Quotable DM

[Drunk Monk]

For the 2nd year in a row, quoted in the Sentinel about the chowder fest:

Amateur cooks clash ladles at Santa Cruz Clam Chowder Cook-Off

• Aric Sleeper
• PUBLISHED: February 22, 2025 at 4:51 PM PST
• Categories:California News, Events, Latest Headlines, Local News, News, Outdoors, Restaurants, Food and Drink, Things To Do, Weather

Michael and Margie Morgan of Sacramento are longtime chowder makers and first-time competitors at the Santa Cruz Clam Chowder Cook-Off held Saturday and Sunday. (Aric Sleeper - Santa Cruz Sentinel)
SANTA CRUZ — The sound of sizzling bacon, boiling potatoes and clam chowder-themed songs filled the air at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk on a sunny Saturday, along with an amalgam of savory smells emanating from the work of the 43 teams of amateur cooks competing for prizes and glory at the Santa Cruz Clam Chowder Cook-Off.
The annual clam chowder showdown allows amateur and professional chefs from across the Monterey and San Francisco bay areas to compete against each other for the best Boston and Manhattan chowder, alongside awards for “People’s Choice,” “Most Tasted” and “Best Theme.”
Ryan Waterloo and Brian Tran of “The Krusty Klam” combined their love of chowder and SpongeBob SquarePants for their theme at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk’s Clam Chowder Cook-Off amateur competition. (Aric Sleeper – Santa Cruz Sentinel)
“This year, we have amazing weather,” said Santa Cruz Boardwalk Event Manager Gladys Rodriguez. “With the price of groceries going up, it’s great to see how many amateur teams are still coming out to compete. The Boardwalk is already pretty packed and we haven’t even started the tastings.”
Each participating group chooses a unique theme for the friendly competition, which serves as a fundraiser for the Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation Department. Last year, more than $130,000 was raised and millions have been donated since the event’s inception in the early 1980s.
“It’s a beautiful day and it’s all for a good cause,” said Santa Cruz City Manager Matt Huffaker, who served as one of the local celebrity judges. “This event has raised more than $3 million over the years for Santa Cruz Parks and Rec, which goes to support all of their great programs.”
The Santa Cruz Clam Chowder Cook-Off was founded in 1982 as a one-day event with around 30 teams and later expanded into a two-day affair so that amateur and professional chefs could compete separately. This year, amateurs, such as first-time competitors and San Francisco residents Margo Urheim and Mac Hecht, competed Saturday. Although neither have French ancestry, they are lovers of puns and themed their team as, “La Clam De La Clam.”
“We wanted to create the best pun we could and we love cooking,” said Urheim. “This is our first time competing here and in any cooking competition.”
Hecht added, “Except the competitions we have with each other.”
Although not of French ancestry, Margo Urheim and Mac Hecht of San Francisco couldn’t pass up the Francophilic pun for their team name at the Santa Cruz Clam Chowder Cook-Off Saturday. (Aric Sleeper – Santa Cruz Sentinel)
Urheim continued, “I think a great clam chowder involves getting the aromatics right,” before noting, “Making sure you’re sautéing ingredients in the right way, especially at such a scale, so things actually caramelize. You’re sweating the vegetables. You’re getting that garlic flavor in at an early stage instead of throwing everything into the pot and letting it boil. It’s about building flavors on top of each other throughout the process, and that’s what we’re going for.”
The chowder-making crew of “Clams of the Caribbean” consisted of Captain Juan Ruiz, his first mate and wife Jessika Ruiz and their kids/deckhands Montzerrat, Jokabed and Rachel, who were decked out in pirate hats, eye patches and puffy shirts. Juan Ruiz said that the secret to an excellent clam chowder is to keep it simple.
“A clam chowder should be simple,” he told the Sentinel. “A lot of people get fancy and add bacon or white wine and other stuff but it takes away from the flavor. One of the things I add are bay leaves and you have to use fresh garlic. My daughter peeled all of the garlic for this — six heads of garlic.”
Jessika Ruiz added, “Our ingredients go from the ground to the pot. We don’t use any canned food except for the clams, of course.”
Juan Ruiz and his family competed at the Clam Chowder Cook-Off for the first time together and chose their theme because they happen to have numerous pirate hats and puffy shirts on hand at home. (Aric Sleeper – Santa Cruz Sentinel)
Longtime Clam Chowder Cook-Off competitors of the “Rocky Horror Clam Show,” are also a family team. Clam Show cast member Jackie Siler said that they chose the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” as a theme because her parents saw the performance on their first date.
“We use bacon because bacon is delicious,” said Siler. “We don’t use carrots because it makes the chowder sweet and I don’t like it sweet. We also like it thicker. I don’t want to drink water with potatoes in it so ours is a very creamy, thick soup. It won the last three years in a row and last year we won the judge’s award, so we’re hoping to keep that streak going.”
Near the arcade, the Sacramento-based Seussian-themed team called “Clam I Am” were all dressed as Sam-I-Am from “Green Eggs and Ham.” Team member Michael Morgan, who was using a 45-year-old family chowder recipe, told the Sentinel that all of the team’s banners and artwork were created by inmates at the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center in Sacramento County.
“They did the design work and fabricated these banners and did all the printing,” said Morgan. “We’re going to put a picture book together for the sheriff’s department so that they can actually show the inmates how their work turned out and also how their efforts contributed to a community activity.”
The two-man team of Ryan Waterloo and Brian Tran chose a “SpongeBob SquarePants” theme for their booth, “The Krusty Klam.” The dynamic duo were competing for their second year in a row and were determined to take home a win.
The clam chowder cooks of the “Rocky Horror Clam Show” take the Santa Cruz Clam Chowder Cook-Off very seriously. (Aric Sleeper – Santa Cruz Sentinel)
“We love SpongeBob and everyone loves SpongeBob,” said Tran. “That’s how we connect with everyone and we happen to have good chowder too. We competed last year and we didn’t win so we’re back with a vengeance.”
Santa Cruz resident, publisher and clam chowder aficionado Gene Ching caught up with the Sentinel in the seemingly interminable line for the event’s tasting kits. Ching said that he loves the creatively-themed teams as much as he does sampling the many forms of chowder.
“My favorite thing is the creativity of the teams,” said Ching. “Everybody has their chowders. Some are good and some are great. But I really like their clever plays on words and pop culture. I love that and I’m looking forward to that.”

