Nomads Win at Los Gordos Chili Cook-Off - La Bufadora

We’ve never entered any kind of cook-off before. Geez, we’ve never even been to a cook-off! So what do we do being the wild and crazy people we are? Why, enter a chili cook-off!

We knew it was going to be a long, hot day when we left the house at 10:30 a.m. and it was already over 80 degrees. At that moment, that made it the hottest day we’ve had all summer. This summer, Ensenada has had a constant marine layer and haze, lots of wind and definitely on the cooler side, so the climes of August 18 were a bit unusual. Not a trace of a breeze or a wisp of a cloud. And off to La Bufadora we went for the 12:00 noon starting time of the Los Gordos Annual Chili Cook-off. We figured an hour was ample time to set up.

We arrived in La Buf a mere ten minutes later only to find everyone else all set up! And they had fancy booths with canopies and clever names for their chili. Hmmm. What did we get ourselves into? We had an eight foot long table, a half-size card table, a few chairs (which we didn’t need to bring), our cook-top and the portable BBQ, our pots and pans. They laughed at us as we unfolded our table. They mocked us as we sported our freshly printed softball shirts we had made for the cook-off. Embarrassed, we quickly ran off to the vendors in La Buf to hunt up some chili-pepper themed something or other to “decorate” our “booth”. You think that would be fairly easy to do in Mexico in a tourist area. HAH! All that crap comes from China. So we split up and start scouring booth by booth. One guy says, “I know I have what you’re looking for”. Skeptical, I say, “I don’t think so, I don’t see it”. He asks what I want and I tell him chili peppers, anything with chili peppers. “I have that”, he replies. Goes to the back of his shop, digs around and produces a string of ceramic chili peppers and garlic. “PERFECT!”, I cry. And we strike a deal. Next shop – they try to tell me that their string of ceramic strawberries are actually chilies. Moving along, the next guy tells me he always has something for a souvenir from the chili cook-off and produces stacks of bandanas imprinted with chilies and the like. We negotiate for six of those. Twenty minutes until start time – run back to our “booth”.

Using our beautiful blue painter’s tape, we tape the bandanas to the front of our “booth” and lay the string of peppers and garlic on the table. 100% improvement. Only problem now is, we have NO shade and it’s getting warmer. Oh well, the show must go on. Ten minutes before noon, Pam (the coordinator) gets on the bullhorn and announces for the competitors to BEGIN! Good thing we didn’t dawdle with any more vendors!

Okay, let’s fire up the cook top. Can’t get the lighter to work…scramble for some matches. Okay, all lit (three burners). Let’s start browning up the onions. Oops, only one pot at a time will fit on this wonderful 3 burner cook top (it came out of an RV). Wait! Kate and Hank have a camp stove in their mini-van. Set that up. Okay, now we can get three cast iron skillets going at the same time to brown up the onions, then the cubed beef and pork loin. Start up the BBQ to char the Anaheim chilies. Uh-oh, forgot to bring tongs…oh, heck, what’s a couple of blisters? By now, we are truly sweating bullets from the sun. Ginny, wife of fellow Nomad GC, to the rescue– she insists I take one of the Punta Banda Yacht Club visors. I’m not a hat person, but that visor saved my life yesterday. And besides, since I am a member of the PBYC, I should have one of their visors. Thank you, Ginny!

While we are cooking, Hank, Kate and the kids are improvising to create some shade. They pull a couple of tarps out of their car. Hank climbs up on what we think was a pila (Tecate painted on it) with some big rocks to weigh down the ends of the tarps. Then he gets some poles and using cable ties and baling wire lent to him by another cook-off participant, attaches the tarps to the poles and the poles to our tables. Some shade at last. It didn’t reach our table but it provided us some shelter in between stirs.

Okay, moving along. The onions and the meat are all ready to go into the chili pot. Add the 33 cloves of minced garlic. Peel the charred chilies and dice. Toast up the many tablespoons of cumin seed and Mexican oregano. Into the pot go the herbs. Then it’s time to stir in the chili powders, four different kinds and LOTS of it, 48 tablespoons in all. Now, for the beer (for the chili, not for us). I fretted over which brand of beer to use when I selected from our bar the day before. There’s the Italian beer Bajaguy brought over one night. Nope, wrong country. There’s the Noche Buena that Bajadock contributed one night. Nope, wrong season. There’s the Tecate that Bajadock also brought. Nope, only have one can of that and I need three. Well, there’s that case of Coors Light in the pantry. Sacrilege! That leaves me only one choice: PACIFICO! Open the bottles and add to the pot. Add 2 quarts of other secret liquid ingredient (non-alcoholic). Time to add the tomatoes. And, yes we did remember the can opener! These were whole tomatoes that needed to be made smaller. We implement the Rachel Ray (aka Bobblehead according to Anthony Boudain) method: squish them in your hands right into the pot. Stir, stir and stir some more. Cook for about 45 minutes. Now it’s time to add the charred chilies and the jalepeños. Stir those in and cook another 15 minutes. Taste check. Needs a little salt. Taste check. Perfect. Add final secret ingredient and continue cooking. By this time we are cooking only on the camp stove as the cook top wasn’t giving us enough flame. After a while, we notice the chili isn’t exactly simmering. Uh, oh, out of propane. Back to the cook top (we had the bigger propane tank for that).

