Blurker Gone Bad

I went back to see the old recipe, and noted with amusement the ever-present "if it has beans it ain't chili" commentary. The reason I find this amusing is that I was raised by a woman who spent her childhood in MEXICO, and she taught me to make chili with meat AND beans. And when I've had chili in MEXICO, it's had beans in it.

So I'm always left wondering on which particular culinary authority this brand of snobbery is based. And it amuses me.

Me, I like my chili with beans and FAKE meat. :)

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I would be willing to bet that the "chili has no beans" school is strictly a Texas thing. Chili in NY and Chicago always had beans in it.

This is certainly not the first thing that native Texans glare at me about, and I know it won't be the last. Oh, well.

It tastes great anyway. :)

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Well, count me as a native Texan with a native Texan mom (who just happened to spend parts of her childhood in Mexico) who was raised on chili with beans and still loves it. This Texan ain't glaring. :)

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Amy, as a Texan who doesn't eat meat, your opinion of the contents of meat dishes is perhaps not the mainstream one regardless of it's merits.

It's a Texas thing, and Mexico is not the source of Chili even if it's the original source of some of the spices. Just because it has cumin in it, for instance, doesn't make it Curry. New Mexico Green Chile Stew is called Chili by the locals there and isn't a thing like Chili Con Carne or Chili Like Foreigners Eat It. All are tasty. Studies show that Texans prefer Chili without beans by about 3:1 and that non-Texans prefer beans by about 2:1. Texas was, sometime in the last third of last century, the largest consumer of chili by a vast margin, eating more than the rest of the US. Their habits were the marketplace.

Amusement at funny foreign ways is a typical in-group/out-group behavior. However, calling your bean stew 'Chili' is like calling a quarter of a baked tortilla covered with tomato sauce, mozzarella, and an olive slice a nacho when it more closely resembles a pizza. Harmless, but you should be careful when serving it to someone who wants nachos and knows what they are.

To the best of my knowledge, it has been over fifty years since anyone was shot in Texas for asking for Chili with beans in it.

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Ah, yes, but my opinions on chili were formed when I was a happy, native-Texan meat eater.

And I'm not amused at funny foreign ways. The ways of Texas are not foreign to me. I'm amused at those foreign ways being held up as the ONLY way things can be done. It's the snobbery that amuses me, not the ways of eating chili.

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I think using the word "snobbery" in this instance may create an adverse emotional reaction that you may not be intending to produce.

Just my opinion.

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1: shrug. You're in the 1-in-4 Texans with that preference.

2: I was speaking about us (Texans) and the foreign ways being "beanin' up the chili."

By defining it as 'snobbery', you're saying 'let's have an argument wherein we start by assuming I'm right and you're a jackass. I'll start: What's wrong with you?'

Do you wonder why people get hostile back?

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It should only be hostile if you assume snobbery is a bad thing. The snobbery amuses me, but that doesn't make it a bad thing. :)

So sorry if I offended. I was trying to have some fun, and apparently it didn't work. I'll drop the subject.

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Does this mean that my (meatful & beanful) chili isn't chili, or isn't Texas chili? If I were a chili-eatin' Texan, what would I call it?

(can I call it chili if I only whisper it in the privacy of my own kitchen?) ;)

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From what I hear, El Paso is very different now and the waitress who shot someone in 1956 is very sorry.

I'm all for you calling it whatever you want (as long as you don't call it late for dinner), but warn your friends who might be less cosmopolitan than I am that it's got exotic ingredients in it and it's not going to qualify for international competition.

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So, apparently this is an international definition, and not just a Texan thang?

*goes to look up the rules on International Chili competitions*

(like anyone would ever expect me to enter into a Chili competition) ;)

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