"Slippery and Slimy"

Yesterday was Chili Verde and Salsa day at the World's and hopes were high for both Rick in Verde and Wendy in Salsa.  The weather was supposed to be cold, wet and rainy - but thankfully that only lasted the morning and by early afternoon it was a beautiful fall day in Charleston.  I spent a few hours at the shops in town and then headed down to the venue where things were in full swing.  The chili had already been turned in, and the band on the stage was country so I was definately enjoying the atmosphere!  I don't know their name but they were flying back to Vegas last night as they are regulars at the Golden Nugget.  For some reason the lead singer was signing his autograph on 8x10 glossy's of Tim McGraw, who he looked or sounded nothing like.......

 We hung around the booth and handed out the giveaway chili, there were a few more people than on Friday, but nowhere near the crowds that came out in Manchester.  No shortage of interesting and eclectic individuals though!



Andrew and I at the booth

 

Wendy handing out giveaway chili

 

Rick and Larry Lentz - King of the Chili Royal Family

Michael and the Rat Pack - Scott on the far left came 2nd in Verde!

Finally it was time for the awards and trophies.  Apparently all of our booth and showmanship skills peaked on Friday as South of the Border was completely shut out of both categories on this day.  Sadly the chili and salsa entries did not place either and the team was left empty handed for the day.  Whatevs, there's always next year!  We headed down to the judges tent to see what comments were made on the scorecards - even Rick couldn't help laughing at one judges verdict on his green chili - she said it was "Slippery and Slimy" - one mighty articulate juror!  The rest were all fairly reasonable and decent,  just not what they were looking for on this day.

Here's a couple of the winning booth / showmanship teams:

 The eventual winner of the Chile Verde is a 2 time winner, he previously claimed the title in 2009 - the last time the World's were held here in Charleston, so he's declared it his favorite city!  We were very happy for the 2nd place winner, Scott, who cooked in the same booth next to Rick for the day.  He, his wife and little girl were part of a group of chili cooks that call themselves the Rat pack and all have chef coats with their rat names on them - Michael did his best to see if he could join them and forever more be known as "Rink Rat", however apparently someone has to die in order to get a spot (which someone did for Scott's wife to get her spot!)...

Instead of going out for dinner, we had a special treat waiting back at the hotel.  Rick had smoked a pork shoulder at home in Windsor and brought it and I had put it in the oven on low heat before I headed out for the afternoon.   So we all sat down to pork tacos, nachos and Wendy's competition salsa!  A really delicious meal and relaxing evening after another long and busy day.

So today is the final day of competition, the big one - Red Chili.  Since no one in our group qualified to cook, we decided to go have a nice breakfast at Bob Evans and head down to the venue in order to finally get a look at the judges comments from Michael's last chance chili on Friday.  They hadn't released them earlier as they didn't want cooks that did make it through to read them before today.  Here's all of the comments he received:

• Gritty, chewy, good bite
• Good consistency, good meat, good heat
• Too much smoke, needs sauce
• Good heat
• Too thick, tender, hot but good
• Smokey, good heat
• Thick, but not too spicy
• Too thick, good flavor and bite
• Nice thickness, funny taste, good color
• Lite in gravy, tastes more like spaghetti sauce

So all in all some pretty good comments and some stuff to work on, but for his very first pot of chili, and for it to be at the world's with judges that have been doing this for quite some time - it's a great start.  I'm very proud of him!

When I left earlier this afternoon Michael had been given his judge's medallion and wrist band so is hoping to get an opportunity to judge an early table at the red this afternoon.  I'll be heading back down later to see the awards and the tribute to Carroll Shelby.

It all wraps up later today and we head out on a 6am flight tomorrow morning so I likely won't get a chance for a final wrap up until we get home.  Looking forward to seeing the family tomorrow for our Canadian Thanksgiving dinner.  Also want to wish a very Happy 34th wedding anniversary to Rick and Wendy today - what a romantic way to spend it!!

Chili out!