Our First Texan Chili Cook Off

Louie's- site of the chili cook off

The day after our trip to Mexico, we decided to go to a chili cook off and mercado that was being held at the same beach bar that held the garage sale earlier. SPICE (South Padre Island Chili Expo) was to benefit the Run for the Cure chapter and the local animal rescue center (not sure what these have in common). We arrived just after the serving began and weren't expecting this to be a very big event, judging by the 3 or 4 vendors that were at the mercado (street market). Turns out that this was the first year for the mercado, and it was added at the last minute, so participation was sparse. But we were blown away when we walked inside and saw the chili competitors. There were 30 teams and almost every team made at least two kinds, and most 3 or 4 kinds of chili. There was green chili, bean chili, white chili, vegetarian chili, and, of course, red chili. Each patron was given a bag with eating utensils, a napkin, and 5 Popsicle sticks that were used to vote for the "People's Choice Award." The competitors served up one-third to one-half cup (or more) samples for tasting, and coded samples were also given to a panel of judges.

The winner and the runners up

Dennis Casway

Musical entertainment was provided by Dennis Casway formerly of the 60's group The Castaways who biggest hit was Liar, Liar. We were just getting ready to start sampling the chili offerings, when a women's hula hoop contest started. We watched for a couple of minutes when Jane shouted, "I can do better than that," and off she went to the stage. She got hula hoop and started grinding away. The stage was crowded and all of the women kept bumping into each other, but it was obvious that Jane was hooping a whole lot more that most of them. She only performed for about 2 minutes and the contest ended. The judges awarded Jane first place for which she got a stuffed monkey. Capt. Larry was impressed and is trying to get her booked on America's Got Talent.

Helping eradicate breast cancer

Good chili starts with good meat

Hey! I know how to use that thing in the middle

A pretty chili baby

The Cheeseheads in the background

With Jane's appetite worked up, we started sampling the chilies. So many chilies, so little time...... Since every team had more than one chili offering, we were going to have to pace ourselves. We've never been big fans of anything but red chili and we like it a little on the spicy side. We hated to throw food away, but most of the green, white, and bean chilies only required a spoonful and we knew they wouldn't be earning our Popsicle sticks. And what's with bean chili? Capt. Larry said that he could bring a pot of his Louisiana white beans and call it sausage bean chili and probably win a lot more votes than these chilies were getting. To Capt. Larry's palate, over one-half of the chilies he sampled needed salt in the worst way. And when one competitor told him that her white chili wasn't spicy, he looked at her and said, "What's the point?" Then we realized who the crowd was. It was people from up north, Minnesotans, Wisconsinites, Ohioans, Iowans, etc. and most of these folks are meat and potatoes with no desire to speed up their intestinal tracts. While some of the chilies were very good and properly seasoned, Jane determined that none of them were as good as what her captain makes. Awww shucks! We voted our sticks, got a beer, and sat down and listened to the music until the awards were announced.

This is what they cook for

For the awards ceremony the teams were announced and some of the team names were cute. There were the Mean Bean Team, Spicy Senoritas (all ladies, naturally), Chili Chili Bang Bang, Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies (really?), Cheesehead Amigos (obviously from Wisconsin), and Friends of Animal Rescue (guess where the meat comes from!). The judges' panel awarded two teams 5 podium finishes for 5 different chilies, so we figured that they were pretty good. As for the People's Choice, the award went to a team from a local restaurant (probably Sysco generic chili) for the second straight year. We listened to a little more music then walked back to the condo stuffed with chili. We knew we would be paying for the experience in a couple of hours, so we didn't venture off too far.

We have a new pet

This is what it's all about!