This Sunday was a gorgeous day for the Brew n’ Chew food competition at The Diamond, when 6 teams competed with their best home brew and food pairing, which was judged by guests and all proceeds (over $1700!) were donated to NY Harbor School which has an Aquaculture curriculum structured around growing oysters to restore NY Harbor. That sounds like the coolest school I have ever heard of!
My beer palate has grown since last year, and this year’s teams really brought there A-games. As always I am distracted by all the food, which was really impressive this year, too.
There were three categories to vote: Best Beer, Best Food & Best Pairing, but guests could only vote for a separate team in each category. If I had my way I would have voted for the same team in all categories. Strong Rope Brewery was my first and best taste. They made a slightly sweet Brown Ale perfectly paired with Black Sesame Seed and Hawaiian Sea Salt Brittle with Hazelnut Bleu Cheese and Dark Cherry Compote. Now that was a lot of words to say deliciously awesome! If you give me sweet bleu cheese cream, I’ll give you my heart!
This is not to say that the other teams didn’t bring the thunder. As far as beer, I really liked Mr. Munchie’s Make Believe Band’s IPA as well as Lost in the Supermarket’s Oktoberfest.
49°N made a delicious Onion Tart Red Onion Tart Tatin along with a nice Belgian Ale.
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We saved the biggest and spiciest pairing for last, Duck Buddies’ Green Head Teal Ale along with Duck Pistole, a take on Texas street food that is made with pulled roasted ducklings, blended cajun cheese from Eastern District which all got stuffed into a French roll from Old Poland Bakery and is served with a side of hot sauce made from Sriracha and Ranch Dressing.
Boy am I glad we waited on this dish! It was that awesome spicy that makes you keep eating more to stay one step ahead of your mouth burning. The chefs warned me there may be little bones in there – you know, because it’s made from little ducklings. I found some little bones, but it was so delicious and I had tasted so much beer I really didn’t care.
After voting, Duck Buddies won Best Food, Beer With Moxie won Best Beer with a Saison Rouge made with hibiscus and pink peppercorns, and the Best Pairing went to Strong Rope Brewery.
