Ada: Then the colonists arrive and start building on that base. Salt pork, potatoes, onions go into the pot. And up around Boston, cream becomes the norm.
Theo: So the white chowder is really the New England add-on.
Ada: It is. And then, later, tomato shows up, and it starts a genuine war.
Theo: A chowder war. Over tomatoes?
Ada: People felt strongly. The red, tomato style is often tied to Rhode Island's Portuguese fishing families, known for tomato stews and runs down to New York's Fulton Fish Market, though I should say that attribution is popular more than it's firmly documented.
Theo: Fair enough. But people really hated the tomato version?
Ada: So much that Maine lawmakers reportedly floated a bill in nineteen thirty-nine to ban tomatoes from chowder outright.
Theo: They tried to legislate soup?
Ada: Now, accounts differ on whether that bill ever really passed or what it actually said, so treat it as folklore. But the sentiment is real. People drew battle lines over a bowl.
Theo: And Rhode Island, caught in the middle?
Ada: Cream to the north in Boston, red to the west in New York, and little Rhode Island just kept its broth clear. Held the line.
Theo: That's almost defiant.
Ada: It is. Though honestly, the origins are murky. There's an eighteenth-century reference that includes oysters and tomatoes, nothing like the pure clear recipe. No one can point to a definitive first record of it.