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10th annual Chili Cook-Off a hot success in downtown IthacaThe weather couldn't have been better on Saturday afternoon for the tenth annual Downtown Ithaca Chili Cook-Off, another successful event showcasing Ithaca's amazing culinary talent in all its diversity. The event featured meaty chili, vegetarian chili, wings, and lots of other edibles and drinks.
And, as usual, this being Ithaca, there were lots of vegetarian chilis to choose from along with the more traditional meaty varieties. (No one tried to serve vegetarian wings that we noticed.) The clear winner for us in the meat chili category was the Just a Taste chili, a delicious and flavourful (but not too spicy) entry with serious chunks of tender meat. We'll also give honorable mention to the Stone Smoked Porter chili from the Ithaca Ale House and the lamb chili from Just Desserts. Picking a winner from the vegetarian chilis is much harder, but we were especially impressed with the Purple Haze chili from the Ale House, with its great variety of beans including white beans and butter beans; the kickin' vegetarian kale and apple chili offered by the Cayuga Nature Center; and the biggest departure from the chili mold, the three-mushroom chili from Simeon's.
We keep hearing how good the wings from Castaways were, and we wish we hadn't missed their booth. Castaways won the People's Choice vote for their wings, and was a runner-up to Blue Stone in the official judging. This longtime music venue on Ithaca's waterfront has its kitchen open Mondays from 8-11pm and Fridays from 5-9pm, so we'll have to check out their wings soon. Also outside the chili category was the pork pozole from Viva Taqueria, which has offered this delicious and simple pork and hominy stew before. Their vegetarian chili was popular, but in my mind seemed too much like a good meat chili missing the meat, rather than a great vegetarian chili designed from the ground up. In a vacuum, I would probably have thought it was quite good, but next to so many other great (and creative) entries, it fell short.
I'll share a tip picked up from years of attending the Chili Cook-Off -- it's best to "pregame" with easier food! Several of us have gotten in the habit of enjoying breakfast at Hal's Deli before setting out on our chili mission. This serves the dual purpose of "protecting" your stomach from the onslaught of spicy food that's about to hit it, and taking the edge off your hunger so you don't get the urge to down ten samples of the same chili rather than taking your time going from booth to booth. The folks at the Downtown Ithaca Partnership say over 1,000 gallons of chili were prepared for the event. Their contest results, released today, list the "people's choice" winner as Longview with Just a Taste as the runner-up, and in the official judging, the Lincoln Street Diner won, with Longview as the runner-up. Our congratulations to all three of these entrants! Unfortunately, we missed the Longview entry entirely. |
It was below freezing, but a clear, sunny day after a little snowfall made for plentiful crowds of happy people. (Sunday's warmer, rainier weather would not have been an improvement.) As usual, dozens of restaurants from around the area participated, offering tastes of chili or other items in exchange for tickets being sold at stands that quickly sprouted long lines.
The most impressive wing production line was at the Wings Over Ithaca booth, where they were breading and frying mounds and mounds of boneless chicken "wings" as demand mounted, serving them in mild Buffalo-style sauce or honey BBQ, but we think the winning wings were over at Blue Stone on Aurora Street, which offered outstanding jerk chicken wings, in a delicious sweet and smoky sauce, served wrapped in a small flour tortilla. We've tried to eat at Blue Stone a couple of times, but keep finding them unexpectedly closed. After enjoying their wings, we'll try to pay another visit soon.