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I won't even bother with buying Chili any more in this area after getting Skyline chili last year. What a disappointing experience! Watered down, no veggies visible,and is that cinnamon and cloves I taste in their? WTF? All wrong...
Every one to their own taste. Who said there was supposed to be any veggies in it? I don't even put veggies in my version of Texas style chili other than tomato hunks and the Texans would probably consider that sacrilegous. Of course it probably has some cinnamon and cloves and probably a little cocoa powder in it. As far as the loose consistency that is on purpose so the spaghetti can soak it up along with the oyster crackers. You obviously have no idea what the whole concept is, not that the hundreds of thousands in this area which scarf it down will miss your participation.
There's Cincinnati chili, Texas chili, green chili, etc. Know what? I like 'em all and appreciate the unique qualities. You're not bringing anything new, Whip5000. If you don't like it, don't eat it. Cincinnati has the most chili parlors of any city I know of in the country. Somebody in Cincinnati must like it.
Here's a recipe that I really like. Seems pretty authentic. Tastes great. I omit the salt thus it does not have the salt content that the typical Skyline Chili has. I also omit the red pepper flakes because I don't like things too hot or spicy.
I won't even bother with buying Chili any more in this area after getting Skyline chili last year. What a disappointing experience! Watered down, no veggies visible,and is that cinnamon and cloves I taste in their? WTF? All wrong...
That's a typical reaction from people who expect it to taste like chili they're used to. If you think of it as what it really is, a Greek derived spaghetti sauce, you may be less disappointed.
That's a typical reaction from people who expect it to taste like chili they're used to. If you think of it as what it really is, a Greek derived spaghetti sauce, you may be less disappointed.
You're being too kind. It doesn't take a genius to take one look at the environment it is served in and realize they are not dealing with a traditional western style chili. The pictures on the menu should be the first clue besides just glancing around and noticing what is being served. I refuse to call it a Greek spaghetti sauce (why belittle the Italians) or in any other way apologize for it. It is what it is, a Cincinnati tradition yes mainly created by Greek immigrants, and proudly unique to Cincinnati.
So I will launch into a lengthy story. My former employer was Japanese owned, so naturally we had a lot of Japanese come here on temporary assignment and to negotiate business with the Japanese transplants such as Toyota, Honda, Nissan, etc. On my trips to Japan I quickly recognized their most popular fast food is noodle shops. Their noodles are prepared out of rice flower, rice being the staple grain, so the texture and flavor is somewhat different than what we are used to, and the form is more like spaghetti than what we traditionally call a noodle. The noodle shops serve them in a bowl more like a spaghetti soup, with the broth very thin and typically fish based flavored, naturally as even their pretzels, potato chips, and other snack foods are fish flavored. Everything is fish flavored. What would you expect out of a volcanic island nation surrounded by the sea?
When we would first introduce them to Cincinnati Chili there was a what is this reaction? I would quickly try to explain it and suggest they start with a 3-way and just give it a try. It was fun to watch the various reactions ranging from this is really strange, to not bad, to just take it away. What was surprising was in a short period of time when we would suggest going out for lunch instead of the company cafeteria, they would suggest Skyline. When we would travel out of town to visit customers they would ask where is Chili parlor, and I would have to reply not here that is Cincinnati only. It was amusing to me to see people from a totally different culinary background take to Cincinnati Chili. The spaghetti connection to their traditional noodles may have been the difference.
But piled with the cheese, they just stared at that. Being a small island nation they have virtually no dairy industry, with almost all cheese imported and expensive. So to be served a dish with that much cheese on it kind of blew their minds. It was similar to when we would go out for a steak dinner, which they always wanted to do. I will avoid going in that direction, stopping with once in Japan I had a steak dinner at over $500 a head.
And when I speak of culinary differences, they are significant. We all know about Japanese sushi. But believe me that is not an everyday food for the ordinary person in Japan, too expensive. Today we definitely have more sushi served in the US than Japan. I commented on the lack of dairy products, and that would include milk. Our current soy-based milk substitutes had to originate there.
And other things we take for granted like tomatoes. They just must not do well there. Go to a restaurant with a blazing sign Italian Food. Go in and order meatballs and spaghetti. First of all you will get what I mentioned are rice noodles rather than the expected spaghetti. Second of all, you will be lucky to find anything resembling a meatball. Third the sauce is likely to be yellow, not sure what is in it but definitely not tomato.
The next clue is a Pizza joint. The young Japanese of course watch American TV all the time, and being an extremely compacted nation were wired for cable a long time ago. Our companies like Pizza Hut entered the market years ago. So obviously I would cart myself off to a Pizza Hut as I could at least recognize the pictures on their menu. Just glancing around I would think what is this stuff they are serving? The toppings all look like they have been prepared using a razor blade. And the sauce, did it ever see a tomato?
