For The Love of Chili

I went to a chili cook-off sponsored by our local Ashburn Pub last Saturday. 17 chili recipes entered the competition and the winner by popular votes from us tasters will have their chili recipe included in the pub's menu for a whole year. I tried only 7 chilis, 6 without beans and 1 with beans and sweet corn. The first one I tried  was terribly sweet, I tasted only a tiny portion and threw the rest away. Who puts sugar in their chili and who would eat and love it??? Well, as it turned out people here in Ashburn like their chili sweet and honeyed because it WON the competition. A friend of ours, Enrique who is originally from Venezuela, voted for it as the best, so what do I know. Anyway, the only chili I make and eat is Authentic Texas Border Chili and nothing else. 

it was crowded, hot, and noisy inside and outside the pub

Enrique with his drink Mongo Juice which he gave to me because it was too sweet for him. It's a non-alcoholic drink that tastes of nothing but chemicals, sugar, and probably a few drops of bitters. I drank it because it was cold and I liked the large slice of watermelon.

the creator of Mongo Juice

the staff calls him Mongo after the character in the movie Blazing Saddles 

although he is not really as huge as Mongo

my first choice had chunks of sausage and tasted almost like my favorite chili

my second choice, more like a stew but the only chili that actually had hot chiles

my third choice regardless of beans and corn

very tasty and it's served with delicious oyster crackers 

Our friend Enrique suggested I join next year and he will "pimp" for my chili but now that I know what the tasters prefer, my chili might come out at the very bottom because it's never sweet and has loads of spices.

The Breakphast Of Champions

Most probably you have heard of Michael Phelps' whopping 12,000 daily calorie intake and his much talked and blogged about breakfast that NBC's Bob Costas reported as:

"...Three sandwiches of fried eggs, cheese, lettuce, tomato, fried onions and mayonnaise, add one (five-egg) omelet, a bowl of grits, and three slices of French toast with powdered sugar, then wash down with three chocolate chip pancakes."

To celebrate Phelps's GR-EIGHT performance, for breakfast I made chocolate chip pancakes and a 5-egg omelet filled with the freshest shiitake mushrooms and onions sauteed in butter and seasoned with very little Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and sea salt. Yummy breakfast for *couch potato* champions like myself.

shiitake mushrooms that look like pancakes growing on logs

I'm no champion eater, I can barely finish 2 pancakes and less than half of the omelet

A Beery Peanut Brittle

slightly spicy and beery peanut brittle

Gizelle at Was zum kochen und essen invited me to join the Food For Which My City is Known For. Her city of Vienna is the home of one of my favorite cakes, the world famous Sacher Torte. When I was working at the Asian Development Bank in their old building at Roxas Blvd, my co-workers and I went to The Holiday Inn Hotel regularly to have their Sacher Torte. I believe the hotel's pastry chef at the time was a native of Austria and Sacher Torte was his specialty.

I knew it would be tough to find any food that is associated with my city of Ashburn, Virginia located 30 miles west of Washington D.C. It headquarters some well-known big technology companies such as AOL, Verizon, and MCI and the home base of the Washington Redskins is located here but food or some delicacy, there's nothing. Unless you consider beer a food, then we have the microbrewery Old Dominion Brewing Company which is semi-famous here in the Northeast. Yes, what we have here in Ashburn is the perfect pair of football and beer. Because I don't care much for both football and beer I thought of making something with beer that I will definitely love and maybe will make me start watching the Redskins' games this coming season. My daughter suggested beer peanut brittle, Virginia is a peanut producing state after all. I made beer peanut brittle once and loved it. This time I added chipotle powder for a little bit of spice. The brittle is very very good, slightly spicy and has the subtle taste of the beer. Sooo good for munching while watching football. I chose Dominion's Spring brew, a Belgian-style blonde ale that has honey, orange peels, and chamomile, very unmacho which is just right for a girl like me who does not drink beer. As expected I liked it, it is the very first beer I tasted that did not repulse me, ever. I don't think Ashburn's food renown can compare with Vienna's Sacher Torte but at least I tried to put it on the map and I hope y'all could come down to Ashburn and drink a bottle of Old Dominion beer or snack on beery peanut brittle with me.

Beery Peanut Brittle
1 cup toasted peanuts
½ teaspoon flaked sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cold butter, diced
1 cup sugar
¼ cup light corn syrup
1 cup Old Dominion Spring Brew beer
1/8 teaspoon chipotle powder

• Butter a large baking pan or line with silpat, set aside. Mix first 4 ingredients, set aside.
• In a large saucepan, mix the beer, sugar, corn syrup, and chipotle powder. Boil over moderate heat for 12 minutes until golden in color. Stir in the peanut mixture and quickly spread on the prepared pan.
• Let cool and break into small pieces. Store in an airtight jar.

Old Dominion Brewing Company And Pub Photos

pub and brewery looks like a warehouse, an old brewing thingie the pub/restaurant, a small part of brewing machine


the old brewing machine