Chowdah Fest

So I really don't think we will ever attend this again. The Melody Tent is just not a great place for a food tasting venue. The crowd was out of control, ornery, and confused.

That might have been okay if the chowder was good but it really just wasn't. Until Sunday, I never met a chowder I just didn't like. But there we were, tasting and wrinkling our noses and trying to find the positive. I will say 2 of the 9 tasted like Snow's. I get that it was a competition for traditional chowder but traditional chowder can be seasoned. Or have lots of clams in it. Or not taste like crap.

So here's the official review, based on yammering feedback from the family.

• Marshlands Restaurant - Okay at best. It wasn't offensive but not memorable and not inventive in any way.
  
• British Beer Co. - I didn't get any. ChowderGranddad said it was "fine". There was a lot of "fine" going on at the Chowdah Fest.
  
• Buster's Best Sandwiches - Tasted like Snow's.
• Captain Parker's - This is the clear winner, but not because it was great. More because it wasn't bad comparatively speaking. It wouldn't have ranked very well at the Newport Chowder-Off.
  
• Booster's Bar and Grill - Chowder Grandma said "This chowder made me glad they didn't fill it the whole way." Keep in mind, the cup is like a shot glass. The woman didn't even want to finish a SHOT GLASS WORTH.
  
• Tommy Doyle's - Super hot, super thin, mildly decent potatoes. However, I am sure I would love to go have a pint there. And might even try the chowder again.
  
• Artie's Cafe - I don't even know how to discuss this without being horrible. I am sure it is decent enough chowder in small batches. Yeah, that's it. If we ate it in the place, it would be good.
  
• Harry's Blues Bar & Cajun - Tasted like potato soup.
• The Lobster Boat - ChowderGrandpa liked it enough to vote it #1. The rest of us were onto the FREE FOUR SEAS ICE CREAM by then.
  

There has been subsequent talk of never ever attending a chowder festival again. I don't know that I would go that far but I am not convinced this is the right venue for us. It may not be fair to the restaurants.

Getting ready to taste.


ChowderBoy gives a thumbs up to Captain Parker's.



ChowderGirl enjoyed herself and really, that is all that matters.

Courtyard, Cataumet MA, June 20, 2009

Owned by Jay Miller, former goon on the Bruins, The Courtyard is a summer favorite for our family. The official review this time was that it is near perfect.



ChowderGranddad said it was nice and gritty which just means we know those clams are fresh, Jay! Very nicely done.

It's thick but not floury, perfect consistency of clams, and seasoned well.

I personally would have liked a bit more SOMETHING though I don't know what. It was solid, filling, and a great night kicking off the summer.



ChowderBoy finished his chowder AND lost his first tooth.


"It's too good for my heart. I love this chowder. It makes me feel happy to eat."

Onto Cape Cod, onto Cape Cod today

Tomorrow is the big day. In the meantime, we tried to get in some pre-chowdering last night. I've taken to mimicking pre-drinking and pre-walking by priming the tummies for good chowder.

We tried to stop at the Chowder Pot in Branford, CT. 30 minute wait. No go.

We're going clamming around noon. Perhaps it is time to try my hand at making my own again. What will likely happen is a few bloody marys and clams casino will seem more logical.

See you tomorrow on Twitter!

WCOD Chowdah Fest

Coming this weekend! WCOD's Chowder Festival!

• Marshlands Restaurant - Sandwich
  
• British Beer Co. - Falmouth Heights and Hyannis and many other locations which just makes me feel all suspect about their potential. We reviewed them last year and were not impressed but always worth another taste or ten.
  
• Buster's Best Sandwiches - in Dennisport.
  
• Captain Parker's (which won last year and is well known for it's awesomeness) - in West Yarmouth
  
• Booster's Bar and Grill - in Forestdale. I admit it. I had no idea where Forestdale was until I googled it. Smack dab in the middle of the Upper Cape? Near Otis? Huh.
  
• Tommy Doyle's - Of Harvard Square, Kendall Square and Hyannis.
  
• Wee Packet Restaurant - in Dennisport. No web site. Which isn't even kind of an issue.
  
