[FiPS Was There...] Chili Takedown At The Bell House Gets Hot

 

We here at FIPS spend a hell of a lot of time out and about in Brooklyn, attending outdoor concerts, comedy shows and various other events. So [FIPS Was There...] is where we're gonna' talk about all this shit.

The grand-pappy of Matt Timm's cook-off contests, the original Chili Takedown, set Brooklyn mouths happily a-burnin' yesterday in its 9th incarnation. Contestants, some of whom have been around since the beginning, brewed their beany cauldrons on a line of tables in front of the Bell House stage, filling the room with the unmistakable warm, tangy, deep aroma of America's most chuck-waggonest of meals.

This Takedown did not attract quite the crazy-sized crowd as last month's baconfest. Perhaps that is because the chili versions are more known and more frequent. Perhaps that is also because bacon activates certain drool centers in the brain that are nearly irresistible. The chilis caused their own Pavlovian munch preparations in the mouths of Timms' guests, though, as bacon joined oxtail and duck fat as some of the chilified meats.

If you haven't been to, or heard tell of, the Timms' Takedowns, here's the setup: cooks, everyone from aspiring cooking school students to chefs to just-some-dude-with-a-family-recipe, submit to compete and make a dish using (in part) donated ingredients. The most important part of the whole getdown, the hungry mouths, line up with paper plates to chat up the chefs and collect chili samples served in little plastic cups a tad bigger than the ones on top of Robitussn bottles.

It's actually pretty generous -- the cups seem small, but they add up. My partner-in-eating and I both left clutching our stomachs. Totally our own faults. The stuff was good and we kept eating. Biggest tip for future Takedowners: you don't have to eat every bit of every sample. Your tongue may want to, but your stomach may start making other plans.

Takedown tip number two: come with friends and/or make new ones. Aside from nomming on stuff that's good, the best part of these things is the chance to argue over which chili kicked your ass the best. With that in mind--my take: The flavor of chili can be pretty simple -- fire, meat, and beans. So, the chilis with some complexity of flavor stood out and could be a welcome change from a lot of meaty saltiness. One batch, spiked with wasabi, opened sweetly and then stung with spiciness. That one was fun. 

Another added a marinade richness with oxtail braised in Scotch. The "Panty Removing Fertility Chili" came in a cornbread bowl (chef Monty made 470 of them) and had Belgian chocolate sweetness layered in with steak, bacon, Italian sausage, pork shoulder--spiced with chipotle. The recipe also totally worked as your author is currently wearing no panties. As for the classic, meaty stews, a Texas recipe steeped in a homemade beef stock with cinnamon and Guinness did it for me. Bacon and beef worked well together without getting too salty or smoky. A chili topped with duck fat, on the other hand, sounded too good to be true and it kind of was -- just so much meaty saltiness. It made the ice water taste amazing, though. 

But, as with all Takedowns, the discussion of devourability went beyond discussion straight into participatory democracy. All comers could vote for their favorite, a bacon-topped meaty paradise earning first, a coffee-braised short rib chili coming in at second, and a Cajun-inspired "Bayou chili" got the bronze.

A panel of judges also voted for their faves, giving a (second) Bayou chili, this one full of gator meat, the highest podium stand. Goat chili came in at two, and a seasonally appropriate "Autumn Harvest" recipe, flavored with pumpkin spice, molasses, and adorned with pumpkin seeds that gave it a healthy, earthy flavor, earned third.