🐟 Oil Packed Special Edition #1
Oil Packed goes upstate
Saratoga Chowderfest
Location: Saratoga Springs, NY
Date: Saturday, February 10 2024
This time, instead of sampling some tasty tins to review, we went to Saratoga Springs, NY for Chowderfest, an annual event showcasing 80+ vendors and their interpretations of the coziest of soups: chowder. Samples ranged from the classic new england clam chowder to the unsettling maple bacon brunch chowder (more on this later). We tried ten different types of chowder which naturally posed the question — what makes a chowder a chowder? Quoth Wikipedia, it’s a thick soup made with milk or cream, a roux, and seafood or vegetables. All chowders are soups, but not all soups are chowders.
Here’s a short review of everything we tried in the order we tasted it:
Roasted Corn and Andouille Sausage Chowder - The Inn at Saratoga
This one was lightly spicy, sweet, and smoky, with some tasty small bites of andouille sausage. The potatoes were cooked perfectly. Delightfully creamy and delicious. One of our favorites!Moroccan Chicken Chowder - Coat Room
That’s soup, baby. Not creamy enough to be considered chowder — sorry!
Seafood Corn Chowder Ramen - Rhea
A little oily but tasty! A fun take on ramen, and a fun take on chowder. Nicely creamy and super complex flavors. Big pieces of well-seasoned and well-cooked shrimp and scallops. Super innovative — another one of our favorites!Pot Roast Chowder - Cock N Bull
More of a stew, not quite a chowder. The pot roast didn’t do well in this soup — texturally it became more like a wet paper towel. Under-salted broth and under-cooked potatoes under-impressed us.
Smoked Salmon Chowder - Shirley’s Diner
Now that’s a chowder! Nicely smokey with good chunks of salmon. The texture here was perfect - nice and thick and creamy to balance out the smoke flavor. Topped with a bit of barbecue seasoning for some extra spice.Cajun Style Andouille Chowder - Carnivore Bros BBQ
Nicely buttery and oily without going overboard. Tasty bits of bacon as well to balance out the andouille sausage. A classic no-frills chowder for a cozy winter day.Mexican Street Corn Chowder - Carnivore Bros BBQ
They went crazy with this one. Delicious and ambitious, topped with cotija cheese, cilantro, and a wedge of lime to squeeze on top. Another favorite - we could eat this for every meal.
Maple Bacon Brunch Chowder - Saratoga Winery (not pictured)
This is one of the worst things I’ve ever tasted in my entire life. I can see where they were going with this — something a little sweet and savory with some bacon bits. I get it. I love a stack of pancakes with some bacon. This was just awful. The top notes here were vomit and smoke. The flavor coated your entire mouth in the most unpleasant way. But, at least it was chowder.Roasted Cayenne Sage and Corn Chowder - Esperanto
A little spicy, a little undersalted, but generally good. Nothing to write home about.Cajun Seafood Chowder - The Merc
An unassuming candidate — nice smoky seafood flavor and generously sized pieces of shrimp. A little bit of heat on the tail end, too. Totally delicious, but slightly undercooked potatoes. I’ll let it slide for how good this was.
After eating all of these, we went back to the Inn at Saratoga and had two more samples of the Roasted Corn and Andouille Sausage Chowder we tried at the beginning — a clear winner in our book. We definitely recommend attending Chowderfest if you’re in the area and don’t forget to bring gas-x, lactaid, or anything else you may need to ease the experience of eating multiple creamy soups.
Rating: a grand ol’ time
photos by Aaron Barton
Great review! Sounds like you had a rich and hearty experience!