Poll: Fighting foods

First post - be kind!

Chili is a big one here in Louisville. I grew up thinking that all chili had noodles. My dad was from Northern KY - right next to Cincinnati - but he didn't fix his chili Cincy style. He just mixed noodles in with the chili.

MissChele

NOODLES! NOODLES!!!!! What is this?!?!?!!! Damn, girl! You picked one hell of a first post. Noodles would make it frickin' spaghetti. That's about as far as you can get from chili. Chili is meat and spices; and very particular meat and spices at that. Somewhere in the archives is a thread about chili. You need to search for it and read the now infamous Post #2, PRONTO.

Geez, just when you think that you have heard it all...noodles of all things! Oh, and by the way, welcome to the forum, Michele. You'll like it here...really

rwj



I'm really a very nice guy. Just wait until you get to know me better.

Excellent use of the exploding-head emoticon!

And welcome, Michele!!!! What do you think of the pizza wars?

(But, um, ixnay on the oodelsnay )

Lentils don't sound so bad, now do they, when judged along noodles!

Lentils don't sound so bad, now do they, when judged along noodles!

Shut up, you punk.

rwj

P.s. You going dove hunting this weekend?

Well, I guess I know how to make an entrance!

I have been chili "educated" by a friend from Texas. We just agree to disagree. I do make a good venison chili without noodles - does that redeem me at all??


MissChele

Noodles would make it frickin' spaghetti.

Nah... Goulash!

Nice meltdown, Cowboy!
Mark Lipton

I do make a good venison chili without noodles - does that redeem me at all??
MissChele

Yum. I love venison chili. What's in your recipe?

Well, I guess I know how to make an entrance!

I have been chili "educated" by a friend from Texas. We just agree to disagree. I do make a good venison chili without noodles - does that redeem me at all??


MissChele

No redemption necessary, Michele! We like a good entrance around here.

And I'm always in for venison chili!

I have been chili "educated" by a friend from Texas. We just agree to disagree. I do make a good venison chili without noodles - does that redeem me at all??
MissChele

Did you hear what sounded like a gust of wind? That was me heaving a huge sigh of relief. Consider yourself redeemed as long as you don't put beans in it. I LOVE venison chili! I plan on knockin' down a few deer this year for my meat supply (actually, I plan to hunt all my meat for the coming year, save fish). Venison chili is on the menu.

rwj
Austin, TX

Noodles would make it frickin' spaghetti.

Nah... Goulash!

Nice meltdown, Cowboy!
Mark Lipton

Thanks, Mark. Just doing what I do best.

rwj

[Robin Garr]

First post - be kind!

Chili is a big one here in Louisville. I grew up thinking that all chili had noodles. My dad was from Northern KY - right next to Cincinnati - but he didn't fix his chili Cincy style. He just mixed noodles in with the chili.

MissChele

Welcome to our other forum, Michelle! Nice to see you here ... and don't worry, this forum is just as polite as LouisvilleHotBytes. Ummm ... thinking aloud, maybe more so.

Most of us from here in Louisville grew up with our chili "con carne" poured over spaghetti, and we like it that way. Later in life I came to discover real Texas and New Mexico chili, and I love it, too, but I don't have any trouble at all dealing with the concept that it's simply two different foods. Not right, not wrong, just different, as different as, say, Republicans and Episcopalians.

As for Cincy chili, it becomes easier to understand when we recognize that it is merely Greek meat sauce over spaghetti, brought to the Queen City by Greek and Balkan immigrants after WWII. They couldn't sell Greek food to the stolid burghers of our upriver neighbor, but when they re-titled it chili, the rest was history. I'll confess, I like it too, as a guilty pleasure.

First post - be kind!

Chili is a big one here in Louisville. I grew up thinking that all chili had noodles. My dad was from Northern KY - right next to Cincinnati - but he didn't fix his chili Cincy style. He just mixed noodles in with the chili.

MissChele

Welcome Michelle!

Don't feel so bad. My Mom used to make chili that my Dad would not eat. He called it "soup." It was rather watery with lots of kidney beans, and no added spices other than a super-mild dose of chili powder. So his version of chili was the following:

Very browned ground beef, sauteed with chopped onions and a very strong dose of chili powder. He tossed that with spagetti noodles. That was it! Talk about two opposite ends of the spectrum. He made this at least once a week for lunch. (Probably still does.)

Very browned ground beef, sauteed with chopped onions and a very strong dose of chili powder. He tossed that with spagetti noodles. That was it! Talk about two opposite ends of the spectrum. He made this at least once a week for lunch. (Probably still does.)

Chili powder? You mean prepared premixed chili in a jar? That is one strike right up front. No one serious about making good chili uses proprietary chil powder. Any more than a serious Curry fanatic would used prepared curry powder - you make it to suit the dish, altering the spice mix depending on the ingredients.

