Water Street Restaurant's Collin VanBusKirk, left, and Sally Smits prepare cups of Seafood Corn Chowder at the Pleasure Island Chamber of Commerce's Chowder Cookoff at Carolina Lake Park Saturday, April 22, 2006. StarNews file photo.
Q. Why was there no coverage of the 16th Annual Pleasure Island Chowder Cookoff? I could not find any report of winners or any pictures. This is a sustainable festival with potential to grow into an even larger tourism draw with the help of the Star’s resources before, during and after the event.
A. Freelance reporter Allison Ballard previewed the Pleasure Island Chowder Cook-Off in her “Just a Taste” column on April 11 in the StarNews “Eat” section (page 2E). The column contains quick-hit type info on various food and wine events in the area. A photo ran of one of last year’s chowder-making chefs and her write-up also appeared on the Port City Foodies blog.
The main reason the Chowder Cook-Off didn’t get more play this year is that it was on the same weekend as the Azalea Festival. All of our photographers, and most of our reporters, were tied up with that huge event.
An announcement of the winners of the Chowder Cook-Off will appear on the Port City Foodies blog on April 17 and run in print April 18.
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Why does the Azalea Festival choose queens that have no connection to the Wilmington area?
Date posted: April 17, 2012
User-contributed question by:
Alan Pacek
The real question is, why did half of the chowder contestants run out of chowder before 2:00? I was not happy to pay the full admission fee, only to find out so many contestants were out of chowder. One would think after 16 years the organizers would have a better sense of how much chowder the contestants should have.