Announcing Connecticut's Newest Trail
The Chowda Trail is a living, breathing trail that changes each year to feature those restaurants competing in New England's largest chowder and soup competition, Chowdafest.
Connecticut has nearly 30 trails where people can find and visit such places as the state's wineries, breweries, even antiques. There are also food trails that feature pizza, burgers and chocolate. Joining the state's culinary trails is the new Chowda Trail. Unlike most trails, the Chowda Trail is a living, breathing trail that changes annually to reflect where people can find the incredible chowders, soups and bisque entered in Chowdafest, the largest culinary competition in New England held annually in Connecticut.
“Only one other state has a chowder trail...” said Jim Keenan, the Chowda Trail creator. “...and it's Oregon. New England is renown for it's chowder so it was only natural to create a unique chowder trail here in the northeast.”
Keenan worked with the CT State Dept. of Tourism to help launch the trail on their recently redesigned website. “The state did a remarkable job revitalizing their CT Visit.com website and making it so inviting. It's visually enticing, loaded with great attractions, events and things to do for residents and non-residents alike. We're thrilled to be their latest trail as 32 of the 40 stops are right here in CT”.
The Chowda Trail creation coincides with the peak summer travel season where people are vacationing, especially driving the coast of New England. “People email and call us all the time seeking chowder recommendations” Keenan said. “New England clam chowder and lobster bisque are the most popular requests but discernible foodies also look for something different like a spicy Bermuda conch chowder or a non-seafood chowder like a chicken and poblano chowder. Having the Chowda Trail online where they can look it up and try some of these great restaurants made a lot of sense.”
The 9th Annual Chowdafest competition will be held on Sunday October 2, 2016 at Sherwood Island State Park in Westport CT and will once again showcase 40 restaurants representing every New England state, 8 states in total. Attendees receive a spoon, ballot and pencil when they arrive. They enjoy unlimited sampling and rate each entry on a scale from 7 to 10.5 with half point intervals. Restaurants with the highest over all average in their respective categories will be declared best in New England. Chowdafest features four categories of competition with ten restaurants competing in each: Classic New England Clam Chowder, Traditional Chowder exclusively for Rhode Island (clear broth) and Manhattan Clam
Chowders (red, tomato based), Creative Chowders and Soup & Bisque. Chowdafest raised enough to fund over 400,000 meals for the ongoing fight against hunger last year and is shooting to provide for over a half million meals this fall. Chowdafest is also a zero waste event and a national model for event sustainability.
For additional information about Chowdafest, please visit www.chowdafest.org or email event director, Jim Keenan at chowdafest@gmail.com Chowdafest, presented by Stop & Shop, is sponsored by: AAA Northeast, Aquafina, BlumShapiro, Cabot Creamery, Chabaso Bakery, City Carting, Clover, CT Bites, Dannon, The Farmer's Cow, Frontera Foods, HamletHub, Jersey Italian Gravy, Kids Helping Kids, Local Food Rocks, MINI of Fairfield County, New Milford Farms, Ocean Spray, OmnomCT.com, Schweppes, Sustainable America, Visa, WEBE 108, Webster Bank, Westminster Bakery, Wholly Guacamole, World Centric and Yankee Magazine.