I would like to know when it is safe to eat clams? one night good, one night they smell?

I know that with oysters you cannot eat them in months that contain the letter R and I have found that to be true.



However, I have been introduced to clams and i love eating them in the tomatoe onion sauce. Hoever, over the past month, the first 3 times that i ate them they were divine.



Now I have ordered them twice over a period of a week and each time some of them smell or taste bitter?



Is there a specific time I can eat them or not? Or does it depend on the place that you order them.I would like to know when it is safe to eat clams? one night good, one night they smell?Well, we wont launch the whole long discussion of oysters and the letter "R". I'm sure you know it mostly has to do with their taste/ breeding cycle.

Clams are more about freshness and locality. They really don't have a season. Fresh clams should taste and smell of nothing but seawater. Any bad smells and I'd send them back. Any bad "bitter" taste and I'd eat at another restaurant with a different seafood supply.

If you want to taste and smell whats really going on you have to order them on the half shell. No cocktail sauce or lemons. You should taste sweet clam and clean seawater, nothing else. Find that taste and order your cooked seafood dishes there as well. Your in a restaurant that knows how to handle seafood.