seeder introduced into the Maine Legislature in February 1939, a bill to make the entrance of a tomato into clam chowder illegal!
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