Clam Pizza or Lobster Roll? Connecticut's Iconic Food Debate Heats Up

CONNECTICUT — The Food Network editors have decreed that Frank Pepe's legendary white clam pizza is the most iconic Connecticut food. But do residents of the Nutmeg State agree? We asked Patch readers to weigh in, and the results were... mixed, to say the least.

Quite a few people backed up the conventional wisdom by declaring their allegiance to the white clam pie. As one reader from Simsbury simply stated: "White clam pizza. It is delicious." A respondent from Madison who claims to be Frank Pepe's granddaughter wrote emphatically: "I am Frank Pepe's granddaughter who grew up with the clam pie. Clams are fresh, tasty, with garlic oregano and cheese."

However, the clam pizza loyalists were matched by an equally vocal contingent boosting Connecticut's lobster rolls as the state's supreme food. "It's the CT lobster roll. Anything else is just incorrect," declared a reader from Simsbury, while someone from Middletown specified: "HOT Lobster roll… but also Naples style pizza." A Portland, Maine resident who grew up in Milford pined: "I live in Maine now and don't like the cold, mayonnaise-y lobster rolls everyone serves up here!"

The clam pizza vs. lobster roll battle was not the end of the culinary controversy. Readers all over the state championed regional favorites like hamburgers ("Hamburgers! They started HERE!" from Glastonbury), Shady Glen's fried cheese ("Shady Glen puts Fried Cheese on their burgers. 4 slices of cheese. No other place does this… you can not get this anywhere but CT," according to one Manchester reader), and even the University of Connecticut's famous ice cream ("People flock from all over to get it," claimed a reader in East Hampton).

While the white clam pizza and lobster roll dominated the responses, it's clear that to Connecticut residents, the state's iconic foods are as diverse as the regions and cities they represent. As a Milford reader put it: "Whole Foods Chocolate Mousse Cake! You can't get a cake like this anywhere else. It is so Connecticut-y because I live here, buy this here, and eat this here!"

To each their own iconic Connecticut delicacy…

This article was created using artificial intelligence, with human editing.