• Artie's Cafe - in Falmouth...
  
• Harry's Blues Bar & Cajun - in Hyannis. I have a baaaaaadddd feeling about this. You can't judge a chowder by the web site but I have to say that this cajun thing alongside "Mexican Monday" doesn't bode well. Just like how we tried tortilla soup at Tigin and Clams Fra Fiablo at the Irish Club, I don't want my chowder from a place that excels in Cajun food and an occassional Mexican night. Though...to be fair. Cajun night at the Irish Club was pretty tasty.
  
• The Lobster Boat in W. Yarmouth. This is one of those places we always see on the annual Nauset-trampolines-A&W-Papa Gino's-MiniGolf-Four Seas excursion and always think...maybe some other time. Hurrah for a taster and being excused from it this year.
  

So we're ready. We have our spoons out and are ready to start judging.

Temple Grill - New Haven, CT - June 14, 2009

We went to New Haven on Sunday to see They Might Be Giants on the green for the International Festival of Arts and Ideas (http://www.artidea.org) - which was fantastic in general. Living near New Haven has some big benefits if you take the time to seek them out!

Anyway. A great find was Temple Grill's chowder. Unexpectedly good. It had copious amounts of fresh clams, chopped perfectly and seasoned nicely though a bit sparingly. The potatoes were firm and fresh. As noted, we have an issue with the thin chowders of Southern Connecticut but for what it was, it was quite good.


ChowderGirl hogged the whole bowl and is now passionately excited about going back for more.

Two thumbs up, Temple Grill!

Westfair - June 13, 2009 - Westport, CT

Very good - the experience took a long time. I understood why they said to call ahead with your order.

So the chowder was very interesting. It was thin, but we are getting used to that. ChowderGirl was not impressed. As usual, ChowderBoy gave the experience a hundred and fifteen.


It's funny. Since we started this, ChowderBoy has become enthusiastic about all chowder. He's like a chowder optimist. He sees the good in all chowders. His sister seems to be going half empty. She's highly critical of anything that is not her favorite kind.

ChowderDad and I had this experience with the Westfair chowder. We didn't like it very much and it had an undefinable-to-us seasoning. But we couldn't stop eating it. So I guess it wasn't all bad.

The good news?!?! The chowder was $2.50/cup. That may well be the cheapest chowder yet.

http://www.westfairfishandchips.com/

ChowderBoy Boogie

ChowderBoy

Estonia

2.95% of the traffic on this blog comes from Estonia. Which brings me to...ChowderN00b. Our first au pair is coming back this summer. She's very excited about the whole chowder thing. She learned to love it when she was here from 2005-2007.

I thought of course she would bring back the love of chowder to her homeland and inspire many seaside clam shacks near Kaardla. But she is pretty lazy.

So instead, she just returns each summer to get a belly full of New England Clam Chowder. This year, she will help the kids find new places in CT and report on their findings! Hurrah for ChowderN00b!

I Say Chowder, you Say....

This past weekend's adventures at the Newport Chowder-Off led us to wonder... What do people mean when they say chowder? I mean, they served "chowder" there that was barely distinguishable from soup. Why call some things chowder and not others? If you have no standards, how can you judge the quality?

I asked ChowderGirl and her answer is "It is with clams and potatoes and thick milk."

ChowderBoy was grumpy and said "STOP TALKING TO ME."

Turning back to ChowderGirl, I asked her what then, do we say about Manhattan Clam Chowder? Blank stare. Her brain must have done some short circuiting circulus in probando...

Because I am THAT MOM, now we have to research it. I just default to "it's that stuff we eat at the cape" and therefore my kids think the same thing...we need a real answer.

Without editorializing:

Random House dictionary says it is "a thick soup or stew made of clams, fish, or vegetables, with potatoes, onions, and other ingredients and seasonings."

Houghton Mifflin's dictionary adds:
1. A thick soup containing fish or shellfish, especially clams, and vegetables, such as potatoes and onions, in a milk or tomato base.
2. A soup similar to this seafood dish: corn chowder.

