13 September 2008

Chili Taste Test: Empress Chili

I haven't had much time to post lately since I've been working on Mavericke, my bio-opera about John McCain.

But I did begin my canned chili/cheese coney taste testing this week. For some reason I've had cheese coney pangs the past few weeks. I got cans of Empress, Skyline, and another one I can't remember right now. And then, thinking that I could do better than an ordinary hot dog, I bought smoked metts.

Important: do NOT make coneys with metts. It does not work.

So I went to IGA to buy a pack of the highly regarded Hebrew National dogs but they don't carry them. But I ran into a friend outside and talked with her so it wasn't a wasted trip. I'll try Kroger later today.

Even thought my coney was fundamentally flawed because of the mett, I did sample Empress chili after many years and liked it. It's very similar to Skyline. I will definitely stock a few cans for late-night chili fixes following Monday Night Football.

Long-time Cincinnatians may remember the Empress Chili parlor in Mt. Lookout Square many years ago. It was in the space now used by Ramundo's (or maybe Ruthai's). I also remember buying a 1-gal container of Empress chili from the grocery store several years ago and taking it back to Chicago when I lived there. I wonder if they still sell that.

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