The Nibble Webzine Of Food Adventures -

TODAY IN FOOD: It’s National Clam Chowder Day

February 25, 2008 at 2:18 pm · Filed under Food Holidays, Soups

Creamy New England clam chowder (photo © Mackenzie Ltd).

Manhattan clam chowder has a tomato base (photo © Masterchef | Pinterest).

We’re happy as a clam that today, February 25th, is National Clam Chowder Day. (Although as our colleague Philip has always asked, why is a clam so happy? It sits immobile on the ocean floor, waiting to be scooped up for someone’s dinner.)

You can celebrate with New England Clam Chowder (sometimes called Boston Clam Chowder), Manhattan Clam Chowder or Rhode Island Clam Chowder.

Restaurants tend to serve one type or the other. New England Clam Chowder is the oldest version.

According to the book 50 Chowders by Jasper White, the oldest-known printed chowder recipe is for fish chowder, printed in the Boston Evening Post on September 23, 1751.

It calls for onions, pork, salt, pepper, parsley, sweet marjoram, savory, thyme and a biscuit (later replaced by oyster crackers or saltines served with the soup)—ingredients that are still used today.

TYPES OF CLAM CHOWDER

There are other chowders, like corn chowder, fish chowder, lobster chowder, even tofu chowder. But today, it’s all about clam chowder.

New England Clam Chowder. If you like creamy soups, the New England style may be more of your cup of soup. It’s milk- or cream-based (with flour as a thickener), and splattering it is unlikely to permanently ruin that shirt or tie.

Manhattan Clam Chowder. If you want to save calories or cut back on cholesterol, Manhattan Clam Chowder is based on broth and tomatoes. It is actually an Italian clam soup, arriving on these shores with Italian immigrants in the late 1800s. It tends to be seasoned with oregano, from its Italian heritage. The original Italian soup achieved broader appeal with the name of New York Clam Chowder, which evolved to Manhattan Clam Chowder.

Rhode Island Clam Chowder. This variation, found chiefly in Rhode Island, is made with clear broth.

WHAT’S A CHOWDER?

All chowders tend to be made with potatoes, onions, and of course, clams. If you have a shellfish allergy, you can opt for Fish Chowder, which substitutes shredded fish, often cod, for the clams, and throws in corn kernels for good measure.

The word chowder has its roots in the Latin word calderia, which originally meant a hearth for warming things and later came to mean a cooking pot. The word evolved to cauldron, which in French became chaudiere, a heartbeat from chowder.

The first chowders in our culture were fish chowders, made in cauldrons in fishing villages along the coast of France and in the Cornwall region of Southwestern England. When the fishermen came to the New World, they found clams in huge supply along the northern Atlantic coast, and clam chowder was born.

Here’s a review of one of our favorite New England Clam Chowders, available by the can from Bar Harbor Foods.

> The different types of soup: a delicious photo glossary.

> The history of soup.

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

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FOOD TIP OF THE DAY: Make Your Own Flavored Waters

February 25, 2008 at 1:20 pm · Filed under Beverages, Sugar-Free, Tip Of The Day

If you can’t find the flavored water you want in a store—or if you want to save the amount of plastic you consume—you can make it yourself and save both money and the environment. Refill a 16-ounce water bottle with water and start by adding 5 drops of flavor extract (from the spice department) with a clean medicine dropper. We love making mint water this way! If you want to sweeten your water, add a few drops of low-glycemic agave syrup (you’ll find it in the supplements department of natural food stores), or use a liquid non-caloric sweetener. Read about the water that inspired us to make our own, Hint Water, a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week. Find more of our favorite waters in the Bottled Water Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine.		We made mint water with mint extract, and added a spring of fresh rosemary and a lemon wheel to layer the flavor. Great taste, zero calories.

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CONTEST: Hot Sauce Gourmet Giveaway

February 25, 2008 at 12:29 pm · Filed under Contest

Looks pretty…but don’t take a bite, even though the serrano chile is just “medium heat.” Serranos are used in milder hot sauces.		How hot is hot? You’ll find out if you’re the winner in THE NIBBLE’s Gourmet Giveaway this week. Just answer a few trivia questions about hot sauce—you don’t even have to answer them correctly. Everyone who enters has an equal chance of winning. The prize: A hot sauce sampler from award-winning Dave’s Gourmet, providing you with a variety of flavors and heat levels. You’ll get bottles of Original Dave’s Insanity Sauce, Dave’s Hurtin’ Habañero, Dave’s Ultimate Insanity, Dave’s Cool Cayenne and Dave’s Crazy Caribbean. All are made with the best natural ingredients. Learn more about the different types of chiles and heat levels in the Chile Glossary in THE NIBBLE online magazine. NOTE: Even after the Gourmet Giveaway is over, you can still take the quiz and learn more about hot sauce. After all, learning is its own reward.

