No matter what the weather will be like here in South Texas on Thursday, I know what I’m going to make for supper. Chili!
That’s because Thursday is National Chili Day, according to the website, NationalToday, and there’s no better time to celebrate this truly unique dish that was invented right here in San Antonio. And we Texans take our chili seriously. Just ask anyone who’s ever debated a Texan whether or not beans belong in the usually spicy, but always hearty, dish.
I belong to a Facebook group about Texas history and an all-out online brawl ensued recently after someone – probably a Yankee – said he preferred his chili with the lowly legumes. Fighting words were exchanged and battle lines were drawn until the group’s administrator deleted the entire conversation. Forget bringing up politics and religion. If you want to pick a fight (and I don’t recommend it), start talking about adding beans in your chili!
“Chili has its roots in Mexican culture, and Tex-Mex culture in particular, but some food historians believe that chili traces its earliest origins from farther-flung locales,” according to “The History of Chili” article posted on the Texas Heritage for Living website a few years ago. Author Peter Simek added: “Robb Walsh, author of The Tex-Mex Cookbook, argues that the original spice mixes used in the meat and tomato stews have their roots in Moroccan cooking traditions.”
The article continued: “In the 1700s, the government of New Spain recruited Canary Islanders to move to San Antonio,” Walsh writes. “Canary Island women made a tangia-like stew with meat, cumin, garlic, chili peppers, and wild onions that they cooked outdoors in copper kettles in their settlement, La Villita. Their peculiar, chile and cumin-heavy spice blend resembled the Berber seasoning style of Morocco.”
Sometime around the Civil War, chili first became popular here in the Alamo City. Women who concocted the dish were known as “Chili Queens” and set up stands around Military Plaza to sell an inexpensive, hearty bowl of food for hungry day laborers. Some “Chili Queens” even made the long journey to Chicago in 1893 to offer chili to festival-goers at the World’s Columbian Exposition.
And, the rest they say, is history.
Today, chili is the official dish of Texas, and “chili heads” across the state compete in cook-offs, guarding their family recipes like a stash of gold. As a matter of fact, the Texas Chili Championship will be at Traders Village in San Antonio this weekend. It’s held under the auspices of the Chili Appreciation Society International (CASI). For more information, call 210-623-8383.
Happy National Chili Day, y’all!
#pamelarobertshowell