While I was sitting on a balding field in Queens watching my first cricket match, a couple of kids came by, handing out laminated postcards advertising the first-ever New York Duck Curry Contest. First prize was $1000 and a trophy, plus bragging rights for the rest of your life that your curry was judged best on 3 criteria: taste, texture and aroma.

So, on the Sunday before Labor Day, I went out to meet some of the contestants and sample their recipes. Under tents set up around the perimeter of patchy grass, the cooks got down to business, sauteeing onions, mixing spices, chopping duck and keeping the pots boiling at just the right temperature. Children flew kites and got their faces painted by a clown while the grown-ups drank rum and everyone shouted over the Angel Caribbean Band, playing on an elevated stage set up in the center of the field.

In all, there were 39 cooks entered in the competition, and by the time the judging began at 3:30, the tables under the tents had been decorated and each cook's prized curry simmered to perfection.