From chef Matt Jennings: “What’s a best of New England list, without a nod to ye olde clam shack cuisine?

I live in ‘Lil Rhody, and we’ve got some great examples of seaside ‘clam holes’ as we call them - including my local favorite, Evelyn’s. But there is something about Ipswich’s Clam Box that will forever be cemented in my head; great (not just ‘pretty good’) fried, whole belly clams. Get ready to stand in line for a good reason.

‘Da Nort Shoa,’ or more accurately the North Shore section of Massachusetts, hosts a plethora of perfectly respectable clam joints. But The Clam Box kicks it up a notch. The ‘Native Clam Mini Meal’ is- if we are doomed to always have fast food, at its best. If ‘lobstah’ rolls on buttered, toasted hot dog buns are your gig (rookie tourist move), then sure, you’ll find a good one here.

But you really want the clams. I mean, this place is shaped like a clam box for chrissakes, so better to just succumb and become a part of the living heritage that is the finest of North Shore clammeries. Pile it high with crispy (and somehow not greasy) onion rings freshly out of the fryer, a side of ‘tahdah’ sauce (yes, that’s for fry dipping too - don’t embarrass yourself by squirting ketchup all over the place), and you’ve got yourself one hell of a summertime snack. Throw in a side of slaw- or bring your own hot sauce and elevate that slaw to what we Bostonians call ‘Muscle Slaw’ with a few drops, and it’s goodnight. Congrats. You have achieved fried clam eating perfection.”