Welcome to Chili Town

The sign as you cross the Ohio River and into Cincinnati reads "Welcome to Chili Town." Cincinnati hails it's self as the chili capital of America. A banner that must curl the toes of many a Texan. The truth is, as far as chili parlours go, Cinci probably is the capital. The other truth is, about the only thing it has in common with a bowl of red is meat. Beef of course.

Invented in the 20's by brothers Tom and John Kiradjieff. Cincinnati Chili is more of a spaghetti sauce with unusual flavours. There are no beans in it and it's main flavours are allspice and cinnamon. Other flavours include garlic, cocoa powder, onion and tomato sauce. The brothers started serving their concoction at their restaurant, the Empress.
Empress cook, Lambrinides, a Greek immigrant continued to play with the formula and eventually perfected the modern chili recipe and opened Skyline Chili on a hill overlooking the city. A chili craze was born.

Cincinnati chili is essentially served two ways. One as a Coney sauce over small hot dogs or "Pups" and topped with an absurd amount of cheese. As shown in the following photo.



The second way is served over spaghetti known as a "3-way." (As seen in photo below) Adding onions or red kidney beans makes it a "4-way" and the addition of both makes it a "5-way." Also topped with an absurd amount of cheese. A vinegary hot sauce and oyster crackers are the typical sides.

When I say, "An absurd amount of cheese" don't get me wrong. It's an absurd amount. Cincinnati consumes more cheese per capita than any other city in America.

This unique type of chili has led to many discussions and debates about whether or not it really is chili. It's unique combination of flavours is somewhat of an acquired taste and not really to be compared with the chilis of Texas and for that matter, the rest of the world.
Call it what you like but if you're in the Greater Cincinnati area and are looking for an interesting dining experience, give Cinci chili a try. Just don't expect it to taste like anything you've had before.

Featured restaurant is Skyline Chili, 7899 Mall Rd. Florence, Ky.

Davwud

Joe's Gizzard City. Potterville, Mi

If you're a fan of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives you may have seen Guy visit Potterville, Michigan. A small town on I-69, west of Detroit. Having seen the episode ourselves, Mrs. Sippi and I decided that a stop on our Christmas road trip was in order.



From the outside it's pretty unassuming which is pretty much what we expected. For me, stepping inside was rather a different story. Here in TO you can't smoke unless you're in your own house, in the basement with a blanket over your head. At least, that's how it seems. It appears the good folks of Michigan have more liberal ideas because you could smoke anywhere in the bar. No exceptions.
The decor it's self was pretty simple and half full of locals. All of whom were very friendly.

But on with the food.
We started with Homemade Onion Rings since it is a closely guarded secret recipe. I'm a big fan of the beer battered rings and these delivered.



Since it's a "Gizzard City" and since Mrs. Sippi loves gizzards, she went with the Naked Fried Gizzards. A full order is the entire plate. It was huge. She could only manage half the plate with all the other goodies. As for how good they were. Awesome!! I've had gizzards before but they had the grinder still attached and the texture was a bit off putting. With the grinder removed, it was a nice meaty, tasty morsel. The leftovers became dinner later that night in our hotel room. We skipped the dipping cocktail sauce.



I, myself had the Triple D Burger. Again, fantastic. Battered and fried in their house batter, it's a cheeseburger with pickle, onion and tomato. The batter seals in all the juice and makes it a very moist burger. The actual burger it's self tasted great and next time I'm gonna go for a regular cheese burger.
The potato wedges they served with it were as well a stand out.



We also had an order of the deep fried (and battered) olives. They were only okay. I didn't find the batter added anything.



For desert we had the Deep Fried Nutter Butters. Also outstanding. The batteries ran out on my camera so we didn't get a picture.

So all in all, the stop was well worth it and we look forward to a return trip.

You can visit Joe on the web or in Potterville at 120 W. Main St.
 

Til next time

Davwud