Finally, our selection of vegetables makes everything else in the world pale in comparison. In Japan, all vegetables are some form of asian cabbage, of which there must be hundreds. Every dish you are served is loaded with cabbage. But what is missing? Try orange vegetables like carrots. try and find one. Try yellow like corn, same thing. Try anything in the wheat or similar families, how many of you eat rice bread? Even basics like beans are foreign to their diet. And such things as our available varities of peppers, succhini, squash, and the like unheard of. So their diet is really very bland, the same thing over and over.
My point in all of this is the US has the greatest culinary variety available in the world. Of course many of the dishes have been modified for the largest appeal in our market. I have no problem with that. Japanese beer is an outright copy of German lager, of course the Germans immigrated here to produce ours. Their whiskey is an outright copy of Scotch and some pretty good replicas of Kentucky Bourbon. Sake may be their only real claim to fame, but realize since it is fermented rather than distilled it is really a wine derived from rice.
So I absolutely refuse to make apologies, please approach it differently, or any other condensations concerning Cincinnati Chili. It is one of our distinguishing food groups, and obviously something Cincinnatians have enthusiastically embraced for years. If foreigners (non-Cincinnatians) want to deride it I really don't care, they are welcome to their opinion. I simply take solace in the fact it is a phenom and name me one city anywhere in the country which has the density of food places devoted to one specific style as do the Chili Parlors of Cincinnati? I will rest my case there.
BTW, we may think our Cincinnati Chili parlors are popular, but you should see the noodle shops in Japan. Their difference is there are very few chains, most are pure pop-and-mom shops. But that is their attraction, providing you can overlook the possibility of getting ptomane.
When we would first introduce them to Cincinnati Chili there was a what is this reaction?
That was pretty much my response. Cincinnati chili was an acquired taste, and it took me about 10 years to acquire it.
Quote:
So to be served a dish with that much cheese on it kind of blew their minds.
You should have told them the volume of cheese is necessary to counteract the laxative effect of the chili itself. Would have been fun to see that reaction.
My family has one "secret family recipe" and it just so happens to be Cincinnati Chili. It came from our family's chili parlor in the early 1900's.....oh man is it good.....and oh so sweet even after I soak it in Tabasco sauce. The recipe calls for 20 lbs to be cooked at a time----and the funny thing is, that it doesn't taste the same if you make it in smaller batches even if you keep the same proportions. My dad guards the recipe with surprising vigor.....he gave it to my brother-in-law but took it away when he didn't cook it with beans (Cincy chili must have beans!).
I need to learn how to cook it before something happens to my parents....and while I've never cooked a thing in my life, this is something I must force myself to do. I would never forgive myself if the recipe died with my parents.
I need to learn how to cook it before something happens to my parents....and while I've ever cooked a thing in my life, this is something I must force myself to do. I would never forgive myself if the recipe died with my parents.
Hey that is similar to what my daughters and daughter-in-law decided a few years ago when it came to our family goetta recipe. They banded together and said Mom we have to come up and go through the whole process. No shortcuts, make us go through the whole process, and we will try and write down everything you say about the pertinent facts.
One of my daughters in now stationed in Hawaii with her husband who is in the military. When she whipped up a double batch of goetta last Christmas season, most of their friends reacted like we see here in Cincy relative to Cincinnati Chili - what in Hell is this stuff it looks like puke? But once she followed it up with her home made buttermilk biscuits and scrambled eggs (they have to be a little soggy) and a healthy dose of fresh ground black pepper, the attitude soon changed.
Hey Cincy, we have two food items most of the country has no knowledge of - Cincinnati Chili and goetta. How fortunate can we be.
Hey that is similar to what my daughters and daughter-in-law decided a few years ago when it came to our family goetta recipe. They banded together and said Mom we have to come up and go through the whole process. No shortcuts, make us go through the whole process, and we will try and write down everything you say about the pertinent facts.
You really have to make a concerted to "keep things in the family." I'd love to know the name of the chili parlor my family owned 100 yrs. ago but it's been lost. Sad, but it happens....and I don't want to lose the family chili recipe...at least not on my watch!
You really have to make a concerted to "keep things in the family." I'd love to know the name of the chili parlor my family owned 100 yrs. ago but it's been lost. Sad, but it happens....and I don't want to lose the family chili recipe...at least not on my watch!
Yes, that is perfectly right. We will protect our family goetta recipe until the cows come home. I am sure other families of Germanic extraction have their own version. When I say Germanic extraction I am speaking of the slavs, the prussians, the austrians, and all of the Germanic people outside of Germany itself. There was also the terms -High-Dutch and Low-Dutch. I am not exactly sure what this referenced, but I have to believe it was connected to economic status.
So any connections between family Cincinnati Chili and goetta recipes have to have one common denominator. They are derived from food of the common people, maybe even less. To believe they have not only survived this long, but that so many people actually enjoy them gives me some hope for the future.
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You're not bringing anything new, Whip5000. 
If you don't like it, don't eat it. Cincinnati has the most chili parlors of any city I know of in the country. Somebody in Cincinnati must like it.
