“The story of America on your plate.”
— Anthony Bourdain
Blue-plate connoisseurs describe it as “one of America’s quintessential meals”, food pundits claim it was “the most perfect fast food”, and Smithsonian appointed Cincinnati chili as one of “20 Most Iconic Foods in America”. Climbing up from humble ranks, this dish now has taken up a very sophisticated spot in the food fare of Cincinnati and deserves every bit of glory and adulation. Simply put, people love this food.
But.….there is an issue, its name.
Had the Greeks, who invented it nearly a century ago, called it anything other than chili, they would have saved us all a lot of confusion, mistaken expectations, and serious quarrels from chili zealots. Believe it or not, even food gets political and controversial. Not that Radd and I care for fanatics of any kind, but it’s easy to see how a simple misnomer can cause a lot of problems especially when this food has absolutely no resemblance to it chili con carne, you know, the actual chili from Mexico.
All nitpicking aside, Cincinnati Chili, with its Mediterranean spices, meat sauce, and dark chocolate is absolutely positively, thoroughly, completely, and affirmatively scrumptious and having chocolate as an ingredient has a lot to do with it. Everyone, especially chocoholics must try. As a thick, gooey, stew-like dish it gets ladled over spaghetti or hot dog (coneys) on a “five-way” system (plain, added cheese, added cheese, and onions, added cheese+onions+beans) and is served on a shallow oval bowl. Just to let you know, we broke that rule and served it in a bowl. It seemed more practical at the time.
That’s basically the story of America’s melting pot in one messy and delicious plate. Let’s dig in.