Britannica.com says "in North American cuisine, hearty soup usually containing fish or shellfish, especially clams. The word chowder is a corruption of the French chaudiere ("cauldron"), and chowder may have originated among Breton fishermen who brought the custom to Newfoundland, whence it spread to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and New England. The standard New England-style chowder contains fish or shellfish, salt pork, onions, potatoes, and milk. Manhattan-style chowder replaces the milk with tomatoes. Eighteenth-century chowders were more varied; meat or poultry chowders were made, and wine, spices, herbs, cider, and other flavourings were often added. Pounded common crackers or ship biscuits served as thickening. In the Southern and Midwestern United States, fresh sweet corn (maize) often replaces the clams in chowder. Conch chowder is a specialty of Key West, Fla."

And now with editorializing...

Okay, I get it. Chowder is thicker than soup, thinner than stew. It may or may not have fish or corn in it. It probably has vegetables in it. What is this?

When I say chowder, I mean New England Clam Chowder. I don't mean salmon and corn chowder. I don't mean fish stew. I don't mean rice and beans in a cup. I mean quahog based, creamy, potato-laden, seasoned, fresh, tasty chowder. And that is what ChowderKids mean too.

Now, we're all willing to try new chowders. But unlike that shortcut kind of way that ChowderAuntie says Coke and means all carbonated beverages in a can, we mean New England clam chowder when we say chowder.

Publish Post

In other words, to rip off Justice Potter Stewart..."We can't define it, but we know it when we eat it."

ChowderGirl Reviews Tony's

Here's ChowderGirl's review of Tony's Cedar Key Chowder.

Newport Chowder-Off Results

Official Results

Clam Category
1st Place: Tony's Cedar Key Clam Chowder (CHOWDER MOM'S PICK!)
2nd Place: The Barking Crab (LOVE THE HATS!)
3rd Place: Newport Marriott

Seafood Category
1st Place: Michael's Seafood (#30)
2nd Place: Pike Place Chowder (#33)
3rd Place: The Mooring Seafood Kitchen & Bar (#31)

Creative Category
1st Place: Blue Mermaid (#24)
Third win for the Blue Mermaid puts them in the Chowder Cook Off Hall of Fame!
2nd Place: Waterman Grille (#21)
3rd Place: Liquid Lunch (#23)

Clamcakes Category
1st Place: Harmon's Clamcakes
2nd Place: The Oak Hill Tavern

Most Spirited
The Barking Crab

Best Decorated Booth
Atria Senior Living

Clambassador's Award
Presented by Ben Sargent of Brooklyn Chowder Surfer: RISD Caterers

The Best Part?

After 3 hours of eating the best chowder in the nation...we took the boat shuttle back and went to the hotel and swam. Then we ate dinner. And tried their chowder.

The Goat Island Hyatt Aquidneck Island Chowder was better than anything we had all day. Including Tony's.

In fact, it was so good that ChowderBoy demanded another bowl the next day.

Can You Dig It?

Creative & Seafood Category

The Fringe Chowder Section sorely needed ChowderDad. I ate it but was not super excited and skipped some if the lines were too long.

21 - Waterman Grille - skipped

22 - 22 Bowen's Wine Bar - big thumbs up on the southwest scallop and corn!!!

23 - liquid lunch from shelton. not bad except totally non fish based which is rough for us....I guess I don't really even know what chowder means..since this really seemed like soup.

24 - Blue Mermaid Chowder House - San Francisco, CA, home of ChowderUncle. Phone calls must be made. GREAT Crab and Corn. I loved it. Kids refused.

25 - Line was WAY too long at Elbow Beach. Sorry Bermuda.

Then we got stuck eating Strawberry Shortcake and getting a bat painted on Chowder Boy's face.

And I totally stopped writing stuff down except that I ate some VERY VERY VERY smoked smoked corn and salmon chowder which should have been great but HOLY SMOKED. Yuck. Then I had Pike Place Bar & Grill which served some something awesome. On a frisbee.

Then we had to go back to the clam category and shovel Tony's and Home Plate in our gobs for about 20 minutes.

And we met Mike! The Chowder Guy! He gave the kids some presents which made them feel like big shots.

Yes We Clam!