[thatguy]

Was there an El Clamino Real? If not, there should have been. That's a pretty good booth name...

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

Do you know how to make clam chowder? Because you could enter an amateur booth next year with that name.

[thatguy]

I only know how to eat it and I'm a bit judgy about my clam chowder. That and gnocchi are good tests of a restaurant's abilities. If they offer one or the other (or both?), you have to try them.

Lillian's gnocchi (with the gogronzola cream sauce) is one of the best gnocchis around. I really enjoy the Crepe Place's chowder.

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

Hmm, I’ve not tried the Crepe place’s chowder. I seldom go there unless a friend is playing or something. 

I hear Seabright Social makes a good chowder. They did a prawns & grits that was good but I don’t see it on their menu anymore.i used to like that chowder place at the end of the wharf but atmosphere figured heavily into that.

Last time I had gnocchi was at Tramonti. It’s a bit carby for my diabetes so I tend to avoid it.

[King Bob]

Haven't had clam chowder in ages. Of those booth names, I particularly liked Clam I Am - that book was a favorite of mine.

FYI the gnocchi at Locanda Sorrento in downtown Campbell is very good. Maybe the best I've had in years. Their pasta is also very good. It's a very small place, so a reservation is usually needed.

[Drunk Monk]

I have leveled up from clam fest to political protests.

More than 10,000 march in Santa Cruz for ‘No Kings Day’

Thousands of protesters fill San Lorenzo Park Saturday morning as a “No Kings” rally and march gets under way. More than 10,000 people gathered in Santa Cruz the event organized by Indivisible Santa Cruz County, which was part of a nationwide day of protest that included actions in more than 2,000 cities and towns. More than 1,000 also gathered for Watsonville’s “No Kings” rally, which was organized by Indivisible South County. (Shmuel Thaler – Santa Cruz Sentinel)
By ARIC SLEEPER | asleeper@santacruzsentinel.com
UPDATED: June 14, 2025 at 5:15 PM PDT

SANTA CRUZ — More than 10,000 community members from around Santa Cruz County and beyond filed into San Lorenzo Park on a sunny Saturday morning and gathered around the duck pond stage for the “No Kings Day” protest, which was one of 2,000 events nationwide and organized locally by Indivisible Santa Cruz County.
The park was packed with protesters even before the scheduled event began at 10 a.m. Saturday. Walking across the Chinatown Bridge to the park, the Sentinel spoke with Mathilde Rand of Live Oak, who said that she was inspired to attend the gathering after hearing stories about those being arrested and detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and in opposition to the Trump military parade simultaneously happening in Washington.

People continue streaming across the San Lorenzo River pedestrian bridge as Saturday's rally gains steam. (Shmuel Thaler - Santa Cruz Sentinel)

“A president needs to do the right thing for the country and for the people and not for himself,” said Rand. “It’s very disturbing and I have to be here. I have to be here with my community. I have to be here to say, ‘No, enough, get out of here. This is not right. This is not how we make a peaceful world.'”
As organizers dialed in the sound equipment on the duck pond stage, community members from all directions joined the growing crowd, which pushed out to the park’s perimeter. Before a panel of speakers from community organizations took the stage, the Sentinel talked to Leanna Christie of Aptos, who held a sign decorated with orange butterflies that read: “The only monarch I will follow is a butterfly.”
“This is not Trump’s company, this is our country,” said Christie. “I wanted the sign to be lighthearted in the sense that this too shall pass. We need to speak and not be quiet, try not to be violent — try not to play their game.”
Marilyn Norberg and Bonny Ukers of Doon united the crowd with their sing-along rendition of the gospel song, “This Little Light of Mine,” before Indivisible Santa Cruz County Co-Chair Amanda Harris Altice took the stage.
“In this country, two things are true,” Harris Altice shouted to the cheering crowd. “We have no kings. And no president can silence our voices. Today, millions will stand together in defiance of injustice.”
Harris Altice pumped up the gathering alongside emcee Ayo Banjo and a panel of speakers, including SEIU 521 Santa Cruz Chapter President Max Olkowski-Laetz, Community Action Board Programs and Impact Director Paz Padilla and Kate Hinnenkamp, operations manager of Community Action Board’s Santa Cruz County Immigration Project.
“This moment today called each of us here for slightly different reasons, and for me, one of the issues I am most passionate about is immigrant rights,” said Hinnenkamp. “I’ve dedicated my career to standing with the immigrant community but never in the past 80 years have immigrants been so vilified, so attacked and so dehumanized as they are right now.”

