A Whole Bunch of Hot Heads - The Pepper Lovers Club
Lorraine Eaton of The Virginian-Pilot writes about a local Chile Pepper Club and their annual chili cook-off:
"On Veteran's Day, I ate at the VFW hall in Norfolk with a happy crowd that ladles their dinner into cupcake tins and spends a whole lot of time jacked up on capsaicin, the stuff that makes hot peppers hot.
"The occasion: the local Pepper Lovers Club's annual chili cook-off. I was lucky enough to be asked to be a judge. I arrived at the VFW hall (where a table-for-one is eternally set in the foyer for the soldier who is missing in action) just before 7 p.m. Inside the VFW, 27 (count 'em, 27) varieties of chili awaited us judges, who included Steve Giuffre, owner of Buffalo Beach in Virginia Beach, Chef Willie Moats of Byrd & Baldwin Bros. Steakhouse in Norfolk, and the winners of the Fleet Week chili cook-off.
"For an hour, we sampled spoonfuls of chili – chili with beans, without beans and non-traditional chili with venison, chicken and other meats. We nibbled corn chips intermittently and had a darn hard time deciding on the winners.
"Flavors ranged from licorice to curry to traditional cumin flavored chili. Not a single one was deemed less than really, really good.
"In the end, Ron and Marion Malone took first prize in the 'no beans' division with their Chesapeake Chili. A club member known to all as Turbo took first in the 'with beans' division with T's Venison Chili. And Dale Hendren took first in the 'non-traditional' category with his Black Bean Chili.
Club member Terry Ward (that's him in the picture) handed winners trophies more than twice as tall as a slow cooker, and everyone got to try all the chili, thus the cupcake tin dinner plates.
Thanks for inviting me, y'all. Can't wait till next year!"
Link: http://hamptonroads.com/2008/11/whole-bunch-hot-heads-pepper-lovers-club
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