[CH] Chile Weekends, Pt. 2

David Cook (zeb@austin.rr.com)
Mon, 28 Aug 2000 16:25:50 -0500 

Okay, this is pretty much a "y'all should come and visit this some time"
kind of report

Now, you'd think that one hot food event (in this case the Texas Fiery Foods
show) would be more than enough for most folks in the course of a year. Or
at least six months. Or at least one month. But oh no, that's not enough for
the folks here in Austin, Texas. Only one week after they had to go and have
the Chronicle's Salsa Competition -- an all day affair of hot sauces, food,
beer, music, and broiling sunshine.
    For the price of a couple of cans of food (donated to a local food
bank), we got to spend the day at a local park being roasted inside and out.
They claim the competition attracts 10,000 visitors and maybe 2000 entries
(I'm not so sure, but it certainly had more than enough entries). Categories
are best red, green and specialty; amateur and restaurant; and there's a
people's choice competition for best commercially bottled in each too.
There's tents set up where you can sample all the entries, but the lines are
just too damn long and there's too many other's to try to stand around. Next
week they'll probably announce the winners, so I'll post that. The best
amateur got a case of his recipe professionally bottled. (I was a wimp and
didn't enter. Maybe next time.)
    You would have thought that every hot sauce in Central Texeas would have
been at the Fiery Foods show the week before, but there were even more I
hadn't seen here, along with some old favorites. Some of our favorite
moments included:
    Smoky Hill's Smoked Jalapeno (not chipotle) Salsa and their New Mex
Green Salsa.
    Bartering a cheesecake for a couple of growlers of beer from one of the
local breweries (deal yet to be consummated)
    Dale Watson on the stage (good ol' truck-driving songs)
    Tears of Joy Tequila-Lime Salsa
     Pickled green pequins imported from Mexico
    Shade and misters! (When it's a 100 and some, a fine spray of water
makes all the difference)
    Tacodeli's avocado-cumin-green chile sauce (now I got to learn the
secret of that one)

And just too much of everything. Maybe next year we can get a chilehead crew
together?

David Cook

PS. Tonight is Turkey, green chile, & hominy stew. Gotta go eat now.