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Homemade signs brought out creativity and heart-felt feelings in those attending Saturday’s rally and march. (Shmuel Thaler - Santa Cruz Sentinel)
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Following the speakers, the more than 10,000 demonstrators marched, one foot in front of the other, from San Lorenzo Park down Dakota Avenue and onto Soquel Avenue, before turning onto Ocean Street on the way to the Santa Cruz County courthouse.
Making his way out of the park from the duck pond stage alongside thousands of other peaceful marchers was Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley, who was happy to see the enormous size of the crowd.

Santa Cruzan Mary Geyer handmade a Lady Liberty puppet for Saturday's protest. (Shmuel Thaler - Santa Cruz Sentinel)

“As mayor of a city in California, I am very concerned with how the Trump administration views its belief in its very broad authority that I disagree with, and think it’s important for people and their elected representatives to show up,” said Keeley. “The Trump administration’s values are not the values of Santa Cruz and this is a clear statement about that. I have been in Santa Cruz County since 1977 and I have not seen anything close to this level of public turnout and that covers a lot of years and a lot of subject matters. But I think that the threat from this administration is also unprecedented, so the response should be as well.”
Among the multitude of creative signs and placards was the “Tangerine Palpatine” placard, which was a homage to the tyrannical character from the dark side of the “Star Wars” universe, created by Santa Cruz resident Jenny Ross.
“When you’re looking at complete injustice and fascism, how could you not be here?” said Ross. “I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t come out.”
Although instructed to stay on the sidewalks, the sheer size of the crowd caused it to spill into the street at points and temporarily block Dakota Avenue as protesters made their way to the courthouse. Walking together were friends and coworkers Aaron Stoetzel, Zoe Willats and Jax Caldwell-Dunn, who was pushing a stroller with her newborn baby Aisling.

Protesters at the corner of Ocean and Water streets on Saturday. (Shmuel Thaler - Santa Cruz Sentinel)

“If you don’t go to a protest after they arrest your senator, when is the moment?” said Caldwell-Dunn. “For me, I have a responsibility to make life better for her. I can’t stand by while everything is happening. Not that there’s a ton that I can do, but I can be here.”
Stoetzel said that he felt an obligation to be there and Willats added, “I’m afraid we’re going to have martial law by the end of the day so I figured I’d go to one more protest.”
The roughly 50 Indivisible Santa Cruz County volunteers then helped keep protesters out of the streets on Soquel Avenue and Ocean Street, where the Sentinel caught up with Santa Cruz resident, [url=https://geneching.wordpress.com/about/]writer and publisher Gene Ching, who said he hadn’t attended a protest in decades.
“It’s been such a great turnout and I’m delighted to see a lot of my friends,” said Ching. “I know where I stand on these issues and it’s just wonderful to see all these messages that are resonant.”
Marchers stayed out of the street on Soquel Avenue for the most part, but as the crowd gathered near the courthouse, Ocean Street became filled with protesters and traffic was temporarily blocked around the Water Street intersection. Santa Cruz police helped direct traffic around the peaceful demonstrators.

Among the many creative signs and placards at the "No Kings Day" protest was the "Tangerine Palpatine made by a Santa Cruz resident. (Aric Sleeper - Santa Cruz Sentinel)

Back in San Lorenzo Park, as the majority of the crowd dispersed in every direction, Harris Altice and fellow Indivisible Santa Cruz County Co-leader Angela Marshall compared the event to the “Hands Off!” day of action in April.
“We learned a lot from ‘Hands Off!’ that helped us prepare for this event,” said Marshall. “This time around we were very proactive and had 50 safety monitors with 10 leads. We put people in pairs and had them take ACLU safety training and de-escalation training. So, we really upped our game with safety, given what happened this last week in L.A.”
Marshall said she is inspired to organize events like “No Kings Day,” to be “on the right side of history” and by thinking about her childrens’ future and the wellbeing of older adults. Harris Altice said she organizes for the people who want to but may be afraid to speak up or act.
“For me, it’s pretty basic,” said Harris Altice. “None of us are free until all of us are free.”
They mentioned that the next event organized by Indivisible Santa Cruz County will be in celebration of Civil Rights leader John Lewis on July 17.
For information and updates, visit indivisblesantacruzcounty.com.