Saturday wasn’t your typical day at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. It was time to celebrate the 29th Annual Clam Chowder Cook Off & Festival, where individuals, restaurants, and organizations compete for the title of best clam chowder. All of the festivities efforts go to raise money for the City of Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation Department programs.

Rain or shine, we were going to cover the event as Foodie Correspondents thanks to Foodbuzz. Thankfully, the weather stayed dry throughout Saturday’s festival where the crowds of hungry chowder fans walked the Boardwalk in search of the best Manhattan and Boston clam chowders. Booths were all set up attracting crowds. Some simple, others with playful themes like dancing mermaids or Oompa Loompas complete with a Willy Wonka commanding the crowd. It was all about checking out each booth because to try out the chowder, you had to give up one of five of your precious tasting tickets from your tasting kit.

Just like last year’s festival, we walked the Boardwalk just before the public tasting began to see the final prep work being completed.

You could see contestants busily mixing up their batches of chowder, chopping the remainder of their ingredients, and setting up for the rush of people ready to come to their booth. I can recall the smell of bacon permeating the air at one of the booths. Seeing all of this action was enough to get anyone excited to eat.

Right when 1:00 P.M. hit, it was time for the public tasting. Armed with our tasting kits – which included 5 tasting tickets, a People’s Choice Ballot card, reusable chowder cup, and spoon – we began to line up. We sampled chowder from all three divisions: individuals, corporate/media, and professional, to get a balanced selection of different chowders. Below is what we were able to try.

Draeger Construction
Boston: This was the booth where I smelled bacon being fried, so I wanted to line up here first. Bacon fans would rejoice to the plentiful bacon bits. To complement the bacon, you had plenty of chunks of clams, potatoes, and celery.

Manhattan: Just like their Boston chowder, their Manhattan chowder was chunky. The taste of sweet tomatoes shined through.

Mom’s Clam Diggers
Boston: Right away, just visually the differences can be seen between Mom’s Clam Diggers’ chowder and Draeger Construction’s chowder. We noticed that their chowder wasn’t thick at all, but more of a lighter cream broth with a smokey and peppery finish.

The Clamtone Cruzers
Boston: It was back to the thicker Boston chowder with The Clamtone Cruzers. It seemed that the flavor mainly came from herbs they must have used.

Cabrillo Culinary Arts
Manhattan: Those who like a little heat would have enjoyed this Manhattan chowder. The chowder was bold and spicy.

Boston: On the other hand, Cabrillo Culinary Arts’ Boston chowder had a very sweet finish.

Aegis of Aptos
Boston: Strangely enough, the last Boston chowder that we sampled was almost a combination of every Boston chowder that we had. Both sweet and smokey, every bite reminded me of what I had throughout the afternoon. Almost the perfect way to end it.

We went to the festival not looking for the best… That’s left for the judges to decide. We were there more for enjoying everyone’s take on clam chowder and appreciating all of the uniqueness each competitor brought to the cook off. Whether they were cooking clam chowder based from passed down family recipes or just a plan amongst a circle of friends, everyone was out to have a good time.

Below is the list of the winners of the 29th Annual Santa Cruz Clam Chowder Cook Off & Festival:

Best Professional Boston
1st Place – Severino’s Grill, Chef Antonio Gomez (Aptos)
2nd Place – Blackboard Catering, Chef Clint Hughey (Santa Cruz)
3rd Place – Lil Biscuit House, Chef Martin Krawetz (San Mateo)

Best Professional Manhattan
1st Place – Severino’s Grill, Chef Miguel Ponce (Aptos)
2nd Place – Blackboard Catering, Chef Clint Hughey (Santa Cruz)
3rd Place – Cabrillo College Culinary Arts, Chef Danny Pena (Aptos)

Best Individual Manhattan
1st Place – “Little Kahuna” – Brad Winding (Castro Valley)
2nd Place – “Dragonmama’s Red” – Michelle Ber (Fremont)
3rd Place – “Mitchell’s Chowder” – Zack Mitchell (Santa Cruz)

Best Individual Boston
1st Place – “Ye Oldde Cape Codders” – Darin Wallace (Oak Grove)
2nd Place – “Clam Rock” – Chris Hirz (San Jose)
3rd Place – “Clamma Lamma Ding Dongs” – Amy Gilmore (Roseville)

Best Corporate
1st Place – Dominican Hospital (Santa Cruz)
2nd Place – Jerry’s of Hollister (Hollister)
3rd Place – MYC Delta Clammers (Martinez)

Most Original Team
1st – Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing (Santa Cruz)
2nd – Dominican Hospital (Santa Cruz)
3rd – Cocoanut Grove Castaways (Santa Cruz)

People’s Choice
Professional: Severino’s Grills (Aptos)
Corporate: Dominican Hospital (Santa Cruz)
Individual: Grandma’s Clam Digger (Aptos)

Most Tasted
Professioinal: Carmona’s BBQ & Deli (Watsonville)
Corporate: Draeger Construction (San Jose)
Individual: Rosie’s Clam & Get it (Soquel)

When Foodbuzz and Kikkoman announced that they would be allowing Foodbuzz Tastemakers a chance to sample a new Ponzu Lime Dressing Sauce, I immediately had a flashback to a dish that my Mom used to make at home that called for green beans, pork, and soy sauce. Why? Kikkoman Soy Sauce was a staple in our home. We used it for everything. Also, the green beans and pork dish mainly used soy sauce for its flavor. I was curious to see how this new Ponzu Lime Dressing Sauce combined with my Mom’s recipe would turn out.

This was one of my favorite dishes growing up. I haven’t had it in so long, so the opportunity to recreate a childhood favorite dish using Kikkoman’s Ponzu Lime Dressing Sauce was something that I was excited to try.

