There they are, tempting me still. Light, flaky, grease-free on the outside and hot, sweet and briny on the inside, I present to you the local whole belly clams from the Clam Box in Ipswich, Massachusetts.

Sure, the good folks at Roadfood.com did declare these "the best fried clams in the universe" so I knew to expect some pretty good stuff. What they didn't warn me about was how they work themselves into your psyche, so that hours, days, months later you find yourself pining for more, wondering how you are going to go another minute without devouring another huge serving of them - and a side of onion rings, too, just for extra kicks. They are the worst of evil in the best sense of the word.

This is what they look like when they are released from the kitchen. The regular strips are on the left, atop a massive pile of fantastic french fries. The whole bellies are on the right, with those aforementioned onion rings. Why the good folks at the Clam Box (friendly, patient, relaxed though the line is 30 people deep) think it necessary to add a dinner roll is beyond me. But it did make the birds happy.

As for whole belly vs. clam strips: the whole bellies, as their name implies, are pretty much the whole clam, with all of its funky seawater goodness. They are more expensive and I prefer them, but at a good place like the Clam Box, the strips are almost as good, and cost less.

How could one not like a place that looks like this? It screams New England charm and practically commands nostalgia. I grew up on the other side of the continent, in a landlocked, mountainous place where the closest thing to fresh seafood was Mrs. Paul's Fish Sticks. However, standing in line at the Clam Box, listening to folks speak in that New England accent, suddenly I feel like a native, wondering impossible things like when I might get back out to the cape and do some real fishing, like we used to with the Kennedys.

Alas, that was just another spell that was cast on me during our trip to Crane Beach over the weekend. Marissa and I had been out this way early in the Spring, before the leaves had returned to the trees. Knowing that summer was coming to an end we had to come back, to visit the ocean on a warm afternoon - and our trip included several lovely hours watching the waves crash on the beach and feeling our toes in the sand as the cool Atlantic waters washed over our feet.

Those sensations will linger in my mind as the weather turns colder, giving me hope for the warm weather to return. But the clams, the clams will haunt me, keeping my soul hungry for the salty satisfaction that only they can bring.