It was good. The food was tasteful and enjoyable, and I’d be happy to back again (it’s a yearly event.)
But — and I hate to criticize — this was Minnesota chili. I was warned multiple times that “this one has a bit of a bite.” It did not. Flavorful, yes, but “bite”? I could have rubbed this stuff in eyes without a twinge. I could have brought some hot sauce and chili flakes, but I feared that might be seen as insulting. I shall be able to use the bathroom tonight without pain.
The problem may be that all the chili cooks were white people who looked like they attend the local Lutheran church every Sunday. Maybe they should invite a few representatives from our local Hispanic population, who aren’t timid about using a few peppers.
Maybe I should submit an entry next year. My chili is considerably more ferocious, and I’ve always toned it down for my wife’s benefit.
“Minnesota nice” chili?
Go for it PZ.
I am not in with the performative manly man, eat-hot-death, notion that spicy foods should be pure capsaicin. Chili should have flavor, and that does not exclusively mean heat.
I agree. But some heat is necessary.
As someone who did dumbass things like eat raw habaneros a few times in my life or put enough “insanity” level hot sauce in stuff to ruin it and shit fire the next day…also as a fan of “Hot Ones” making celebrities regret their recent life choices…I hate shitting fire. That said…if I can use the hot sauce as eye drops that ain’t right either. I like some heat but don’t like the next morning arc welding my plumbing. I think my mouth is usually more tolerant than my butt. It’s more about despising your past self than discounting your future self IMO. Been through it.
Chili without some bite is like ice cream without the cold.
“Maybe they should invite a few representatives from our local Hispanic population, who aren’t timid about using a few peppers” I would love to watch that, and taste that.
My Ohio mom’s idea of chili was browned ground beef, kidney beans, tomatoes and some onions, with a tablespoon of McCormick’s chili powder in it. Basically hamburger and bean soup.
I accidentally grew the hottest peppers I’ve ever had by not watering the plants as much as they should’ve been (they were a car ride away in a community garden, so a big hassle). It actually raised blisters on my lips just from biting into one. I hadn’t thought capsaicin could do that. I let a co-worker (the “nothing is too hot” type) sample one (I did warn him), and he managed to keep a straight face for about 5 seconds before losing it. I wish I could’ve had them tested to see what their Scoville rating actually was.
If the food is painful to eat, it is not food.
Chili’s out for me. I can’t stand beans and I don’t enjoy spices that act ferociously on the pain receptors in my mouth and prevent me tasting the food. But – chacun a son gout.
This is the “people who think mayonnaise is a spice” humor, isn’t it?
seversky @9: Even though chili has beans in the US, the original Mexican version typically doesn’t. You might enjoy that version better.
Call me a wuss, but while I certanly like spicy foods, I never got the appeal of delibritely eating things that were so hot that it’s uncomfortable. “This hot sauce is 81 TRILLION Scovilles! It’s like trying to eat nuclear plasma straight from the sun!”
I like a little kick, not something that feels like someone is firing a flamethrower down my gullet.
I can see the headlines: Biology Professor Sends Dozens to Hospital in Tear Gas-like Attack. Symptoms Include Burning Lips, Eye Irritation and Coughing. Local Doctors Have No Answers.
@ chigau (違う) : “If the food is painful to eat, it is not food.”
Different people have different and subjective ideas of what is “painful” of course. It’s literally a matter of personal taste and personal preferences. Alo varies between cultures and what people have been raised or become used to having. It is a bit of a balancing act when it comes to making spicy food that suits the majority of people given the wide range of spiciness preferences. Helps to warn and ask in advance. Given this is a deliberate hot chili event where people are expecting and seeking hotter spicier levels, well,, the spice must be the go eh?!
/Cap’n Obvs. (Am I really the first to make a Spice / Dune reference?)
Oh and jus becoz Futurama’s Spice weasel scene – one of..
A friend was relating a warts and all story of a trip he and a friend did through India. One night they ate a particularly fiery chili concoction washed down with generous slurps of pineapple juice. After the meal they killed the burn with a large tub of ice cream.
