Chili and Country & Western

More photos of chilis than you're likely to see in the near future:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=112095&id=510568119&l=0807e9f6d2

As we attended and thoroughly enjoyed the BBQ and Bluegrass festival in South Carolina, it would have been rude not to sample the North Carolina Chili Championship right in the heart of Winston Salem. As you can see, people take their chili v. seriously, and we reaped the benefit by being able to sample all of the entries in the competition. You'd be amazed how many different types of chili there are - mild ones, really hot ones, smoky ones, beef ones, chicken ones, veggie ones, beanless ones, ones with cinnamon in (surprisingly nice!) and my personal favourite, ones poured into an open packet of Fritos (maize, wheat crunchy type snacks), topped with cheese and sour cream and eaten with a plastic fork. Someone should really start selling that on the streets of the UK.

Once the votes had been cast (we clearly had good taste, as our favourite won the People's Choice award) and the awards distributed, we were treated to some good ole' Country & Western music courtesy of a Mr Darryl Worley. I'd never heard of him, but my friend Janet informed me he's a bit of a bigshot in the Country world, as his swooning female fans in front of the stage would testify. Our chili 'n' country experience was topped off as we left by the sight of 3 cowboys riding their horses through the car park (field) swigging bottles of beer as they went. Not something you see every day.