Well, we finally manage to upload our photos of the 2008 Cinco D’Ohio show and it is now available for viewing:

Cinco D’Ohio 2008 slideshow

Many of the pictures were good, some were not. All are available for viewing/digestion. It was awesome fun both being a judge for all the competitions as well as just enjoying the show. Enjoy the pics!

We will have our own pictorial rendition of the goings on from this past weekend’s Cinco D’Ohio event at the North Market, but in the meantime we’d like to offer up some pictures courtesy of Donavan Stanley at the Mommy It Burns Blog. Check it out:

Geckofiend’s 2008 Cinco D’Ohio photo album

Donavan was victorious for the amateur hot sauce contest, and we were lucky enough to get some samples of his sauce for our very own consumption. Yes, we will be reviewing those at some point soon. Stay tuned!!

We seldom get our own time to escape the immediate world of parenthood to vacation…perhaps once a year at most. When we do, it’s great to get away to a place like Las Vegas so that we can pack maximum fun stuff into a short period of time. As a follow-up trip to considering a timeshare deal (you’ve probably seen it on late-night TV), we went back for some free accomodations off the Las Vegas strip. Great that it was free, but it’s not like we were staying in a deluxe resort or anything. Kinda like a Vegas version of a Ramada Inn, really. Being off the strip also ups your cost of getting around, especially if you don’t rent a car. Above you can see the daytime view out our balcony window. Pretty decent scenery we must admit, which was made even better by the fact it hadn’t gotten overly hot there in the desert yet this year.

One of the great finds we had there was at the new Planet Hollywood casino, where there are the Miracle Mile Shops (essentially a mall) attached to the casino where they have their theater, stores, and restaurants located. We spent a fair amount of time in the Miracle Mile, and here you see Linda enjoying a yard of margaritas, courtesy of La Salsa Cantina. Melon-flavored and delectable, even this tall monster didn’t last long after an afternoon of shopping and walking around.
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Devil Duck’s Trip To Mecca, part 2

It’s 7:30am Friday morning and I’m already formulating my plan for the day. After a cup of coffee and a few cigarettes, my wife and I head over to Sandia Resort and Casino for a decent buffet breakfast. We are going to need a little something to buffer all of the capsaicin about to hit us. While we were choking down our overcooked scrambled eggs, we noticed a few vendors there getting a little nourishment for the long day ahead.

We stopped at the ticket booth to pick up our passes for the show and I got some goosebumps as the smell of all things hot and spicy wafted past my nose. There were some complimentary bags lying on a table with the 20th anniversary logo silkscreened on the side. We decided it would be a good idea to grab a couple so we could carry our stash while we made our way through the aisles.

The first booths of note, as we rounded the corner to the ballroom, were Blair’s, Danny Cash, and Jim Campbell (Mild to Wild).

Ever been to a hot luck? Well, this one (courtesy of Jim Campbell) looks like it would be a good one to try out to see how fun they can be:

A river of tears, tears of joy, will soon flow in Madison, Indiana, at the 12th Annual “Hot Luck and Fiery Foods Exhibition at the Thomas Family Winery on Friday, April 4th and Saturday 5th. Admission is free.

The event features a “Hot Luck” pitch-in dinner on Friday beginning at 7 p.m. Those attending are encouraged to bring a fiery hot dish and recipes to share with the other chileheads. Mild dishes are also allowed for those less adventurous souls.

Saturday’s expo hours Noon to 6 p.m., however the winery will remain open until at least 10 p.m.
Saturday highlights include a salsa contest with the winner receiving the coveted “Sombrero Grande.” Entries in the homemade salsa contest need to be received by 1 pm on Saturday. The category awards of “Most Innovative,” “Most Traditional,” and “Best Overall” will be awarded around 5 pm. Prizes are guaranteed to be wacky.

Hot creatureAlso on Saturday will be assorted vendors of chile products. Guests can sample salsas, sauces, purchase dried and fresh spices, hot breads, chili powder, vinegars, even pepper plants.

Wonderful music will add sear for the day!

For photos from past Hot Lucks visit our family photo scrapbook…

The Thomas Family Winery is located in Historic Downtown Madison, Indiana, at 208 East Second Street.

For information, call Steve or Elizabeth Thomas at 1-800-948-8466, or steven@thomasfamilywinery.us.

For more information, check out their website by clicking HERE.

Devil Duck’s Trip to Mecca, part 1

Thursday, February 28.

