Soup Nazi in Kingston

On my way to Manhattan today Bob and I stopped off at Mariners Lobster House - billed as one of the finest seafood houses in the Hudson Valley.

We took our seats on the back deck overlooking the creek and enjoyed a fabulous lunch featuring a hearty portion of delicious New England clam chowder. This creamy concoction served up with a small bag of salty oyster crackers is as American as apple pie. In fact, Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick, once wrote "Oh sweet friends! hearken to me. It (the soup) was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than hazel nuts, mixed with pounded ship biscuit, and salted pork cut up into little flakes; the whole poached with butter, and plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt." He must have ate in Kingston where a chef akin to a soup Nazi makes the meanest bowl of bubbling white paste ever digested.

A little history about chowder: it's a culinary staple in the Northeast and if cooked properly the recipe enhances the flavors of the meal served after. I've never attempted to make my own but seeing that I can barely balance my check book I'll save my kitchen prowess for no-brainers like mac and cheese. I know this much though ~ after combining potatoes, clams, onions, flour, cream, milk, salt, bacon grease, clam juice you saute, season, steam, simmer and stir. Voila - done. There's no better taste to trumpet in a town where the Bill of Rights was written before the Brits burned the place to the ground in 1777. If only they had a sample of chowder beforehand they probably would have reconsidered.