Attention all Clam Chowder cooks and enthusiasts!
On Saturday, February 25th, the Santa Cruz Boardwalk will be sponsoring their 31st annual Clam Chowder Cook Off.
Join the fun and excitement and talented chefs both individuals and professional teams, from across the country will face off to see who produces the finest chowder in each category. Awards will include cash prizes, round-trip tickets and more.
The Cook Off is an important fund-raiser for the City of Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation Department.
In North America “Chowder” is a generic name for a wide variety of seafood and vegetable stews and thickened soups, most often with a milk or cream base. In the early days of the New England fishing industry chowders were sometimes thickened with crumbled ships biscuits instead of the more usual flower or potato. New England Clam Chowder
is probably the most widely known of the chowder family, however there are others worthy of your attention, among them, Corn Chowder, Fish Chowders and potato chowders which often contain cheese.
Etymologist differ as the origin of the word “Chowder.” The most widely accepted theory is that it came from the French chaudière, which is a type of pot in which chowders were often cooked. Another theory is that it comes from “iowter,” the Old English word for fishmonger.
The alternative pronunciation “chowda,” often heard in New England is thought to have originated in Newfoundland in early days when Breton fishermen would throw the remainder of the day’s catch into a pot, along with other available ingredients, similar to the origin of San Francisco’s “Chioppino.”
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