Woodman's or Clam Box?  Essex or Ipswich?  Woodman's (see the Roadfood.com review) claims to have invented the fried clam.  Clam Box (see the Roadfood.com review) claims to have perfected the fried clam.  In his Great American Bites column in USA Today, Larry Olmsted discusses the fried clams to be found north of Boston at these two seafood icons.  There are significant differences: Woodman's fries everything in lard, and the breading is all cornmeal (no flour).  The Clam Box uses a mixture of cornmeal and flour, and is noted for starting each day with fresh frying oil and changing it at 2:30 p.m.  Clam Box is already open for the season (Woodman's is open year-round); we can think of no better way to get a jump on summer than to head up to the North Shore to conduct our own taste tests.  Again.