TRIPLE B's RI Clam Jam

jam it road report:


friday night on our road gig, my band went to iggy's doughboy and chowder house, supposedly the second best chowder house in RI. we talked to locals. they all sounded like peter griffin. they seemed more interested in our gig than the food, but they were lining up for takeout. most popular item was the 3 clam cakes and bowl of chowder combo. vinny the drummer had this meal, and a clamcake is visible in the center background of the pic. too doughey, not enough clam for our tastes. i had the clam and scallops dinner, which consisted of fried bay scallops, fried whole clam bellies (or strips for a buck less, but i chose bellies), french fries, and chowder. i also had one of their house-branded root beers. it was all pretty awesome. the fried clams were maybe the best i've had, ever. they were big and breaded and juicy and perfect with just some lemon juice. the chowder (red and white available, we all went white) was good but the clam/potato ratio was leaning a little too potato. somehow, i skipped the other specialty of the house, the doughboys. they looked like funnel cake blobs and i didn't want to fill up before our gig. we all agreed that we'll be back the next time we rock rhode island. special thanks to the guidebook at the holiday inn express in warwick (pronounced "werick") RI for the tip.

Defonte's Red Hook Sandwich Jam

I've been planning for a long time of writing out a list of the top 10 sandwiches I have ever eaten, but it has recently become clear to me that there are more than 10 top sandwiches in the universe and rather than sleep on ever making this list, I should start telling the world of these spectacular sandwiches with the dream of compiling them all at a later date:

Today we went to Defonte's in Red Hook, which I was not previously aware existed.

it's at 379 Columbia St. near where "the hook" used to be - you just take Van Brunt into Red Hook and make a left on Commerce St. you can see it as soon as you turn onto Commerce, straight ahead of you:


So the jam here is totally the fried eggplant, BUT that doesn't mean you get just the eggplant. I went with the roast beef, fresh mozzarella, and eggplant:

now this sandwich comes in two sizes - 1/3 and 1/2.

i went with 1/2...
which begged the question 1/2 of what, as it was pretty much a whole in just about any category and actually took me about 3 hours of on and off eating to fully consume. the pictures here are actually only of 1/2 OF the 1/2.


Here is why this sandwich was awesome:
1. The eggplant was fried almost zeppole style, so it was big and crusty and delicious.
2. the roast beef was warm
3. the took a ladle of roast beef juices from the vat full of roast beef and poured it on the inside of the top piece of bread.
4. gigantic.


Please go here, eat more sandwiches (they have tons of other stuff and you can totally invent your own sandwiches too) and tell me what else to try.