We’re heading back home today, as the plague seems to have vacated the premises of our actual home. We’re ten days out from initial symptom onset so we trust that it will be safe to return. It has been fun and weird being only a short drive from home, and I’ve had to actually commute to work (at my home office) every day this week, which hasn’t been necessary for almost exactly four years. It was a weird time, but I’m also glad to be going home.
Poorly Organized Thoughts on: Chili I’ve lived in three different regions of the country now for long enough to feel comfortable talking about something important: chili. Chili’s a fascinating topic because people get very protective of their particular variety.
First of all, there’s Texas style chili. Being from Texas originally this is of course the chili I think of when i think of chili. I think due to its seeming simplicity it’s the closest thing to an idealized version of chili. The platonic ideal, if you will.
Side note: did you know that the phrase “platonic ideal” come from the philosophy of Plato? That’s what the name means. To his way of thinking, everything in existence is merely a reflection of the best or most perfect version of that thing. So if you have a chair, you know it is a chair because of how closely it hews to the pure perfect version of a chair that all chairs are shadows of. And as I understand it, these platonic ideal forms weren’t just hypothetical or theorized, but understood to be actual things in what we might call another plane of existence. And it should be further noted that these platonic are different from Platonic solids, which are the 5 regular convex polyhedra. You’re likely familiar with at least the Cube, which is made up of 6 regular (that is to say, identical) squares, but the is also the tetrahedron and octahedron and icosahedron, all made up of regular triangles, the dodecahedron made of pentagons. Although now that I think about it, the Platonic solids are also sort of the platonic ideals of those shapes. Any icosahedron you make in the real world won’t be exact (just ask any D&D player about their favorite d20) so it is merely attempting to be the true icosahedron. And then of course there’s the platonic friendship, which I leave as an exercise for the reader.
Was I talking about chili? Texas chili is my favorite. It’s a hearty meat stew that can hold up to cheese, sour cream, and saltine crackers. But to a lot of people Texas chili is defined by what it lacks, which is beans. Most other chilis use beans. Most commonly red kidney beans in my experience, but other beans are certainly on the metaphorical table. I’ll be one of the few Texans out there who says it’s fine if you want to put beans in your chili. I don’t think it improves anything if the rest of your chili isn’t up to snuff, but you do you.
There are also the non-red chilis that come most commonly in shades of white or green. These are fanciful deviations and experiments that push us further from the platonic ideal of what a chili can be, but in those experiments we get a better understanding of what it means to be a chili. Chicken or pork instead of beef! Fresh chilies (with an e) instead of dried or powdered! I even once made a seafood chili using scallops and shrimp. It turned out well and showed me just how far one can push the boundaries of what a chili (with an I) can be.
Then. There is Cincinnati. Cincinnati style chili is an abomination. They serve it over spaghetti, often with beans, and I’ve heard rumors of ingredients as strange as cinnamon and even cocoa powder. And the worst part? I think it’s pretty tasty! But I still think it crosses the metaphorical threshold into a land beyond chili. One should expect it to count, after all chili is right there in the name. And the general scope of ingredients seems to match: beef, tomatoes, brownish red sauce. You can even serve it on a hotdog with shredded cheddar cheese, for a delightful experience. But I think it doesn’t count as chili for a single reason: you wouldn’t eat it alone. If you walk into one of the 160 Skyline Chili locations across the Midwest (mostly Ohio) you won’t find “bowl of chili” on the menu. The simplest way you can order it is with spaghetti underneath and cheese on top. That is the minimum complete dish. And you need those components to work in harmony with the chili, or it won’t taste right. So for that reason, Cincinnati style chili has to be demoted to sauce. Sorry.
Stuff I’m watching The Traitors (US version) season 2 ended this week and it was a killer finale. If you’re unfamiliar, the Traitors is a hidden role game like The Resistance or Werewolf or Mafia where a group of people have to work together towards a common goal while also trying to seek and expose the traitors amongst the players. As far as reality competition shows go, it’s nowhere near as strategic as a survivor or big brother, as it mostly runs on vibes. And the vibes are immaculate. This season’s was entirely reality TV stars and people of similar levels of game (including a former member of British Parliament.) I won’t recap. The whole season or spoil the finale, but it became clear there were two groups of players, one who saw this as the game it was, and one who took everything at face value and played like they just hanging out with friends. The whole thing takes place in a castle in Scotland and Alan Cummings hosts in a series of outrageous outfits. It’s a silly good time, and I recommend the second season in particular as a good intro to these types of tv shows.
I have also watched the first episode of Elsbeth, a show that is technically a spin off of The Good Wife and The Good Fight, but requires absolutely no prior knowledge of those shows. What it is is a reverse mystery show where we the audience see the crime being committed and then follow Elsbeth, who is technically a lawyer but is working alongside the NYPD for reasons, as she figures out who did it and finds a way to solve the mystery. This format was originally pioneered by Columbo, played by Peter Falk and now with Poker Face by Rian Johnson and starting Natasha Lyonne, we now have two of these shows on at the same time. It’s a good time to be a fan of this format (which I am)
