chili

we had a chili cookoff today. our judging team ("looks good, but how would you market it?") was by far the most organized (some would say anal) of them all. i don't think i've ever eaten more different kinds of chili in a single day. there was plenty of excellent chili, and the best entries were standouts: the midwest chili connection had made their own buns and sausages for a minneapolis-style chili which was itself a little underspiced but which had a rich, full flavour. robert morgan's 3 day smoke in your eye, make your grandma cry chili featured beef that had been first smoked and then grilled before being stewed in an almost adobo-like sauce (he tied for first place in the "traditional meat chili" category). at one end, in a bowl of ice, josef desimone had a large mound of rare ahi chunk chili, with cubes of pico de gallo gelee -- not chili, but really good. a team of brazilians tried to pass off a creamy seafood moqueca as chili in the "where did you grow up" category (it wasn't chili either, but was pretty good on rice), and team bunny diablo made a rabbit-based chili that had the same thready texture that ropa vieja has. special mention to the tasty, vegan, locally-grown chili made entirely with sun ovens-- it took 2 days and 3 sun ovens to separately cook the beans and the other vegetable components.