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)

The First Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival – Day 1 What an amazing first night to kick off the weekend....

SF Chefs. Food. Wine. 2009 – Urban BBQ & Chocolate Enchantment After Party in Union Square Coverage Saturday night, the heart of San Francisco’s Union Square was...

Foodbuzz Blogger Festival – Morning at the Market and Afternoon Taste Pavilion Photos I’m sure all of the food bloggers who attended this...

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.

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Just a sneak peak at what was going on in our kitchen last night. Plenty of food and cooking to bring in the New Year.

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The First Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival – Day 1 What an amazing first night to kick off the weekend....

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I was excited to see that Luce was participating this year again. Earlier this year, we had Lunch at Luce during Dine About Town 2009 and was very satisfied. Several other favorite restaurants of mine are participating, which is going to make it hard for me to chose where to go.

For a list of restaurants and sample menus, visit the Dine About Town website.

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Not your average roasted turkey, but Chicken Relleno – a deboned roasted chicken, stuffed with ground pork, Filipino hot dogs, and eggs. We usually cook Chicken Relleno during the holidays. After Thanksgiving settles down, we’ll have the recipe posted for you to try at home.

Cooking Chicken Relleno During special holidays, we often cook Chicken Relleno. Just this...

Cooking My Aunty’s Coconut Macaroons This recipe is from my Aunt who used to make...

A special thank you goes out to Foodbuzz, Outstanding in the Field, Green Leaf Produce, and the team at Namu.

The First Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival – Day 1 What an amazing first night to kick off the weekend....

Foodbuzz Blogger Festival – Morning at the Market and Afternoon Taste Pavilion Photos I’m sure all of the food bloggers who attended this...

SF Chefs. Food. Wine. 2009 – Urban BBQ & Chocolate Enchantment After Party in Union Square Coverage Saturday night, the heart of San Francisco’s Union Square was...

Rose and I started off with a little breakfast from Rose Pistola & Café at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, followed by a California olive oil tasting session, and then finally we ended up at the Metreon for the Afternoon Taste Pavilion event. Here, there were plenty of goods available from Foodzie vendors to sample, wine seminars, food demos by several Foodbuzz Featured Publishers, and plenty of eating going on. Here’s a look at some of Saturday afternoon’s events.

The First Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival – Day 1 What an amazing first night to kick off the weekend....

Feasting the Streets of San Francisco’s Street Food Festival The crowds were in full effect on Saturday at San...

SF Chefs. Food. Wine. 2009 – Urban BBQ & Chocolate Enchantment After Party in Union Square Coverage Saturday night, the heart of San Francisco’s Union Square was...

Below is just a sample of how the night went during the Taste of SF Street Food “Fare” event at the Ferry Building. Lots of…

… great food. It awesome to see food bloggers all come together to celebrate our passion and dedication to writing about food. What’s the best way to reward our hard work? By eating and drinking, no doubt. By the looks on everyone’s faces, everyone looked like they were having a good time just being a part of the event. I have to hand it to Foodbuzz for starting the festival this way. It gives other food bloggers who aren’t from the Bay Area just a sample of how San Francisco does street food. I can’t wait to see how the rest of the weekend will unfold. Cheers to more good food and drink…

Below was taken from my attempt to do a live blog coverage for the event:

The first annual Foodbuzz Blogger festival is about to kick off in just a few hours. First on the agenda is a meet and greet at Hotel Vitale at 5:00 P.M.

We’re going to try to do a live blog coverage of today’s festivities as the night carries on. See you all there.

Check back later for more updates.

We just arrived at the Hotel and checked in. The give away bags they are handing out are stuffed with some good things.

Going to the Ferry Building next!

Chowing on so much food. The Hog Island Oysters are delicious.

Tacolicious!

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I first had a sample of Silver Moon Desserts at the SF Chefs.Food.Wine event a few weeks back. They were showcasing their Mojito Ice flavor. Little cups of white sorbet garnished with mint, were just calling out to be tried. Just after one spoonful, we were hooked. The texture reminded me of a soft snow cone with the flavors lime and mint rushing at you. The rum didn’t overpower the dessert at all, which I appreciated. That could explain why we couldn’t resist taking more samples.

It was here where I had a talk with Sheri Tate, the president of Silver Moon Desserts. With my camera swinging around my shoulder, Sheri quickly figured out that I was a food blogger. I had the chance to talk to her about Silver Moon Desserts. This Los Gatos company launched their ice cream and sorbets in 2008, and quickly gained industry recognition, already winning several awards in a short time span. Before leaving their booth, Sheri offered me a list of stores selling her desserts.

The Mojito Ice flavor left me with such positive impression, that I had to have one in my freezer at home. So, I finally made it to a store nearby in search of it. There wasn’t any Mojito Ice available at the store I went to, so I took it as an opportunity to try out a new flavor – the Mango Mimosa sorbet. It sounded too good to pass up. The sorbet was a combination of sweet mango and champagne. Again, the flavor of the champagne wasn’t too overwhelming. It’s more of a hint rather than a full rush. The flavors paired well together. What I liked best was how light it was. You can enjoy a scoop or two of sorbet without feeling overly full.

This truly is a simple, yet refreshing take on ice cream and sorbet. Silver Moon Desserts is constantly holding tastings around the Bay Area. For a list of locations, check out this list of upcoming tastings. It’s the best way to see what Silver Moon Desserts are all about. For those who don’t have a store nearby to check out Silver Moon Desserts, you can always visit their website for more information.

SF Chefs. Food. Wine. 2009 – Urban BBQ & Chocolate Enchantment After Party in Union Square Coverage Saturday night, the heart of San Francisco’s Union Square was...

The time to hit all of the vendors was impossible, so you were left to carefully chose what you wanted to eat. Knowing you could be in line for more than 30 minutes added to how important that decision would be. Although their offerings sounded good, we ended up skipping booths like Delfina and Aziza because we had already had a taste of their food at their restaurants. All of us wanted something new to try.

Looking back, we knew the lines would be long, but with enough patience you were rewarded with good grub.

To start things off, a couple of sandwiches from Kasa. On the left is the Kati “Bun”, which was supposed to be charbroiled chicken, wrapped in roti, but Kasa ran out of roti and served it on a bun instead. On the right is a Pav Bhaji – a serving of spiced potatoes on a bun, which reminded me of a samosa. Both stayed true in being classic street food dishes from India.

We were in line sipping on Black Milk Tea from Slanted Door, while waiting for…

Slanted Door’s Lemongrass Pork Vermicelli Bowl. Tender barbecued pork was served on top a bed of vermicelli mixed with their sweet fish sauce. I haven’t ate at any of Charles Phan’s restaurants yet, but this small sample is making me want to.

We had a quick dessert before we left – A smore from Kika’s Treats. One fluffy marshmallow between dark chocolate and Kika’s famous caramelized graham crackers.

You could say that La Cocina accomplished what they set out to do – getting San Francisco together for the love of enjoying food. I would call it a crème brulee-baconwrappedhotdog-chickensandwich-slowroastedpork-vermicellibowl-oyster-smores-n-tacos feasting extravaganza. If you haven’t found out by now, this city loves to eat.

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SF Chefs. Food. Wine. 2009 – Urban BBQ & Chocolate Enchantment After Party in Union Square Coverage Saturday night, the heart of San Francisco’s Union Square was...