Last weekend we went to a Chili cook-off that was being held for charity. It was a good time. The cook-off was a Pro-Am format - 7 Stamford restaurants and 7 locals had chilis entered in the contest, and you could go in, sample chilis and vote for your favorite. I tried about 10 of the 14 chilis, and then had seconds of my 4 favorites to help me decide on my vote.
After much tasting, soul searching and deliberation I voted for one of the amateur entries, which the guy described as Quattro Carne: a moderately spicy, smoky, and delicious blend of seasoned chicken, beef, veal and sausage. It was damn good. We went with a group of people (6 in all) and 4 of us ended up voting for him. He won the contest by a margin of something like 5 votes we were told.
I also enjoyed a chili that was made using cut up meat instead of ground beef which was made by another amateur. I liked 2 chilis made by restaurants - one was loaded full of chipotle (small sample cups, so even with 2 samples Chipotlaway wasn't needed), and the other had apples in it. I liked it because it was different.
The event is an annual fundraiser, which I would definitely go to again.
The next big event on the chili calendar is a chili cook-off we are actually making a chili for in November. We made what we thought was a good chili a couple of weeks ago, and going to the cook-off last weekend gave us an idea of what we like about our chili, what we could try to improve it, and what people might be like in judging chili. The competition sounds like fun - they have a chili dog intermission during the sampling!
By the way, the episode of South Park referenced in this post was awesome. In fact South Park since the break has been cool. New episode tonight, in HD!!! And, yes, it does look better in HD.
2 comments:
Any Vegan Chilis?
Perhaps fakin bacon, not chicken and textured vegetable protein don't make for tasty chilis?
What is the beverage of choice to cleanse the pallete between chili tastings? Is there a standard?
Also are any shili events televised? Sounds like quite an event.
At this competition I don't think there were any vegan chilis. There was one chili that took me by surprise though. There was a guy there (amateur/civilian) with a big cowboy hat, Texas flag shirt and Nascar flag tablecloth. I expected his chili to rock, but then it was chock full of beans and very little meat, and the flavor wasn't really there, which disappointed me personally. Though I know some people liked it.
The competition we are going to next month will more than likely feature a vegetarian option, as one of the people going and competing is a vegetarian. I've never had a vegetarian chili, so I can't say for sure what it will be like.
Beverage of choice varies between people. A lot of people would cleanse their palate with beer. Heck, a lot of people cook their chili with beer. Depending upon the level of spice, some people might drink milk between chilis. I just had water.
It wouldn't surprise me if some big event is televised, or if Food Network Challenge did a chili competition at some stage. Now I will be scouring Food Network to see...
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