Tidbits: Razor Clams

As a kid, I always believed in eating dessert first, but was of course forbidden by parental law to indulge more than once or twice a year. The razor clams appetizer at Island Creek Oyster Bar equals the very next best thing. Sultry and dripping with butter, the long, thin bivalves, which are typically only harvested during the days around a full moon, have all the sweetness of their rounder cousins, but more meat to them. And paired with an amontillado sherry made by Miguel Florido each plate is a mini-opus of contrasting flavors. The sherry’s slight brininess, met up with more brine from the razor clams, cuts through the rich lardons and garlic, and amounts to a tsunami of flavor. “It just sort of comes together,” says I.C.O.B.’s wine director and general manager, Tom Schlesinger-Guidelli, in what may well qualify as the epicurean understatement of the year.

Available now until they’re gone (and then probably again around the next full moon). Island Creek Oyster Bar, 500 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, 617-532-5300, islandcreekoysterbar.com.