"Hot Fiery Fun"

CHILI COOK OFF!!!!
Lip burning chili, hot sunny beach, loads of mustaches, motorcycles, boats, coors light and rock and roll! Never thought I would find this in St. Thomas, but its an annual tradition!

This year was the 25th annual Chili Cook Off, hosted by the Texas Society of the Virgin Islands on beautiful John Brewers Bay. Some four thousand people were expected to attend the day-long event and I think everyone of them showed up too! With $20,000 of prizes at stake, many cooks came to play, over 60 chili pots competing actually! Here's how it works...

Booths are set up on the beach by restaurants, organizations and individual chefs (amateur chefs, locals chefs, chefs from the neighboring British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Texas) to compete in the cook off. There was even a Jr. competition for kids ages 10-17. Contestants pay $25 dollars to compete and all the money raised is donated to local charities. The contestants are required to make their chili on the beach using ingredients approved by the CASI. Chili that is made for the public to taste can be made ahead of time.
There are 3 rounds of judges (all lucky local volunteers) that sample the chili and choose the top 10 chilies, 3 vegetarian chilies and a couple junior winners. The top winners get to represent the VI at the national Cook Off in Terlingua, Texas. Everyone else buys tickets and samples all the chilies he or she desires or can stomach on this boiling hot day and drinks plenty of beer to keep themselves and their mouths cool.

I don't know who won the competition but I do know I ate a lot of chili! I also know that Nick and I showed up to this beach chili cook off party in v necks and shorts! NO BATHING SUITS. Who goes to a beach without a bathing suit! I mean this whole time we've been in St. Thomas we've been wearing bathing suits instead of undergarments! Aghh, so worried about blending in as locals that we wore the least local outfits we could find! Bummed that we couldn't play in the water and sweaty as hell we drink a couple beers and do a lot of people watching in the shade. What we saw is documented in the collage above (click image to view entire collage or click here!). I hope you enjoy the images as much as we did! "River rats" on this beautiful clear beach in the Caribbean, Classic! After all, the cook off was sponsored by Coors Light! What else would you expect? :P