MEDITERRANEAN INFLUENCES

This spicy clam chowder is St Augustine's best-kept secret

- CAROLINE HATCHETT

Couples huddled under umbrellas; anoraks poorly shielded fairgoers' faces.

But lining up an hour before the St Ambrose Spring Fair officially started on this last Sunday in March was the only way to guarantee a piping-hot cup of Mary Ellen Masters' Minorcan clam chowder. Rain be damned.

The life of Masters' peppery chowder began four days earlier at St Ambrose Catholic Church in Florida, USA, where volunteers rendered salt pork and sautéed 18 cases of onions. Masters, in a “Proud to Be a Minorcan” apron and rhinestone glasses, supervised the scene. Nearby, two food processors blitzed celery stalks and bell peppers.

"Mary Ellen says no chunks allowed," said Sarah Pierce, a volunteer, as she culled irregular bits.

Plenty of local restaurants serve Minorcan clam chowder year-round, but there's only one Queen of Minorcan Clam Chowder, as Masters is locally known.

"Hers is thicker and has more meat and potatoes," said Keith Walker, who carried a cooler to fill with his yearly haul, adding: "Some of the other ones in town are like water."

Every year since 1883, locals and visitors alike have gathered at St Ambrose, founded in 1875 by Elkton's Minorcan community, having emigrated from the Mediterranean. Early on, they enjoyed specialities including pilau, a versatile dish of rice and meat, and gopher tortoise stew, a Minorcan staple until the mid-1970s when Florida lawmakers limited and then banned its wild harvest.