What you are talking about is quick comfort food, not real chili. Nothing wrong with quick comfort food - we could start a separate thread on that!

Very browned ground beef, sauteed with chopped onions and a very strong dose of chili powder. He tossed that with spagetti noodles. That was it! Talk about two opposite ends of the spectrum. He made this at least once a week for lunch. (Probably still does.)

Chili powder? You mean prepared premixed chili in a jar? That is one strike right up front. No one serious about making good chili uses proprietary chil powder. Any more than a serious Curry fanatic would used prepared curry powder - you make it to suit the dish, altering the spice mix depending on the ingredients.

What you are talking about is quick comfort food, not real chili. Nothing wrong with quick comfort food - we could start a separate thread on that!

I should have referred to my Dad's chili (and Mom's as well) with quotations around it, as in "chili."

I should have referred to my Dad's chili (and Mom's as well) with quotations around it, as in "chili."

An interesting write-up on Chili can be seen at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chili_con_carne

Amazingly temperate considering that chili seems to engender factions - the beans/no beans etc.

So admit to curiosity after reading the last few posts, how many of you have tried, at least once, the Cincinnati "alleged" chili?
I have and once was enough!

So admit to curiosity after reading the last few posts, how many of you have tried, at least once, the Cincinnati "alleged" chili?
I have and once was enough!

I have, and really like it. The only caveat is that I don't think of it as "chili."
There was a Skyline Chili chain in Florida near where I used to live, and I used to love their chili dogs. They were heaped with a large pile of a super-fine grating of cheddar cheese.

[Robin Garr]

So admit to curiosity after reading the last few posts, how many of you have tried, at least once, the Cincinnati "alleged" chili?
I have and once was enough!

Again, I live in Louisville, just 100 miles downriver from Cincinnati, and this is pretty much part of local culture. If you approach it as chili and expect a Texas "bowl of red," you are certainly going to be disappointed.

On the other hand, if you grew up with it, and if you understand that it is actually Greek meat sauce on spaghetti, it's as good as it would be if you went into a Greek restaurant and ordered meat sauce over spaghetti.

It fills the inner person. If it doesn't fit your model of chili, fine and good. Nobody is making you eat it. But I don't think it's objectively woeful.

Sorry, but wasn't implying Cincinnati chili was "woeful". As always, "taste" is personal and fortunately differs widely, just like that old adage wisely states, "One man's meat is another man's poison".
I did not grow up with Cincinnati chili as a childhood staple, so indeed, once was enough for me as I really did not like it.
Sure doesn't mean it's bad as obviously thousands, maybe millions "love" it.
Now, perhaps to go to an extreme...there's a Sardinian cheese called casu marzu with many devotees, and it's feature is that it's eaten with the live maggots inhabiting it and you really gotta watch out that one of dem little buggers doesn't spring into your eyes...
May I safely conclude that few here would relish this "delicacy"!

[Robin Garr]

May I safely conclude that few here would relish this "delicacy"!

Yep, you can have mine!

Other. Because people seem to think that chili has beans in it when it doesn't. If it has beans in it then it's not chili!

rwj

If it looks like chili, smells like chili, and tastes like chili, it 'ain't a duck!

First post - be kind!

Chili is a big one here in Louisville. I grew up thinking that all chili had noodles. My dad was from Northern KY - right next to Cincinnati - but he didn't fix his chili Cincy style. He just mixed noodles in with the chili.

MissChele

Ok Michele, I am being kind, and to prove it, here is a big Lexington welcome to the forum. Now comes the bitter bit. Chili might contain beans regardless of Robert says. But, I must admit that real chili does NOT have spaghetti in it. It could have a small pinch (very small) of cinnamon, but no darned spag!

Again, I live in Louisville, just 100 miles downriver from Cincinnati, and this is pretty much part of local culture. If you approach it as chili and expect a Texas "bowl of red," you are certainly going to be disappointed.

On the other hand, if you grew up with it, and if you understand that it is actually Greek meat sauce on spaghetti, it's as good as it would be if you went into a Greek restaurant and ordered meat sauce over spaghetti.

Robin,

What is the "Greek meat sauce" you keep mentioning as a part of Cincinnati chili?

Again, I live in Louisville, just 100 miles downriver from Cincinnati, and this is pretty much part of local culture. If you approach it as chili and expect a Texas "bowl of red," you are certainly going to be disappointed.

On the other hand, if you grew up with it, and if you understand that it is actually Greek meat sauce on spaghetti, it's as good as it would be if you went into a Greek restaurant and ordered meat sauce over spaghetti.

Robin,

What is the "Greek meat sauce" you keep mentioning as a part of Cincinnati chili?

Robin, if they quit calling it chili, I would get off my soapbox.