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bajabound2005
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2760
Registered: 10-15-2005
Location: Punta Banda, BCN
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Mood: words cannot describe...
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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]
Friends don't let friends drink white zinfandel.
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bajabound2005
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2760
Registered: 10-15-2005
Location: Punta Banda, BCN
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our improved booth
Friends don't let friends drink white zinfandel.
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bajabound2005
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3rd place goes to
Friends don't let friends drink white zinfandel.
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bajabound2005
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Bud? that may be the problem
Friends don't let friends drink white zinfandel.
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bajabound2005
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Okay, these pix are too small. I tried using the photo icon in the original post and linking to our Picasa url -- didn't work. It had the coding in
the post but the image did not appear. Tried flickr as well -- same thing. What are we doing wrong??
Friends don't let friends drink white zinfandel.
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fdt
Ultra Nomad
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Location: Tijuana, Baja California
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Mood: Yeah, what if it all goes right
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Congratulations bajabound2005, felicidades.
A well informed Baja California traveler is a smart Baja California traveler!
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DianaT
Select Nomad
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Registered: 12-17-2004
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What a fun story, and so well told. Congrats!
You pictures are too small to be fully enjoyed. The problem you had with your first pictures on the other site is that you did not include the IMG
tags--couple of ways to do it U2U if you would like more information.
BTW, besides loving the story, my stomach is speaking to me---want chili, want chili --- yours sounds soooooooooo good.
Diane
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bajajudy
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6886
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Location: San Jose del Cabo,BCS
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Nomads Rule!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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DENNIS
Platinum Nomad
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Registered: 9-2-2006
Location: Punta Banda
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You guys did good.
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BAJACAT
Ultra Nomad
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Location: NATIONAL CITY, CA
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Ummm Im in the need of some good chili dogs,,,HAHAHA.
Congrats guys "Buen job"....
BAJA IS WHAT YOU WANTED TO BE, FUN,DANGEROUS,INCREDIBLE, REMOTE, EXOTIC..JUST GO AND HAVE FUN.....
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bajabound2005
Ultra Nomad
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Okay, I'm giving up on the photos; but you can view them here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/vincedepuntabanda/CookOff/photo#...
Friends don't let friends drink white zinfandel.
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DENNIS
Platinum Nomad
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| Quote: | Originally posted by BAJACAT
Ummm Im in the need of some good chili dogs,,,HAHAHA.
Congrats guys "Buen job".... |
Oh my. This is a new realization. A bacon wrapped chili dog.
How good can life get.
Thanks B-Cat..........You are a chef.
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jerry
Super Nomad
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Location: loreto
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congrats to ya
jerry and judi
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bajabound2005
Ultra Nomad
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I think we might have figured out the photo thing and we'll try again tomorrow to post them.
And Madison would like to add, "Some of that chili was worse than the school hot lunch program chili." Hmmmm.
[Edited on 8-20-2007 by bajabound2005]
Friends don't let friends drink white zinfandel.
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Roberto
Banned
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Congratulations - now please tell me there's no beans in your CHILE. 
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bajabound2005
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no beans, amigo, pure chili! Did I say anywhere in that story, add the beans? No siree!
Friends don't let friends drink white zinfandel.
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bajadock
Super Nomad
Posts: 1219
Registered: 12-20-2006
Location: Punta sur de \'Nada
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fun! baja flavor food friends and fun. thanks for pictures and congratulation on the result...but better congrats on the process. Hope I can join
next year. Great shirts imported from Sicily?
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Keri
Super Nomad
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Too much fun
Fantastic!! Congratulations !!!!!!!!!!
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Neal Johns
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Grate Righting! Sick sic sic! I loved it. Congratulations also.
My motto:
Never let a Dragon pass by without pulling its tail!
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CaboRon
Ultra Nomad
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| Quote: | Originally posted by bajabound2005
no beans, amigo, pure chili! Did I say anywhere in that story, add the beans? No siree! |
And that's real chilli ... Congratulations ...
- CaboRon
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