[yapc] cars in Houston

[Walt Mankowski]

On Fri, Jun 15, 2007 at 08:11:08PM -0500, Karen wrote:
> On 6/15/07, Kent Cowgill <kent at c2group.net> wrote:
> > * All kidding aside, all it takes to get your "Cincinnati style"
> > chili** with beans is to order either a four way with beans (so that
> > means no onions) or a five way which includes both.
> 
> It's not that I necessarily want beans in my chili (as with barbecue*,
> we're sufficiently close to Texas that its influence is present, and
> any place that's at all serious about its chili will have it available
> with and without beans, and I'm not sure there's really a default.
> Well, probably "with," but I think that's strictly a financial thing,
> and doesn't necessary reflect a majority view from patrons), it's that
> I don't want pasta in it, or under it. Pasta and ground beef?  That's
> spaghetti (hey, *my* spaghetti recipe includes Worcestershire sauce).
> Or maybe Hamburger Helper.
> 
> Of course, my view may be colored by the fact that the only place I've
> ever seen Cincinnati-style chili is Steak'n'Shake (*mumble*ty years
> ago; we don't have them here) and I don't know of anyone who ever had
> it twice. Maybe it was just a poor implementation.

Now I'm from Philadelphia, so I don't pretend to know from chili.  But
in my humble opinion anyone who puts Worcestershire sauce in their
"gravy" has no right to lecture anyone else about what is or is not
"spaghetti".[1]  Maybe we'll have a YAPC in Philly one of these years,
and youse can go to South Philly and have some proper Italian food.

I've never had the pleasure of eating chili in either Cincinnati or
Texas, but I did have chili on pasta once.  It was at a lovely dive
bar called the Vienna[2] Inn in Vienna, VA (in the DC suburbs).  They
call it "chili mac" down there.  The southerners I used to work with
all loved this place, and drove out there specifically to get the
chili mac.

One of the other customers who was enjoying a chili mac that day was a
major celebrity in DC at the time, one John Riggins, a star running
back on their Super Bowl teams of the early 80s.  Riggins is a native
of Centralia, Kansas, and played his college ball at the University of
Kansas.  His pickup truck was in the parking lot.  It had a Kansas
license plate.[3]

Walt

1. It's a type of pasta.
2. Bringing this back on topic to YAPC.
3. No one was riding in the back.