CLAMS
Clams belong to the family of molluscs that also includes mussels and oysters. Essentially they are bivalve animals that live on the sea bottoms and live by filtering the water into one end of their body and exhaling it through the other end. Clams live in shallow waters all around the world, and are catched by special device or by hand. What these molluscs eat makes them flavorable, although they are quite chewy to the texture (with some tender parts that can be cut out from the bigger clam species) and need to be therefore cooked with care to avoid overcooking and further chewiness. Their anatomy is fairly simple, as the use their muscle to open and close the shell - it is opened when they inhale the water and closed when they want to protect their soft inner body and expel waste products.
Clams are eaten whole (except the shell of course) which is in contrast to serving the white tender muscle of a scallop for example. The reason is simply that they are so small, and the entire soft part of a clam is tasty and edible. In such a way, when we eat a clam, we eat its entire body that includes muscle, connective tissue, food they eat, and even their eggs and sperm. Sounds disgusting? It's quite tasty actually, so look at it from a molecular point of view, since the molecules are the ones that make your palate vibrate. It is important though to eat clams in season, usually during the summer months, which is quite different from other molluscs that are best during the cold months of the year (the classical phrase that you shouldn't eat shellfish in months without an "R" is therefore not valid for clams).
When you buy clams make sure they don't smell strange (should smell like sea with no disgusting odors). You can store clams, and even other molluscs, in a refrigerator on ice under a wet towel for a few days, although it may be risky if your purchase is already a few days old. In other words, buy them on the day of consumption to avoid disappointment. Living clams are the ones you want - do not eat dead clams! How do you know they are alive? They should hold their shells together and close the shells when tapped on. If you want to further improve the flavor of the clams, immerse them for a few hours in cold salt water (about 20 gram per liter, or 3 oz per gallon) so they will have a chance to clean themselves from their waste products. Make sure that the water has salt in it, otherwise these animals will die quickly.
Before the actual cooking, you need to rinse the clams in running cold water to remove the sand and grit particles - not so nice if they get into your mouth. Cooking clams is quite simple although it should be done with good timing. The classical way is to melt a knob of butter in a medium hot pan, add a good amount of white wine, let it heat up a little and then throw in the clams. The best way is to throw in not too many at once because if they lay above each other they will not cook at the same time. Now, cover the pan with lid so they are cooked in the steam of the evaporating liquid. Very frequently, briefly lift the lid and look if the clams have opened their shells. This may take less than a minute so watch out. If about 90% of the clams are opened then remove them from the heat and into a cold bowl to stop the cooking process. Discard the clams that are not opened - they were dead before you even started the cooking. Now you can either remove the soft part from the shells and briefly reheat it together with the rest of your dish, or you can serve them as they are. Different recipes call for different ways of presentation.
Clams are good with white wine, tomatoes, garlic, butter, parsley, and even horseradish that adds and extra hotness to them. You can also try to create a dish with bacon (a classic mollusc accompaniment), chives, chili, cream, peppers, onion, tarragon, or thyme.