Though there are dozens of activities at the annual Ocean Beach Street Fair, the event\u2019s signature component is the chili cook-off competition. Taking place at Veterans Plaza at the foot of Newport Avenue, the tasting begins at 11 a.m. \u2014 though be prepared. The line typically begins forming at 10 a.m.
\nTickets for tasting and judging the concoctions of the various chili-making entrants are $1 for two servings, or for $10, visitors can get a people\u2019s choice ticket, allowing them to sample all of the teams\u2019 chili offerings.
\nThis year, there will be nearly two dozen competitors in two categories \u2014 restaurant and amateur \u2014 with judging based on consistency, smell, color and taste.
\nAccording to Dave Martin, president of the Ocean Beach Town Council and owner of Shades restaurant, there are, of course, prizes for the winners. But Martin said the main motivation between many of the competitors is bragging rights.
\n“The entrants take this extremely seriously,” Martin said. “They work on their recipes all year round and do what they can, go to whatever marketing extent they can to get people to sample their chili.”
\nHe said this extends to the recipes that go into the various versions of the dish.
\n“It\u2019s always great fun to see how people have decorated their booth to draw attention, or see the extent to which they\u2019ll go to make things different,” Martin said. “I use ground corn in my recipe, but in the 10 years I\u2019ve done this, I\u2019ve seen just about everything you can imagine,” he said. “I\u2019ve seen them use gunpowder from a blank that\u2019s been fired, I\u2019ve seen them use rattlesnake. A lot of them use bison. Just about anything to make it stand out. However, a lot of people these days are going toward the vegetarian taste.”
\nThe chili cook-off is an extremely popular contest, with the sound of a bullhorn setting off a stampede of hungry guests. Luckily, if the competition chili is gone, chili connoisseurs have the option of buying some of the 60 gallons of committee chili, provided by Shades. Both beef and vegetarian varieties will be available at $2 a bowl.
\n“It takes us three days total to make,” Martin said. “It\u2019s a day to get all the ingredients together and then we cook all the way through the event.”
\nVisitors are advised to arrive early because the chili pots are usually empty by 2 p.m.
\nAll the proceeds from the chili cook-off go toward the annual Ocean Beach Fourth of July fireworks display.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Though there are dozens of activities at the annual Ocean Beach Street Fair, the event\u2019s signature component is the chili cook-off competition. Taking place at Veterans Plaza at the foot of Newport Avenue, the tasting begins at 11 a.m. \u2014 though be prepared. The line typically begins forming at 10 a.m. Tickets for tasting and […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":257853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Chili cook-off competitors find unique ways to turn up the heat","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-257852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}