Chili Cook Off

A Google News search of “chili” yields several chili cook offs taking place all over the country, mostly in places you haven’t heard of, unless you grew up or live there.

Ah, yes, the chili cook off is a beautiful slice of Americana, as ever-present as demolition derbies (which rule) and pie competitions. If you’ve never been to a chili cook off, by all means go.

Many of these chili cook offs are free or, if not, dirt cheap. What you get is unlimited chili. There are usually subcategories like spicy, vegetarian and meaty. There will inevitably be turkey, chicken or sausage chilis. There will be white chilis. Some will offer a condiment bar filled with corn chips of some sort, onions, sour cream and cheese. You’ll get a bowl and a spoon. I recently (well, in November) attended one of these chili competitions at Barcade, a bar in Brooklyn featuring lots of arcade games–hey, everyone needs a gimmick. It was free. Awesome. They had all the fixings and maybe 20 different chilis in the competition.

The thing you should know if you haven’t been to a chili competition is to go for small portions. Ideally you try them all, (20 Tablespoons of chili is a cup and a quarter; just saying, pace yourself) but inevitably you’ll love one of them and want a real portion size, so start small.

As in trivia, another fun bar activity I’ve recently taken up, your name is very important. I enjoyed “It’s Chili, Wear a Sweater.” I also always like the ones that take profanity as their muse. The great thing about the concept of the chili cookoff is twofold:

1) The chili maker gets a fair shot at competing at something relatively easy and inexpensive in a fun and convivial atmosphere. Bragging rights are huge: Imagine telling your friends you won the third annual Barcade chili cook off!

2) The chili eater gets to eat a bunch of yummy food for almost no money. It’s the essence of summer fun across America–doing fun stuff in the sun with friends on the cheap. And in the case of Barcade, it’s a great warm-up in the winter.

The chili cook off offers some of the best our fair nation has to give–a celebration of diversity, the idea that any schmuck can win, the sharing of your food/family recipes with others, the kitsch.

So find yourself a chili cook off in your parts this summer, wrap yourself in an American flag, and then go vote for Obama in the fall so when you cut your finger off making the would-be award winning chili, you have some health insurance to sew it back on.

Erin Hollingsworth

(photo credit: antiapathy)

April 7th, 2009 by Food Guy | Posted in Barbecue Recipes | Comments (0)