4th Annual Chili Bowl

We attended the 4th annual Chili Bowl (cook-off) today which was an event where restaurants from the area put their chili up against all the others. There were 60 different varieties of chili to choose from and only one vote per person. This was a tough competition. The thing is there was so much variety, from seafood chilis in a white base, to brat & beer chilis, to the traditional kinds. My vegetarian daughter and her husband attend every year and they love it. There are plenty of veggie offerings for her to try.

This is a new event for us and it was held at the Harley-Davidson Museum. H-D offered a motorcycle to be raffled off with all the proceeds going to the Hunger Task Force, a worthwhile cause. A $13 ticket got you six chili samples and you could get two more if you donated two canned goods. I did not bring any canned good (the cupboards are pretty bare) but many others brought plenty. The food donation barrels were pretty full. We really didn't need the extra tickets anyway, even though it was fun to try the many varieties, when you multiply a 3-4 ounce sample times six, you're up to three whole cups of chili!

I started at Durango Bar and Grill where I tried a chili that had chuck roast, bacon, and a variety of spices that gave it a tasty, smoky flavored chili. There were good sized chunks of beef that made it really good. I headed to The Red Accordion and had their spicy chili that turned out to be not too spicy to me. We stopped at the bar for something to wash the chili down. That turned out to be really necessary when I got to my next stop, Trysting Place where I had some chili called "Oh My God". I couldn't resist adding some jalapenos to it, just to show up the Harley dudes who were ordering a milder version of their chili. All I can say is, "Oh My God!" It was hot, very hot. Glad I had a drink in my hand to pour some ice down my throat. There's nothing better than a sinus clearing, belly burning chili. Wow, it was good! My next stop was the Soup House. I stopped there out of loyalty since I frequent their restaurant a few times each month. It's the kind of place where you know it's going to be good, but even so, I had better on this day.

I was pretty full after that and I was only four down with two to go. I checked out the Iron Horse's entry. It was a little weird, it had blueberries in it. Hinterland also had an offering with some wild meat in it. It all looked good but I was pretty much done. My friend Carol, loved the Brat House's entry that had (of course) brats and beer in it. She really liked that she could taste the beer. Brocach gave you a shot of whiskey with their chili.

My husband, Jeff is not that fond of chili, so he tried all the seafood entries. He tried Sake-Tumi's that had mahi-mahi and shrimp in it. He tried Solly's traditional chili and a few others but his favorite was Rip Tide's white seafood chili. It was thick and peppered with chili seasonings and that was the winner as far as he was concerned.

After we voted, we left feeling warm and full. This was partly because the crowd was growing larger by the hour and the room was getting a little claustrophobic. It was a good time, although there weren't enough places to sit and enjoy the chili. And because of the crowd, it was difficult to stand and try to juggle chili and a drink while everyone is bumping into you. We managed but that would be my only correction to a really fun event.