Wick Fowler
It was over a half-century ago today – out in the badlands of Terlingua- that a humorist from Illinois, H. Allen Smith, locked horns with Wick Fowler, a war correspondent from Big Sandy, Texas to determine bragging rights on who makes the best chili on planet earth.
It’s a riveting tale.
On Carroll Shelby, Wick Fowler And The Origins of Terlingua Chili
On Carroll Shelby, Wick Fowler And The Origins of Terlingua Chili
On this day in 1961, Ma Ferguson, the first woman governor of Texas, died of heart failure. She left a Lone Star state-sized legacy but as y’all probably know by now we’re only in it for the chili.
Back in 2013, we produced a pop up restaurant event that we called “Let Us Now Praise Texas Women”
We featured Ma Ferguson’s famous Texas chili as one of seven dishes on our event’s menu.
Here’s what we said about Ferguson’s bowl following the party: Continue Reading
Texas Red Chili fixins in the Scrumptious Chef kitchen
Winners 2018 Frank X Tolbert Wick Fowler Original Terlingua Chili Cook Off
That part of Texas is one of the prettiest places on earth.
The Terlingua Chili Cook Off has been referred to as the Mardi Gras of the Borderlands and with good reason.
After a few thousand Texas chili freaks get a headful of Mexican dirt weed, tequila and Lone Star it can get downright dangerous what with all the spontaneous gun shooting and hell raising going on. The Saturday night of the cook off can sound like New Orleans’ 9th Ward on a weekend night.
We used to joke that if you showed up at the chili shootout without a gun you were issued one.
We now live a 15 hour drive from Terlingua and lord knows when we’ll be able to take a week off work to make the drive back out to the ghost town of Brewster County.
Last weekend was the 52nd editions of the Frank X Tolbert Wick Fowler Original Terlingua Chili Cook Off. Here are the winners:
1st Place – Becky Daniels, Midlothian, Texas
2nd Place – Sherril Lazarus, San Angelo, Texas
3rd Place – Terry Wright, Lockhart, Texas
From the Associated Press: “In a story Oct. 22 about a recipe for Texas Red Chili, The Associated Press failed to specify in some references that the chili without beans is Texas Red, and not all Texas chilies. In addition, the Terlingua Chili Contest is in Terlingua, Texas, not in Grapevine, Texas. The story should have clarified that cumin and oregano are in the recipe as part of the chili powder blend. The corrected version below also removes the reference to Hatch chili powder, which is not from Texas.”
After reading the Workman article we penned the following Washington Post Crosses The Texas Red Chili Line and reached out to AP to point out several egregious errors in the original piece. After a vigorous back and forth, AP issued the corrected article.
Long story short: Don’t fuck around with Texas Red chili. And do your proper “sweat neck research” or you’ll be hearing from us.
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Eat in a few hundred Texas cafes like this one then write an article about Texas Red chili
Workman then goes on to prove that she knows absolutely nothing about the food so revered that good men have lost their lives over it. Continue Reading
The Red Devil restaurant in Budapest Hungary
Shanghai Jimmy’s Texas Chili Rice
Blackie Sherrod was a Texas legend. The hard-bitten old sports scribe routinely cried out for more “punch and juice” from his fellow writers. He liked to go deep and he expected those around him to follow. Continue Reading
John Nova Lomax speaks on Texas chili con carne
The Bloody San Antonio Origins of Chili Con Carne is a rigorously researched longform article on the most beloved food in the Lone Star state.
However, chili con carne is not the only official dish of the state. There are eight in total.
We wrote The Rules Of Texas Red nearly eight years ago.