Chilli Festival
www.MyPE.co.za: The
annual chilli festival took place on Saturday the 28th of February 2009.
We have mightily resisted a small walk down to the Parsons Hill School
in past years, but, decided that this year it was; “Now or never” and I
walked on down with the delectable Longhair.
Never having been to
the festival before I had a preconceived notion of
just what the Chilli festival would be like and I was looking forward
to a chillinomic extravaganza with hundreds of chilli plants and
varieties to chose from and stalls as far as the eye could see
desperate to bring a tear to my eye and a burn to my nether. In fact I
would have been happy to down a coupla chilli beers and pick up a
frozen toilet roll on the way out - premium white gold!
To say that I was slightly bummed off would be correct. Sure quite a
few of the stalls had chilli in their theme - chilli cheese, chilli
bites, various curries and rooties but not one special stall selling
chilli ice cream or chilli drinks. One stall was selling chilli plants
but I reckon we got there too late as the variety was overshadowed by
the other herbs on sale. As is normal there were also
the desperate
knock off shops doing a brisk trade, many stalls selling food and the
occasional home decor type stall.
Into the marquee we went for a cold fanta brown and a good old look at
Port Elizabeth’s finest in social strata having a good time. I only
have one thing to say; “Who
let the ugly gene loose?“
Oh my word - in quick succession we saw Vernon Koekemoer’s offspring,
the deep south gene pool rejects, ten reasons why 1st cousins should
never marry and other assorted all sorts parading around. Man it made
me actually feel good, slim, handsome and cultured - and you know how
hard that is!
We hung around soaking up the sights and saw a couple of dance numbers
take place on the stage varying from line to ball to belly dancing -
wow those belly
dancers could really shake what their Mammas gave them.
And then on to the main event the chilli eating contest to see who
could eat the most habanero chillis. Apparently on a scale of one to
ten the habanero rates as a smooth twelve.
Three ladies were up
to the challenge but only one, Elizabeth Schmidt,
managed to sit there manfully trying to finish her chillis in the
allotted time. To see grown men weeping as they munched dolefully on
yet another anal nuclear missile was quite sad and yet satisfying to
know that my ablutions at home would not be subjected to painful
punishment, had I taken the challenge to prove who was the craziest in
Port Elizabeth.
Eventual winner Tertius Botha finished 11 of the little suckers and was
followed by a stoic Mario
Nel.
Suggestions to the organisers for next year; Lose the unchilli stalls
and look for something unique to pull the punters in, like chilli beer
or ice cream. How about a Chilli man instead of clowns or a chilli cook
off. Even better would be a printed programme given to people as they
walk in and pay their Ten Bucks.
The only Chilli stall that really caught my eye, by Roselle
Naidoo, was
completely chilli themed and had heaps of the little suckers lying
around.
Related Links:
Sawtell Chilli Festival, Australia
| Chilli
Festival Images.
Port Elizabeth Budget Accommodation
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