Chocolate and Chili got down and dirty together at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Nearly a dozen vendors lined up along verdant Osborne Garden hocking their spicy/sweet concoctions. The vendors, yes those divine vendors, will have their own blog entry since there was much to sample and learn about.
This entry will focus on the 5 alarm hootenanny otherwise known as the The Brooklyn Chili Peppers ‘n’ Chocolate Takedown. The soundtrack for this event was “old time string tunes with a dash of New Orleans blues” played live by Brooklyn’s own, The Dust Busters.
Six fiery contenders gathered under a big tent tent while a horde of people lined up for the feeding frenzy. The line moved as fast as a snail on Valium. I snapped some photos and watched as Matt Timms, organizer of this and many other takedowns, got concerned with the line’s slow pace and started yelling out to the hungry visitors, “Keep moving. Don’t talk to the cooks, they aren’t interesting. Its their food that’s interesting. Keep moving, you can talk to the cooks afterwards.”
Hey now Mr. Emcee, way to go making the paying crowd feel welcome. If I was competing in the takedown and heard you spouting off that nonsense, I would have shoved my entry down the front of your pants. Course he might have been making a bad joke.
Anyhoo...back to the food entries up for consideration.
My preferred dish was Katie Feola and Anne Garrett’s Bread Pudding with Cinnamon Cayenne whipped cream. The bread pudding was velvety rich, complete with little chocolate nibs. Of the six entries, this entry had the best balance of heat and chocolate. Neither overwhelmed the other.
Olin Moran’s short rib ravioli with mole sauce, was surprisingly bland to me. The short rib filling had little flavor and the mole was really mild. I’m not a fan of mole, but I did expect more from the short rib. Great idea though!
Mole, Mole, Mole
The ubiquitous Cathy Erwin created a visually stunning Chocolate Pepper Popper. The chocolately filling seemed too strong for the pepper it was inside, but I give it two big habaneros up for presentation.
Cathy Erwin's poppers win my vote for best looking entry
Chocolate Pain. That was the name of the most unpleasant looking dish. Dan Marino put together loose meat, cocoa powder and mascarpone cheese. The result....well it tasted good...but the grayish brown color on my plate resembled sloppy joe mixed with excrement.
Chocolate Pain
Henry Chan, was the Ice Cream Man. Henry made the best chewy ginger snap I’ve ever had. He also made the spiciest chewy ginger snap I’ve ever had. Dear god, my mouth was burning two minutes after I swallowed the chewy goodness. Henry paired the ginger snap with a chili chocolate ice cream. This ice cream, with a mild amount of heat, would be wonderful in restaurants. I’m wondering why I haven’t run into it yet. Mental note....google establishments in NYC that serve that.
Henry Chan serving up Chili Chocolate ice cream
The last contender was the refreshingly fruity Chili Cocoa-Nut Caramba by Jui Shih. The peachy coconut flavored ice cream (which lacked any chili heat) was served over a circular portion of some kind of dense chocolate cake. It was great. Thank god I ate it last, because my nose was running and my mouth was in dire need of cooling down after eating my plate.
Aye Caramba - its the Chili Coca-Nut Caramba
This was a great event, I’ll have to amend this tomorrow to find out who one as I skipped out early when the rain drops started to fall. I’m crossing my fingers its the Bread Pudding.
Be sure to read my other posting about the Chocolate vendors and my adventures with.......Pig Candy.
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