Daily Blague

Oh goodie! I can read and laugh at this endless times, kind of like a bad funny movie. What I like about it is the cook/author's sincerity. "Several teaspoons of virgin olive oil" -- too funny!

I am, ahem, the creator of this taste sensation and suggest everyone, including RJ, try it once before scoffing. It is very comforting on a cold, bleak winter night and can bring solace to the hardest of hearts, or even broken ones. It tastes and smells great (once the chili is warmed) and is a concoction of foods I love.

Mr M Edwin Lane may not be a skilled cook but his basic idea is really quite good and reminiscent of nothing more than a good chili with migas. Canned chilis are generally to be avoided and certainly to be avoided with beans. Chili in South Texas is meat, onions, chilis, salt and garlic in the traditional ingredients proportion order greatest to least. Doubtless MEL will dispute this point but Vietti's Chili "no beans" is superior to Hormel and certainly Wolfbrand the lowest of the low. Real dried chili pods, the big purple ones, cleaned, soaked in warm water for a few hours and chopped along with several finely chopped fresh cored jalepeños, a goodly quantity of finely chopped onions and garlic can all be put to simmering slowly with an equal volume of good 'chili grind' meat which is mostly pork to make excellent chili. Cook it slow, cook it long, cook it until the meat literally disappears into the warm thick broth. That's chili! But time does not always allow such niceties so I would only substitute the Vietti for the Hormel and add an extra Corona perhaps. Add the crumbled fresh crisp corn chips to each serving, along with a good dose of freshly chopped chilled yellow onion and perhaps a sprig of fresh cilantro and shedded Monterey Jack, if you like. Lose the corn, rice and parmesan unless of course you're on your fourth Corona or more then by all means go for it.

I see correspondent George is a like-minded gourmand, albeit one who knows far more about cooking than I do. Thanks, George, for the suggestion; I am sure Fairway, our holy grail on NYC's West Side, might have the Vietti and of course the whole shebang is dependent on how many Coronas one has while mixing and making.....

M. Edwin Lane is many wonderful things, but he is most definitively NOT a cook; see the dictionary if you doubt this.

This concoction is more in the way of a physical threat than an actual recipe. It is very effective in getting those of us who claim a passing association with the culinary arts to rush in and save him, and ourselves, from the likely fallout of this witch's brew by whipping up something less toxic for him to eat. He is crazy like a fox...