2nd Annual Gastown Blues & Chili Festival

Gastown is the birthplace of Vancouver. It is now a tourist district along the waterfront where the early pioneers set up their tents and lit up the night sky with their gas laterns. This weekend they closed the street for the 2nd Annual Chili cookoff.



There was a competition between 20 restaurants and a panel of judges to determine who prepared the best Chili, along with a peoples' choice award



All were invited to try out the chili and of course we had to buy some tickets, proceeds of which went towards a needy cause . They also had a stage on site with live Blues entertainment playing continuously all afternoon by popular local musicians.



Every vendor had a different forumula for their signature chili and many chose to wear colourful costumes



Of course you had to first walk around and look into their pots to see their brew before making your decision



Since this was an event organized by the local Gastown community all the restaurants are from this part of town . It is a way to draw more people into the area to boost their sales.



I always thought chili was prepared with beef (ground hamburger), but today you could have tasted bison, Camel, boar, pulled pork or chicken along with dozens of different types of beans and topped with anything fron cilantro to cheese.



Did I mention that there was live music on the stage all afternoon. It was great to snag a chair and just enjoy the afternoon listening to music while eating chili, and of course, taking a few pictures and lots of video



here we are speaking to one of the chefs. He actually gave us a rundown of how his chili was prepared and I must say that it was delicious




it was so good that I have to show it to you before it is gone forever



most of the restaurants have a sign displaying the main ingredients. This one used smoked turkey, Boar and Bacon



and here it is simmering on the hotplate



by mid-afternoon some were running out of their chili so it was a lucky thing we arrived earlier than we had planned.



needless to say we had to try some of this and it was very good



the music was great . The musician on the left was a master on his guitar or modifified hawai'ian type guitar (James Roy). The person on the keyboard (Mike Van Eyes) has a style very similar to Jerry Lee Lewis and could really tickle those keys.



I don't know what happened but in no time at all we were down to only one ticket left. Lucky we saved it for the judges' decision. The winner of the best chili was Rogue so of course we had to get a sample and spent our last ticket



and it didn't last long. Now you see it and . . .



now it's gone.