Soup is one of the easiest ways to taste a place without booking a flight. A pot of broth, beans, noodles, seafood, herbs, or spices can carry centuries of migration, farming, trade, celebration, and comfort.

Soup may be the most welcoming food on earth. It can be humble or ceremonial, brothy or creamy, fiery or gentle. A pot of soup can stretch a few ingredients into dinner, carry the flavor of a place, and tell a story long before the first spoonful cools.

A good Connecticut soup tastes like the place it comes from: briny shoreline clams, sweet late-summer corn, garden herbs, sturdy beans, and a pot that has been allowed to simmer long enough for everything to settle in.

Minorcan Clam Chowder Recipe: A Flavorful Florida Classic

A great clam soup tastes like the sea without tasting muddy, fishy, or flat. The difference usually comes down to three choices: how the clams are cleaned, when they are cooked, and what seasonings surround them.