For Your Consideration: The Departed

Continuing my special posts on what to serve for an Oscar bash, today I'm playing off the third nominated Best Picture nominee: The Departed. Set in Massachusetts and featuring homegrown actors Mark Wahlberg and Matt Damon, this is the movie that many bet (or hope) will win director Martin Scorsese his first Academy Award.

Many people say Scorsese based the film on the extremely popular Hong Kong movie "Infernal Affairs." I didn't see Infernal Affairs, but I can see a lot of Asian cop movie influences in The Departed. Most of it is the continuous onslaught of assassinations that take place in the final quarter of the movie.

But focusing on a better note, the movie drips of New England, in the accent of Wahlberg (and an attempt by Alec Baldwin) and the Irish-influences in the men in blue and neighborhood feel. So I thought, what better to represent New England than clam chowder. That was the first thing that came to my mind. The recipe below is my easy interpretation of the classic clam chowder. Note that I use canned clams because I think buying fresh clams can be pricey and time-consuming. And you know that I'm all about the easy. (But if you want to use fresh clams, go for it! Just steam your clams first and then save the clam juices for the chowder. You'd need to buy at least two dozen clams.)

By the way, I felt Leo DiCaprio's performance in Blood Diamond was far better than his work in The Departed, so it's fitting that he's nominated for his performance in the former. Either way, this pretty boy isn't going to win an Oscar. At least not this year.

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.