I was 20 years old before I enjoyed my first bowl of chili. It just wasn’t on the menu in the Carroll’s New Jersey household. Pasta was as ethnically diverse as our dinner menu became although we did experiment with cans of LaChoy Chop Suey on occasion. My first experience with Mexican food came on a Thanksgiving trip to visit a friend named Billy Lees in Fort Collins. I had hitched a ride from Murray, Kentucky to Colorado and now found myself in a small café looking at the strange menu options.
“It’s kind of like Italian food but with a funny taste,” my New Jersey friend explained.
He proceeded to compare enchiladas to manicotti and chili con carne to pasta e fagioli so I cautiously tried both. His description of enchiladas was accurate but the chili really had no comparison. I had never tasted anything so spicy and despite the initial “discomfort,” I grew to enjoy the stuff.
Contrary to popular belief, chili con carne is not a Mexican dish. A writer from San Antonio once remarked that chili – as we know it in the U.S., cannot be found in Mexico. If it had come from there, it would still be there.
The International Chili Society (www. chilicookoff.com) explains that “if there is any doubt about what the Mexicans think about chili, the Diccionario de Mejicanismos, published in 1959, defines chili con carne as (roughly translated) “detestable food passing itself off as Mexican, sold in the U.S. from Texas to New York.”
Chili pepper and meat dishes have been in Latin America for hundreds of years but cooks on the early Texas cattle drives popularized it. Chili was a convenient way to flavor or hide the flavor of game caught along the trail. If beef wasn’t available, a pot of chili might include buffalo, armadillo, venison or even rattlesnake.
The chili website adds that cattle trail chili grew in popularity throughout the tiny Texas trail towns. Frank and Jesse James are said to have eaten a few bowls of "red" before pulling many of their bank jobs. Pat Garrett is supposed to have said of Billy the Kid: "Anybody that eats chili cant' be all bad."
As the weather slowly turns cool and the football season heats up, chili will be cooking in many Allen kitchens this weekend. Gallons and gallons of the stuff will also be simmering outside Dodie’s Sports Grill this Saturday as the Rotary Club of Allen kicks off the 1st Annual Allen Chili Cook-Off.
Sponsored by Dodie’s Place, the Courtyard Marriott, Miller Light and Visionary Marketing & Design, the cook-off is being held to raise funds for the Allen Rotary Club’s various community service projects.
Organizers are expecting about 20 entries from local restaurants, businesses and individuals including Davidson’s Auto Care – our team sponsor.
That’s right - using a lifetime minus 20 years of experience, I will be competing in this gastronomic Hiroshima along with local chili fans Keith Taylor and Barry Lanier.
Can a team of rookies compete? Can a guy from Jersey actually make a pot of chili without oregano?
All will be revealed this Saturday, October 25 in the parking lot between Dodie’s and the new Allen Event Center. The event is open for public tasting from 12 noon – 6 p.m. Visit www.allenchili.com for details.
#