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TRENDS: Olive Oil Tasting Bars

February 25, 2008 at 12:03 pm · Filed under Oil-Vinegar-Dressing, Trends

We’ve tasted hundreds of olive oils, and know that among the basic styles—mild, buttery, herbal, fruity, peppery, earthy—we like herbal and fruity flavors, but tend to avoid those cough-inducing peppery styles. Others may go straight for the pepper. But when you’re staring down a shelf of two dozen or more olive oils, you haven’t a clue as to which tastes like what. And you probably don’t have THE NIBBLE’s review of 90+ extra virgin olive oils with you. So, plunk down $15 or so, and hope for the best. But if you live in St. Louis, or other towns where olive oil tasting bars are popping up, you actually can try before you buy. Extra Virgin, an olive oil boutique that opened in October 2007, stocks 25 to 30 oils from Spain, Italy, France, Greece, Chile, Australia and the United States.		Now, you can try before you buy, and select the olive oil that pleases your particular palate.
The oils range from light, fruity and delicate to pungent—and you can taste each one of them to decide your personal style, pumping an amount into a paper cup or plastic spoon (23 grams, or two tablespoons daily, may reduce the risk of coronary disease…and some of these oils are so delicious, you can drink them from a spoon like a treat if you don’t like to enjoy them on salad, pasta or vegetables). The store is the second career of a retired pathologist with an undergraduate degree in nutrition and food science, who understands the health benefits of extra virgin olive oil. She also saw, while taking an olive oil sensory evaluation course at the University of California-Davis, how much different olive oils can influence dishes, from boiled potatoes and white beans to chicken and beef. Located in Clayton, Missouri, a St. Louis suburb, the store also features bulk olives from Spain, Italy, Greece and France, related specialty foods (vinegars, tapenades, pasta sauces) and gifts with olive patterns and themes (aprons, potholders, candles). If you pass by Extra Virgin or any other olive oil boutique, do stop in—not only for your own edification, but to help these wonderful ventures thrive. Give gift certificates as as gifts. Don’t forget to check out Extra Virgin’s website. E-commerce isn’t up yet, but there are recipes for granola and lemon banana bread that use EVOO. (If you haven’t had rustic cakes made with olive oil, in the Italian and Greek fashion, they’re wonderful—especially with fresh herbs like basil, thyme or rosemary added to the batter.) – See the different flavors of olive oil on TheNibble.com. – See how the flavors and aromas come together with this olive oil wheel. – Clarify specific terms in our olive oil glossary. – Read about our favorite olive oils in the Oil & Vinegar Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine. – Check out our mega-review of 90 extra virgin olive oils.

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It’s National Tortilla Chip Day: History Of Tortilla Chips & Recipes

February 24, 2008 at 8:03 am · Filed under Food Facts - Food History, Food Holidays, International Foods, Snacks

[1] Tortilla chips are made with yellow, white
and blue corn. Riding the whole grain nutrition wave, they’re also made in multigrain blends (photo © Garden of Eatin’).

[2] Two favorite dips: guacamole and pico de gallo salsa (photo © Good Eggs).

[3] “Liberty chips” blend red, white and blue tortilla chips (photo © Nature’s Path).

[4] Chips from El Nopalito (photo © El Nopalito Tortilla Factory).

On the heels (perhaps too close on the heels) of National Corn Chip Day (January 29th), February 24th honors one of America’s favorite snack foods, the tortilla chip.

Check out the difference between corn chips, tortilla chips and taco chips.

THE HISTORY OF TORTILLA CHIPS

Surprisingly, tortilla chips are not a traditional Mexican food. They were first popularized and mass-produced in southwestern Los Angeles in the late 1940s by Rebecca Webb Carranza, who, with her husband, owned a Mexican deli and tortilla factory.

Misshapen tortillas were rejected from the tortilla manufacturing machine, and Ms. Webb turned them into chips—cutting them into triangles, frying them, and selling them in snack-size bags.

Needless to say, they sold well, and became a popular appetizer in Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants in California. They expanded beyond California in a big way in the late 1970s, with the growth of Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants, replacing corn chips like Fritos as America’s favorite corn chip snack.

As we mentioned in our post on corn chips, the main difference between the two types of chips is that a tortilla chip is cut from a whole tortilla, and a corn chip is cornmeal processed into a particular shape.

We love them both1

ENJOYING TORTILLA CHIPS

Expand your tortilla chip horizons:

See our favorite gourmet tortilla chips.

Enjoy one of our favorite guacamoles with your chips, Yucatan Guacamole—not only delicious, but organic and kosher.

Find our favorite salsas in the Salsas and Dips section of THE NIBBLE online magazine.

Before they were tortilla chips, they were tortillas. Read about our favorite tortillas, from Tumaro’s.

TORTILLA CHIP RECIPES

Add Crunch To Burgers & Sandwiches

Basic Nachos

Breakfast Salad With Tortilla Chips

Cashew Salsa With Tortilla Chips

Ceviche With Nachos