Roommate L and I both woke up on Saturday around 10:30am to find that we were both scrambling around the apartment for the same 2 things: Pepto and Excedrin. Roommate L was going to a wedding, and I was going to a chili cook off. We both really needed both.
Not sure where our huge bottle of Excedrin went, but after frantically searching around every shelf in the kitchen for about 15 minutes I finally found the huge bottle of cherry Pepto hidden in our 6-pack wine bag from Trader Joe’s!! … only to find to my dismay that there was only one tiny sip left … fuck.
“It’s ok,” says roommate L. “You need it a lot more than I do. You’re going to a chilifest.”
Yes, I was indeed going to a chilifest, and I didn’t need anything getting in my way of eating every single chili in the cook off. So I took that last swig of Pepto, put on my preggers dress in preparation for my food baby, and headed out the door to go support S who was competing in the cook off. Here’s what was in store for us:
Chili Meat
O-M-G.
The chili cook off was on the rooftop of 230 5th and it was a beautiful day for a cook off. I was prepared to eat a shitload of chili and get a sick tan. The party was incred, and out of the 40 teams competing, S’s chili was by far the best one.
Chili by S
It was the same chili S had made at his own chilifest at his apartment last year with 4 different kinds of steak, venison, bison and other woodland creatures. Here was some other chili:
Competitor Chili
So I had about 40 other bowls of that, plus all you can drink beer. People were seriously shitting their pants left and right.
After all that chili, though, I still felt S’s was the best. Apparently, however, the judges picked a different group’s VEGETARIAN chili instead. I MEAN REALLY!??!?!??! What even IS a vegetarian chili!?!?! Why do vegetarians always try to turn meat into mush JUST STICK TO YOUR SALADS!!!!!!!!!!! That was an unfortunate win.
After an entire day of drinking and eating, we were still starving and parched so S, C, A and I decided to go to dinner at L’Express. On the menu for the night: duck mousse, salmon tartare and steak tartare. YESSSSSSSSS. My fav things. Everything is better raw, like cookie dough. So I got the salmon tartare and both C and S got the steak tartare, which was delicious but not quite as delicious as roommate L’s steak tartare:
Roommate L's Steak Tartare
I guess I inadvertently continued my impressive streak of raw meat eating. C was so full from his appetizer tripe dish that he literally ate like 3 bites of his steak tartare and then left the rest for the waiter to take away until I SWOOPED IN and saved the rest. It was so good. The best part, though, was that after I was all stuffed from raw salmon and steak, along with C’s leftover flourless molten lava chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream, I took out my credit card when GASP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! kind generous C in his complete state of drunkenness insists on picking up my portion of the bill.
Best day ever.
Poverexic in NYC 