I never had chili before moving to Texas. (I loved the stuff that Mom called “chili”, but I couldn’t call it chili. Northwest Ohio is where we lived when Mom made it. She also made it in Texas, still called it chili, still wasn’t.) When I tasted real Texas chili, I knew the Ohio “chili” wasn’t the same thing.
The best chili in Texas is home-made, but Wolf brand is second. As others have stated, “chili with beans” is an oxymoron: if it has beans in it, it ain’t chili; if it doesn’t have beans in it, it’s not “with beans”. I tolerate beans in chili, but understand that putting beans in chili that you yourself has cooked, means that you are having unexpected company, and need to stretch out the main dish. But if you put beans in it, they should be pinto beans – the only acceptable bean to add to chili.
Now that I am all grown up and stuff, I have worked software development contracts in various places around the country. Everywhere I go, I have to try my favorite foods (chili, BBQ, and Mexican), to see if I could ever live in that city permanently. This thread is about chili, so I will limit my comments to that.
Seattle is beautiful, but they just don’t know chili. First off, they do not carry Wolf brand. Secondly, I firmly believe that if you call it “chili”, it ought to have chili in it. It doesn’t have to be tongue-searing, but it should have some sort of a kick. I learned to buy chili powder at the same time I bought chili.
Also, it is nearly impossible to find chili WITHOUT beans in the great Pacific Northwest. But why, oh why do they have to put KIDNEY beans in it? Might as well add green beans as those too sweet beans.
Minneapolis was similar, but they had Wolf brand. That’s where I taught myself to use corn chips as a spoon. I also found Wick Fowler’s there so I could build it myself.
When I worked in Boise, the cafeteria where I worked had various types of chili, chicken, turkey, etc. Whatever variety they served that week, I was able to make it palatable by adding Cholula.
Now I am in southwest Ohio. In the town where I am working, they have two chili parlors, something I have never seen anywhere else. So, I was anxious to try out the local chili, and tried Gold Star first. Have you ever tasted something that had something in it that just didn’t belong? Try cinnamon in chili. That’s is just wrong!
Then I tried Skyline. I told the waiter that I had tried the other store, now I was trying his. He mentioned that he thought the only difference between the two was the amount of cinnamon.
I make my own chili now, thank you.