In the run-up to Grandpa and Grandma being in town, I completely neglected to post about this year's Great Chowder Cook-Off. After attending the past four years, this is no doubt my favorite Newport event, hands-down.
Luckily, Tom and Michelle and...um, Michelle again didn't drop the blog the way I did. Thanks y'all.
We'd fed Theo right before we left, so a full stomach and the hot weather left him without any interest in the chowdah. We'll fix that soon enough.
The hot weather meant big crowds, which I always have an issue tolerating. Our favorite year by far was the year the weather was cloudy and maybe 60 degrees -- very few people came out, even though you'd think that sort of weather would suggest "hot creamy comfort food" more so than 90 and sunny.
As seasoned (and simmered, this year) veterans of the Cook-Off, we were a little disappointed -- there seemed to be fewer participating restaurants compared to years past and very few who had traveled any distance. We all figured that gas prices were probably at least partly to blame. The Blue Mermaid, from San Francisco, was noticeable for having traveled a long way and seemed to be the favorite among the folks we hung out with -- I see from their site that they are a past winner.
Our other gripe: Not enough of the restaurants had servers working the outskirts of the crowd with samples, which caused the elbow-throwing throngs around the booths to become intolerable (Michelle, in her post above, was right on point about the general rudeness). The "I hate people" factor caused us to leave without eating nearly as much chowdah as I'd like, but I still left happy.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
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1 comment:
Hmmm, I would tend to think that a chowder festival would be perfect in the fall - maybe late September? I love me some chowder, but I'm also a fan of Russian imperial stouts but you won't catch me having either when the temps rise above 75.
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