Here are some of our favorite photos that we took Saturday afternoon:

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Friday night started off with our Opening Reception and Street Food Fare. Hundreds of food bloggers strolled into Herbst Pavilion in Fort Mason to kick off the weekend. After a quick welcome from Foodbuzz and a foodie gift exchange with fellow bloggers, Foodbuzz finally turned us loose to savor all of the various food from restaurants and street food vendors that were in attendance.

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About Ovarian Cancer:
Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecologic cancers in the United States and is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among U.S. women. The American Cancer Society estimates that 21,650 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the U.S. in 2008 and about 15,520 women will die from the disease. It is an insidious disease that can strike without warning or cause.

To support the awareness for the OCRF even more, Foodbuzz is donating $50 for every post about Banana Splits with the Top 9 Takeover. With the Top 9 Takeover, Foodbuzz will be showcasing 9 blog posts that feature the same theme. We wanted to support the cause, so we decided to join in.

To get into the spirit of summer, we decided to come up with a Filipino style banana split. Instead of regular bananas, we used Saba Bananas that have been wrapped in egg roll wrappers and then fried. These little fried banana rolls are called Turon in Filipino cuisine. The classic Filipino Turon adds in jackfruit to enhance the sweetness of the bananas. We opted to use Nutella Spread instead of jackfruit in our recipe, for that hint of chocolate.

Ingredients
Egg Roll Wrappers
Saba Bananas
Nutella Spread
Water
Brown Sugar
Vegetable Oil
Ice Cream of Your Choice

Steps

First, divide the bananas in half, and slice them again, sort of into long strips. Next, begin wrapping the bananas in the egg roll wrappers.

Spread a little bit of Nutella inside the egg roll wrapper before placing a slice of banana inside. The inspiration to use the Nutella in our Turon comes from having Turon from Patio Filipino in San Bruno, where they use chocolate in their version. Take a slice of the banana and coat it in some brown sugar, place it inside of the wrapper, and roll.

Seal wrapped bananas with a touch of water so that they don’t open up when you fry them.

In a large skillet over medium high heat, fry the wrapped bananas until they are golden brown on both sides. This should take about 2-3 minutes. Remove them from the skillet and place them on a plate with a paper towel to absorb the excess oil.

Keeping in with theme of the Filipino Banana Split, we paired the Turon with a scoop of Ube – purple yam and Mango Ice cream. Both of these can be found at your local Asian Market.

Just drizzle on some melted Nutella spread and sprinkle some nuts of your choice to top it off. And there you have it. Our twist on an American classic, summertime favorite…

If you too feel like joining in to support awareness for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, you can build your own banana split on Kelly Ripa’s website. For every virtual banana split submitted, Electrolux will donate $1 to the OCRF.

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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)

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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.

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

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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.

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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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With the First Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival approaching, an opportunity arose to become Nature’s Pride brand ambassadors. To become eligible, we had to come up with a recipe featuring slices of Nature’s Pride bread. Rose and I sat around thinking how we could best feature the bread by making it one of the major components in the recipe. Then, Rose suggested a recipe for a dish that she did years ago for Roll-Ups. Her description of Roll-Ups reminded me of Pigs in a Blanket, but instead of using regular hotdogs, it uses classic Filipino hotdogs. Filipino hotdogs have a distinct sweeter taste and just catch your eyes with their bright red color.

With this recipe, we ended up using the 100% Whole Wheat bread.

Ingredients
2-3 Slices of Nature’s Pride Bread for Breadcrumbs
3-5 Filipino Style Hotdogs
3-5 Slices used for the Wrap
2 Shallots
Mayonnaise
Your Choice of Cheese
1 Egg

Steps
Begin by first preparing the breadcrumbs. Take your slices of bread and cut it into smaller pieces. Preheat your oven to 350°F and bake the bread pieces for 10-15 minutes or until they’re toasted.

Grind the toasted bread pieces in a food processor until they become breadcrumbs. Spread out the breadcrumbs on a flat baking tray and set them aside for later.

Next, it’s time to prepare the wrap, which is made by using a flattened slice of bread. With a rolling pin, take a slice of bread and flatten it as much as possible. For every hotdog you have, make the same amount of wraps.

After you have the wraps done, in a pan, cook the hotdogs and shallots together over medium high heat. Once they are cooked, set those aside and prepare for the rolling.

It’s time to assemble the final Roll-Up. Take a wrap and spread it with a layer of mayonnaise. Then, take a slice of your choice of cheese and place that on the wrap. Place the hotdog and some shallots on the edge of the wrap and begin to roll it tightly together.

In a large bowl, beat one egg. Dip the Roll-Up into the beaten egg, coat it on all around, and roll it onto the breadcrumbs. The breadcrumbs should begin to stick to the Roll-Up and will be ready to be fried.

In a pan, fry the Roll-Ups until they are a golden brown. Try to make sure it fries completely all around. You will notice that the cheese will begin to melt and the wrap begins to get toasty. When that happens, the Roll-Ups should be ready.

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Right from the moment you enter the venue, you are surrounded by all of the food, wine, and cocktail booths. To put it simply, “Where do I go? What do I eat first? Cocktail? Sure!” is the first thing to spring up in your head. With so much to choose from, several tours around the venue was the best approach. A little bite here. Stop. A little cocktail there. Stop. With of course, the occasional water break in between.

Throughout the night people rocked out to a Bay Area chefs band, The Back Burner Blues Band, for the Gumbo Jam. Not your ordinary jam session, but a food inspired session, where each member of the band contributing ingredients to a batch of gumbo being cooked. You also had several Bay Area artists busily working on pieces of art on their canvases as the night drew on.

Music and art may be one slice of this party, but you can’t have a barbecue without…

You can imagine seeing everyone bouncing booth to booth, eager to try what was available.

Cocktails from some of the city’s bars were also available to sample. The sound of cocktails being shaken can get you thirsty.

Just before the night came to a close, Chef and DJ Hubert Keller took the stage. Not only can you see him slicing it up on Top Chef Masters, but you can catch him on the turntables and hyping up the crowd, bringing on good vibes until the night came to an end. By looking at the expressions on the faces of those who attended, you could see that everyone was having a good time.

If this is what to expect if you invited some of these chefs to your own backyard, then by all means come on by place and I’ll provide the grill. I could only imagine if my own barbecues were as exciting as this one.

Just when you thought the evening was over, the Chocolate Enchantment after party was getting started atop the Westin St. Francis Hotel which gave a breathtaking view of city.

A decadent selection of Recchiuti and Ghirardelli chocolates were available. And any dessert lover would’ve been astounded by the beautiful display of chocolate confections by Pastry Chef Jean-Francois Houdre.

This was only one part of San Francisco’s, SF Chef. Food. Wine. event, that took place August 6th to the 9th. A special thanks to Foodbuzz for allowing us to provide coverage of last night’s event.

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