February 25th is National Clam Chowder Day in the United States, which got us thinking about the long-simmering debate over which is better — New England (white) clam chowder or Manhattan (red) clam chowder.
New England chowder, with its thick, creamy white color and bounty of clams and other seafood, arguably fits most people’s definition of a seafood chowder. But in the In the mid-1800s, according to Time magazine, Italians in New York started using tomatoes in chowder, thinning it out and giving it a reddish color, and giving birth to what is today often referred to as Manahattan clam chowder.