Ingredients
1-2 Pounds of Green Beans
1-2 Pounds of Pork Belly or Pork Loin
1/4 Cup of Kikkoman Ponzu Lime Dressing & Sauce
1 Large Diced Onion
5 Crushed Garlic Cloves
2 tbs. of Honey
1 tsp. of Salt
1/2 tsp. of Pepper
Olive Oil
3-4 tbs. of Kikkoman Soy Sauce
Water (Optional)

Steps
First prepare the green beans by cutting the stem ends off and wash them under cold water. After they are cleaned, take a large pot and boil the green beans for 10 minutes. Strain them after they are done cooking and set them aside.

Take the pork and cut it into small chunks, about 1 inch in size. Place the chunks into a large bowl.

Combine the Ponzu Lime Dressing Sauce, half of the diced onion, crushed garlic cloves, honey, salt, and pepper into the bowl of pork. Mix everything together and let it marinade. I marinated the pork for about half an hour. You can do it longer if you wish.

Now it’s time to cook the pork. In a large pot, heat up some olive oil under medium high heat. Pour the bowl of pork belly and marinade into the pot and let it all cook together. 5 minutes into cooking, place in the other half of the onion into the pot. Be sure to keep stirring everything together. After another 10 minutes of cooking, take the green beans and combine that with the onions and pork. The onions should begin to caramelize, which is what you want to do. You can combine the soy sauce with the dish now. You will notice a sauce forms from all of the ingredients cooking together. Let everything cook for another 15-20 minutes. In between that final time for cooking, continue to taste the sauce. If you feel that it’s getting too salty, add in some water to balance out the saltiness.

After everything was done, I finally sampled my recreation. It definitely tasted like what my Mom made years ago. It was funny how inspiration for cooking can come from looking at a label and just thinking back to food that you grew up with.

PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur is made from combining all natural pomegranate juice, with vodka and tequila, to give you a complex tangy flare with the perfect hint of sweetness.

PAMA sent me a sample to try out and I began to think what would be the best way to enjoy it. A pomegranate martini maybe? Although I’ve always had a cocktail shaker and martini glasses tucked away in my cupboard, I never really put them to use. I checked out PAMA’s website and saw that they had a wide selection of drink and food recipes that called for their liqueur. They featured a Pomegranate Martini recipe that I was inspired by. I just substituted the orange liqueur with a small amount of orange juice for my version. Just combine the following:

2 oz. PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur
1 oz. Premium Vodka
1/2 oz. Orange Juice

I combined all of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice, shook it up, and poured it into a martini glass.

It’s simple and easy way to enjoy PAMA Liqueur. If you don’t feel like making a cocktail, go ahead and get creative by cooking a dish using it.

Also, PAMA is being featured by more Cupcakes in Chicago with their cocktail cupcakes. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, you can enjoy the combination of Belgian chocolate, Valrhona pomegranate mousse, pomegranate buttercream – all using PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur. You can order a dozen of these delectable cupcakes on the more Cupcakes website. They will ship them out, just in case you can’t pick up these treats yourself. These cupcakes shy away from traditional flowers and boxed chocolate Valentine’s Day gifts, making them a bit more unique and memorable.

It’s been awhile since I was able to head out and dine at a restaurant that I hadn’t visited before. I’ve been mainly sticking to local restaurants around Fremont or cooking at home. I still had that strong urge to go out and eat somewhere new. I was out in San Francisco last Friday and I thought about checking out Delfina. It’s a restaurant that I’ve been wanting to visit for a long time. But, then I remembered my cousin talking about a superb dinner he had at Wood Tavern in Oakland. Wood Tavern also was a spot that I wanted to try after hearing all the positive feedback about it. I really wanted to do something new, and since I rarely check out restaurants in Oakland, it was an easy decision. It was also good to know that Wood Tavern continues to gain praise from local diners and critics, so I expected that I was not going to leave Wood Tavern disappointed.

It was a busy Friday night at the restaurant with tables available to those with reservations. The only option left was bar seating which I didn’t mind. I mainly was looking forward to the food.

Our meal started off with Seared Yellowtail Tuna on top of a salad of baby artichokes and olives drizzled with citrus oil and a balsamic glaze.

When I was browsing the menu earlier, I noticed they were offering a Crispy Pork Belly starter. It sounded too good to pass up, but they had a equally appetizing Pork Shoulder Confit entrée on the menu also. To avoid a pork overload, we chose to go with the Yellowtail Tuna starter and get our pork fix with the Pork Shoulder Confit.

The deliciously crispy outside and tender inside cut of pork shoulder sat on top of a serving of buttery polenta.

The other entrée we ordered was the Pan Roasted Chicken. This came on a whim. While waiting for a seat at the bar, we noticed that many diners were ordering the chicken. A server walked by us with someone’s order of the chicken and our eyes were glued to the passing plate. It smelled all too good. I often skip chicken dishes because of the thought of being served an overcooked, dry serving of chicken. That was not the case here. Moist and juicy are the words to describe this dish, which was served with spinach, fingerling potatoes, grilled radicchio, and a lemon-rosemary jus.

Throughout the dinner, I just felt a good vibe about Wood Tavern. Maybe it was because we sat at the bar. Seeing the faces of others cheering and chowing down over food and drinks really plays into that feeling of being in a favorite local neighborhood spot. My only wish is that Wood Tavern would be in my neighborhood.

I’ve always seen this city as being over shadowed by San Francisco’s restaurant offerings, but after this positive visit, I’m already wanting to see what other good restaurants there are to visit in Oakland.

Wood Tavern
6317 College Avenue
Oakland, CA 94618
(510) 654-6607
www.woodtavern.net