Whew! That was fantastic. Perfect weather, perfect chowder, great crowd. That one is a no brainer for us for next year. We Twittered our reviews on and off and jotted things down but I can see it will be days before I can get all the material out there. By booth number, as it was jotted down:

2 - Tony's Cedar Key Clam Chowder, from Cedar Key FL
Spicy! ChowderBoy says 115! Nice potato. But it was our first taste and you know...you can't just fall in love with the first guy who looks your way. Or CAN you... Sometimes, what's right is right...

3 - Atlantic Grille - Middletown, RI
Tastes like Ritz crackers. BO-ring. (I'm glad I wrote this down - I have absolutely no recollection of this chowder...it was that ho hum)

4 - Atria Senior Living - Barrington, RI
ChowderKids hated it, I found it bland. ChowderGirl asked if this was the same Atria where Nana is (it's not) and if we needed to rescue her.

tweet: chowderboy just declared...everything is bad. does not bode well.

5 - RISD Caters, Providence, RI
In the first bribery attempt, we received visors for the kids. We didn't need to be bribed though. This stuff was DILLTASTIC. Creamy, rich, perfect clams. However, ChowderBoy's attitude took it's first turn into downward spiral. Freshly baked crackers, just lovely for me though.


6 - Stella Blues, Warren, RI
Oh how I wanted to get the kids to try this. They decided absolutely no red chowder would be consumed AT ALL. Ever. I tried it though and it was fine. I wanted to love it more because the owner's a DeadHead but it didn't work out for a true love connection.

7 - L'Attitude Modern Eatery - Cranston, RI
Too thin, ChowderBoy's bad mood continues.

8 - Union Station Brewery - Providence, RI
ChowderGirl was horrified. Way too oniony. ChowderBoy said it was none of the letters (which means it was unrankable)

9 - Boat House, Tiverton, RI
Both kids refused to eat it. Way too smoky, in my opinion.

10 - Homeplate, Taunton, MA
Okay so the place was all covered in Red Sox gear and in case you didn't know, ChowderKids may like their chowder New England style, but they like their baseball from the Bronx. So we were suspicious from the start. But MAN. We loved it. Nice potato, nice seasonings, just great.

Plus, they were all kinds of enthusiastic and joyous.


11 - The Barking Crab, Newport, RI
It was billed as "a dream in a cup" and it was pretty darned good. The kids got the cutest crab hats which made us happy and enjoy the chowder a bit more. Yummo! Very good! Yay!

tweet: so far the crab place is the best. the kids are already tired.



12 - Newport Marriot, Newport, RI
"Blech"

13 - Gas Lamp Grille, Newport, RI
No review. I am guessing it was my need for a bloody mary and our need to rest that caused the lapse.

We sat for a while and argued over Tony's versus Home Plate.

Then we went inside to try the Creative Category. Will review that all later...

I will say that we went back at the end for Tony's and for Home Plate. I cast my BEST CHOWDER vote for Tony's. The kids threw their two at Home Plate. I loved loved loved Tony's. For me, it was hands down the best that day. That said...it's not traditional and you know...CHANGE CAN BE SCARY.

We didn't stay to hear the results but from Tony's site, it looks like they won!

Chowder Off Plans

We abandoned the whole cute cottage motel thing and are staying in Newport proper. We'll leave around 7 tomorrow and leave our car at the hotel. We should get eating around 11.

We're looking forward to L'attitude Modern Eatery and the Liquid Lunch chowder from Shelton CT. It's pretty well a festival of fringe chowders though so I am not sure how it will all work out for these guys. Scallop chowder might throw them for a huge loop. Looking forward to reporting each and every bite though!

Chowder-Off Preparations - Motel Needed

Here's what the Chowder Family needs. We need to find a fun and interesting hotel/motel between Newport and Fairfield, CT...inexpensive would be even better.

When I was about ChowderGirl's age, I started coveting the roadside motels with the cottages. You know, the ones that line 6A and 28A on the Cape? I see them along Route 1 in Rhode Island too. But how do you figure out what is decent and which one has Norman Bates and his mother running the show?

Any recommendations?