The Chili was King on this cool, sunny fall afternoon as 20 teams and hundreds of tasters turned up for the 2006 1st Annual Chili Cook-off organized by Bubba's in HongQiao. The event was organized by Kenneth Joe Walker- (of Bubba's BBQ fame) to introduce Shanghai to world of Chili - specifically the meaty, spicy, tangy Texas version of Chili with a capital ‘C’. He promises it will become an annual event. The revenue for the day was set aside to support Shanghai Sunrise, a local charity who provides education opportunities for disadvantaged children in Shanghai.

Follow up:

The Crown of "Best Chili in Shanghai" at this first event went to City Diner. Their entry won both the People's Choice vote (as voted by the tasters themselves), in addition to the Judge's 1st Place for the Best Chili award. Shanghaiexpat took 2nd place and Eric Johnson's effort took 3rd place. This said a lot, as it was a very competitive field, with several teams captained by head chefs from several notable Shanghai restaurants. We tasted it. It was good. A much deserved congrats to the City Diner team. I wonder if THAT version of their chili is on the menu?

Teams started setting up their booths and getting their chili cooking at 10 am. The crowd of tasters began to stream in at noon. Each taster was provided a small cup of chili from each entry as well and free flow of Heineken. The beer corner in back became very popular. Judges for the award were sequestered from the entries and given blind samples of each entry to rate.

The Shanghai Expat team of Milo, Melissa, Mandy, Binh, and Michael pulled together the spicy called "Hot Time in the City" Chili. It took a decent second place. We were proud to place so high in field of so many deserving chilies. We did put in the work. Saturday afternoon we were indoors chopping garlic, onions, peppers, 3Kg of meat, and stirring and sampling to produce 2 large pots for the event. Chili fragrances filled the kitchen and some fingers were even stinging from cutting the fresh chilies.

The sun stuck around all day and the tasters continued to pour into the small courtyard and taste. The free beer flowed and rumor has it that a few of the booths were giving away free tequila. They gave away lots of great lucky draw prizes away all afternoon. Live music filled the air and everyone appeared to be having a good time. It all seemed to go very quickly and several comments from tasters indicated to us that it would be a fierce battle to the last cup. Prizes were awarded, more cups tasted, more beers drunk, and sun started setting. It was a great day for the 1st Annual Chili Cook-off.