Time check: 2:30 p.m., judging is at 3:00. Pam is on the bullhorn again announcing that the tasting cups are now for sale – moments later lines are forming at all 12 contestants’ booths. So we start serving up our elixir to the paying customers and await comments. “Hot”. “Good.” “Spicy.” “My lips are on fire.” “Holy crap!” Gotta keep an eye on the clock – then Pam announces it’s time to deliver the designated cup to the judges. We give the chili a final stir and fill up that cup. Back to serving up samples. One woman comes back a second time and says, “I consider myself a chili connoisseur and this is the best chili I’ve had in all my life”. Team Taormina member, Hank, buys a tasting cup and starts sampling the competition. He brings each one back to our booth and we have a look and a taste. Corn? In chili???? Hot dogs? In chili? Italian sausage. In chili? Tastes like ketchup. Too sweet. Too bland. Too, I can’t identify that taste…Ours, on the other hand, very rich looking, incredible aroma, perfect consistency, just the right heat…

Fellow Nomad BBBait and his lovely wife saunter up to our table and introduce themselves. We have a chat. He comes back a little later and generously offers to buy us beers. I’m the only taker and I don’t even drink beer. He comes back with several bottles of ice cold water and a Tecate…a Nomad seen in public drinking Tecate? Well, it’s really cold and in a bottle. It was the best darn beer I ever had. And that water, as it turns out, was the last of what they had. Many thanks to BBBait for those refreshments.

There’s Pam on the horn again. She has the results from the judges. Third Place – goes to Kiss My Ass Chili. Twelve years they’ve been competing in this cook-off. We considered them our closest competitor…and we are personal friends of everyone on that team. Second Place – Blow Hole Chili. Darn! We’re outta this race but it was a great experience. But wait, the fat lady has not yet sung. We have a tie for First Place. Pam announces the name of the first one – we can’t quite hear her. But the next one, we heard loud and clear. Team Taormina! Very mispronounced but definitely us. High fives all around. Pictures, prizes, more pictures and back to serving up more chili.

So, we’re sad to say that we can’t even tell you name of the team that tied for first with us. We’ve gone through all the pictures. In every photo, we missed the name of the chili team! We have lots of pictures of them, but completely missed the name. We will learn it later and edit to include it when we know.

The moral: we didn’t have the equipment, we didn’t have the gear. We ain’t got no style but, boy, do we have taste!

Here's the edit: The other team, according to Pam (that tied for first) is Crudo/Borracho. She doesn't know their names but they are part-timers in La Buf. When we do learn the names - we'll add them in.

”Chili con Carne: Detestable food that under the false Mexican title is sold in the United States (of America) from Texas to New York.” -- Diccionario de Mejicanismos

"Wish I had time for just one more bowl of chili."
Last words of Kit Carson, American frontiersman (1809-1868)

"delectable chili-con-carne... composed of delicate meats minced with aromatic herbs and the poignant chile colorado -- a compound full of singular flavour and a fiery zest..."
O. Henry 'The Enchanted Kiss'

"Next to jazz music, there is nothing that lifts the spirit and strengthens the soul more than a good bowl of chili."
Harry James

Trying to add the photos through another website didn't work so I'll do the one at a time posting...

Here's one of a very nice booth.

[Edited on 8-22-2007 by bajabound2005]

our improved booth

3rd place goes to

Bud? that may be the problem

Nomads Rule!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations - now please tell me there's no beans in your CHILE.

Too much fun

Fantastic!! Congratulations !!!!!!!!!!

bajabound2005 Congtratulations and thanks for the story. Gonna have to have some chili today.

Congratulations! Hopefully next year we can be there and give you a run for your money.

What type of chili did the top contenders cook? Did they have beans, and ground meat vs "stew meat"?

Not asking for any trade secrets, I know those are closely guarded.

Thanks in advance!

felicidades and congrats

on your achievement. way to go, nomads