Sometime in the small hours of the morning the chili caused the inevitable abdominal eruption. He dashed for the toilet only to find his friend had beaten him to it. It was clear that the chili was doing its evil work because between the groans coming from the other side of the bathroom door he could hear his friend crying out “come down ice cream”.
Hey PZ, I would love to see your chili recipe, if you have one. I believe you’re vegetarian, so it would be interesting to see what you put in it.
Ah, yes, we Minnesotans are a bland people. I do love real Mexican food, though. The flavor should range above the spiciness, however “hot” the dish. I am wary of spicy foods, simply because it is way too often some performative “how hot can you go” game, but I have been fortunate in my life to have had access to varied, wonderful cuisines. Montana does spicy all over the place, but with few redeeming qualities, and every time someone recommends a great new Mexican place, it turns out disappointing. My late spouse became a wonderful cook of various ethnic specialties out of sheer yearning.
Maybe you should spice up the event with a speech. Like DJT did when supporting Republican candidate John Husted.
I know DJT likes some Mexican food. He said so in a TV ad, and he never lies.
Just invite him next time.
.
At the 12.30 mark Trump starts talking about John Husted’s ass. Several times. I assume this is some long-standing tradition?
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=BpleoCS-4BE
Chilies come in a broad range of flavors, not all of which are hot. Though I’m born and raised in the Midwest, I too prefer my food with some spicy ingredients.
Luckily, the Twin Cities has a plethora of fantastic restaurants from all over the world so I can have authentic Mexican, Thai, Indian, Vietnamese or Ethiopian food whenever I wish.
I’ve added many of those recipes to my repertoire, but it helps when your local grocery stores stock the ingredients. I have a Vietnamese grocery shop near my home where I can get a huge variety of ‘ethnic’ ingredients. They have at least 20 kinds of vinegar, and a huge array of tea, and the meat department stocks everything from crayfish to oxtail in season.
50 years ago, in Manchester UK, there was a … restaurant? …. called the Plaza. It served one dish. Biryani – rice cooked with meat (unspecified, actually lamb) or chicken, no veg option then, and spices, and fairly light. But you could get a variety of “sauces” as they termed them to go with it, that came in separate dishes. You could have mild, medium, hot, killer, or Slow Suicide. I generally chose the medium, which was hot enough for me. But a friend (and I’m glad I wasn’t there at the time, this is as reported by those who were) chose Slow Suicide. When it arrived, he spooned some on his biryani, and tasted it. When he got back off the floor, he tried again, this time having to get back off the ceiling. At this point he called the waiter and said “This isn’t food, no one can eat this.” The waiter took his complaint to the chef, who emerged, all Somali six foot four of him in 3 dimensions, and said “You think this is hot? I have hotter stuff for breakfast!”. My mate continued to remonstrate, the chef picked up the sauce dish, and drank it. “I’ll get you a hot” he said.
A decade ago or so I figured out the trick to making a tasty chili where the heat builds. As you eat more of it the spiciness intensifies, by the time someone finishes a bowl they are getting some heat, but it’s not too hot to start with.
The trick is to spice only the meat. I generally use both ground beef and cubed rump roast in my chili. But I cook the ground beef with onions, garlic, and typically use an entire jar of ancho chili powder. I keep adding beer for liquid until the ground beef is almost black and so spicy it will blister skin.
Then, to make the chili, use this slurry as a base and add your tomatoes, bell peppers, cubed rump roast (I have another trick to make that meat tender), beans if you want them, etc. You don’t need to add any additional spice, and while the hamburger is heavily spiced, only a little bit ends up on each spoonful. It’s flavorful, and the heat level builds the more you eat.
I haven’t tried a vegetarian option with this technique, but maybe I’d make the spicy slurry with lentils and replace the rump roast with tofu? I should give that a try. Cornish Pastries are the supper for tonight, I assembled them yesterday. They are sitting the fridge, ready to pop into the oven as soon as I get home. Well, I have to add the vent hole and eqq-wash them first, but that won’t take long.