High Noon

This is the day I’ve been waiting an entire year for… An insider’s chance to observe the Fiery Foods Show. Last year, I agreed to help the crew at Defcon by storing a few pieces of their booth and to assist in setting up the “Lair of Doom” this time. However, upon my arrival, something was amiss. Things didn’t just seem to be right. So, I phoned The Creator (as he is called by his Acolytes) to inform him that I had indeed arrived at his booth. Hmmm… It seems his flight has been delayed and he and his crew of misguided misfits are going to be late.

2:30pm

After observing several companies start on their forays, and discussing the challenges this weekend would present, spirits were indeed high for the upcoming battle.

Upon the arrival of the Defcon crew, we found out what was wrong with the booth. No Pallet of Pain. It wasn’t on the loading dock. So The Createss (That’s Ms. Defcon to commoners) fired off a frenzy of phone calls that even the most mild mannered of us would succumb to her fury.

The Pallet of Pain is still 2 hours away. Off to the bar for some beers! (This becomes the theme of the weekend as you faithful readers will soon see.)
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Time to expand the chilehead world view for those of us here in North America! Thanks to Mick from Ol’ Man Stillmanz Boutique Chilli Sauces, we have a report from the 2008 Hot Sauce and Fiery Foods Festival (called the HSFFF) from the land Down Under. Mick’s story about the show is pretty entertaining, and we plan to do more to highlight Aussie products and industry events as we hear about them. Check out Mick’s story, fresh from the show:

The two days were a huge success, as Horrible Haggis’s Festival just goes from strength to strength. The funniest thing is this year was to be the last at his deer farm in the beautiful wilds of country Victoria. Imagine driving for 40 minutes into rolling hills, dairy farms, and little wineries. It’s magic great if you’re on a motor bike. My wife and I, not knowing Victoria, got pretty nervous when we realized how rural it was. I remember turning to her and saying something about no one coming to this festival in the middle of nowhere, its real “Mad Max” country.

Let me tell you, Haggis is a fiery little fella but a good guy at heart. He was saying to me that it was time for a change. He thought the best thing for the festival was to bring it into the Melbourne CBD so it would be easier to take it to the people, get some bigger sponsors, and take some of the financial pressure from the Redback Chilli Co. I could see the sense behind his thinking; it sucks throwing a party and then catching the whole bill.

That Friday I got very drunk and slept in the stall. I was awoken early by my wife, she threw a bottle of Gatorade at my head, told me I looked terrible, and with that…I was up!

Saturday the first Day

It’s funny when you are the new guy on the block. There’s a funny feeling on the back of your neck and the pit of your stomach its fear; we didn’t know what to expect from this whole experience. All I knew was that no one in Victoria had ever heard of “Ol’ Man stillmanz boutique chilli sauces.” I had 600 bottles of sauce and I had to sell them. Because I’m from Brisbane Qld…that’s over 1000 kilometres away, and who knows how many miles.

The first day was hot and dry about 32 degrees. The sound check at the stage was cranking out, the bar was set and ready to roll, and all of us sauce guys were winding up our final preparation for the onslaught of the masses.

Then they started to roll in and they didn’t stop.

The rockabilly bands played loud and wild guitar solos howled through the air. The day got hotter and the crowd just kept growing in size and what a crowd…they were great. Ever go to a chilli festival and find that the crowd isn’t really into chilli? There are no tire kickers at this festival. The crowd is hardcore, they love chilli, and they want to try it all. We got swamped with hands grabbing for samples and asking questions. I was so busy I had to ask people from the crowd to get me beers and you know they got them and gave me my change.

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We’ve pretty much posted all the good stuff about the show from several days ago, but we still had some pics that we hadn’t posted as of yet. At long last, here’s the photo album from the show. Enjoy:

2008 North Market Fiery Foods Festival photo album

We weren’t the only bloggers in attendance at this past North Market Fiery Foods Festival. Not including us, there were five other bloggers there taking pictures and generally taking in the festival for the food bloggers to enjoy on their sites afterwards. One of these was done by Heather, who is a Columbus Foodie who has a cool blog called Sopressata. Heather had a cool writeup that’s worth checking out. See this post on Heather’s blog:

Fiery Foods Festival

She got some great pics of the event, so check out her blog and tell her we sent ya!

With a dearth of actual pictures of the chili chefs and their creations from the Professional chili cook-off, I just wanted to scribe a little about the process of being a judge for one of these contests. This was the second year out of the past three (Linda had the fun last year) that I participated as a judge for the professionals, and it’s been enjoyable each time.

My qualifications to judge a chili contest? Well, aside from running a blog about hot and spicy food and feeling pretty decent about my experience with chili, I can’t say that I’m an expert by any stretch. So, you can see me in the picture above (far right) at the judges table this past Saturday looking all studious as I tasted bowl after bowl of chili goodness.
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