A twenty-something thirty-year-old Hawaii transplant living it up on the East Coast for the past 10 years (Boston and Stamford, CT). This blog is to document my daily adventures and things that I find cool, uncool, hilarious, awe-inspiring, and annoying. Please feel free to email me at hawaiigurlinct@gmail.com.
February 7, 2012
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Chowdafest 2012
Saturday was for stuffing my face with 30 different chowders from Fairfield county restaurants at the Annual Chowdafest in Westport. I don’t remember ever hearing about a past Chowdafest but at some point in time I had written a note to myself to check out this February event. And who am I to argue with myself, after all? Turns out, I was not disappointed. Chowdafest 2012 was amazing!
(photo via The Daily Westport)
In a nut shell, 30 or so restaurants donate their time and their soup(s) to serve thousands of hungry fest-gatherers. Chowder loving people pay $6 for a ballot and a spoon in order to sample all the chowders and vote for their favorites. And all of that admission money goes to the Connecticut Food Bank. Pretty awesome… all the way around. But contributing to a good cause is not all you get if you are a winning restaurant. You also get the coveted chowdafest
trophyfootball helmet.
While almost all the chowders were extremely good, there were three that stuck out in my mind as the best of the best: Clam Chowder from Rory’s in Darien (already really good straight out of the soup vat but made infinitely better with a dab of sherry offered), and the Crab Chowder and Lobster Bisque, both from Stamford. Clearly I’m going to need to visit Rory’s this weekend to have an entire cup-full. And I’m going to have to start adding soups to my list of reasons to hit up the Crab Shell. I go there a lot during the summer, but it’s usually for the music and the beer.
And because I’m nothing if not service-y, here’s a couple of things I’ve learned to help you enjoy Chowdafest 2013 - because you really should go to it:
- Go
hungrystarving. Each serving was only a couple of tablespoons so I figured a professional stomach like mine was up to the challenge. But those tiny sampler cups are bigger than they look. I had to be rolled out of there when it was all over. - Go early. We got there with 2 hours to spare but already missed out on some that looked like they’d be sure winners in my book – especially an Oyster and Pork Belly Chowder from Nicholas Roberts Gourmet Bistro.
- Go with lots of time to spare. We were nervous about getting to try everything before they ran out (see #2) so there was a lot of burned tongues. Or just mine. But still.
- If you are lactose intolerant, plan accordingly. This is probably a pretty obvious one to everyone, but I don’t know what I was thinking. I have a pretty mild case of it – pop a pill before eating a bowl of cereal and no party foul. But somehow I didn’t put together that a) chowder has cream in it and b) I would be consuming A LOT of chowder (see #1).
Now don’t let a little thing like being lactose intolerant stop you. I subscribe to the Anthony Bourdain school of thought:
“Good food and good eating are about risk. Every once in a while an oyster, for instance, will make you sick to your stomanch. Does this mean you should stop eating oysters? No way.”
I can’t wait for next year.
- Go
