A couple Fridays back I attended Lansing’s downtown Chili Cook Off, but on by the Board of Water and Light (the local utility folks). This has been going on for some time but after living in Lansing for four years (wow), this was my first outing.
My only experience with chili cook offs is via the Simpsons episode Homer ingests a freakish chili pepper and has various hallucinations.
Needless to say, I had high hopes for this cook off.
Upon arriving (with a pair of friends in tow), I was thankful I had purchased my ticket in advance–not only did it save me $3, I got to go to the front of the entrance line instead of waiting for a spell, like my friends had to. This was where I first spotted the muffin trays that almost everyone seemed to have.
This sight intrigued me, as that was something totally unexpected (not unlike the Spanish Inquisition). I later found out what the tins were for–stacking multiple cups of chili at once so you could enjoy them at your leisure. A novel concept. I imagine too that you could probably have chili poured in the tray itself if you wanted, to save on waste…but I didn’t really see that happening.
While waiting for my friends to work their way through the line, I enjoyed a couple of chilies. They were quite tasty. After linking up with my pals, we surveyed the mass of people and decided to just pick a spot and start. We had all kinds of chili: cheesy chili, chili made with coffee and even chili made with chocolate.
One chili had a rather amusing name
After enjoying a bunch of chili (as well as a Melting Moments ice cream sandwich for myself), one of our party decided to ride the mechanical bull featured at the cook off.
This was free and it was a riot, watching people of all ages try to tame mechanical beast. Our friends did pretty well, but was eventually tossed.
The crowd was more than I expected and the dueling music stages seemed to take a bit of the focus away (as well as cut down on places to sit, etc), however I had a great time and I’m looking forward to next year.
