My wife gave me a recipe from an ad for Olive Oil for black bean chili and I
just cooked it. I've been looking for that combination of seasonings that
produce roadside greasy spoon Texas chili. Although this recipe calls for
beans and no meat, I changed it from vegetarian to ground turkey.

But the resulting basic flavor is very much like what I remember from my
days of traveling on the Greyhound between Mexico and Utah, then later as a
sales engineer.

The secret appears to be a lot of cumin (which is not normally used in
'authentic' Mexican food) cinnamon, oregano and chile powder of your choice.
I used a few chile ancho pods after being beaten to death in the blender.

Wow!

Just like the good old days!

Wayne

Wayne Lundberg wrote:
> My wife gave me a recipe from an ad for Olive Oil for black bean chili and I
> just cooked it. I've been looking for that combination of seasonings that
> produce roadside greasy spoon Texas chili. Although this recipe calls for
> beans and no meat, I changed it from vegetarian to ground turkey.
>
> But the resulting basic flavor is very much like what I remember from my
> days of traveling on the Greyhound between Mexico and Utah, then later as a
> sales engineer.
>
> The secret appears to be a lot of cumin (which is not normally used in
> 'authentic' Mexican food) cinnamon, oregano and chile powder of your choice.
> I used a few chile ancho pods after being beaten to death in the blender.
>
> Wow!
>
> Just like the good old days!
>
> Wayne

Sounds good, Wayne. I haven't used cinnamon in my chili, and the ground
turkey usually goes into the picadillo. I'll give it a try.

David

"Wayne Lundberg" > wrote in message
...
> My wife gave me a recipe from an ad for Olive Oil for black bean chili and
> I
> just cooked it. I've been looking for that combination of seasonings that
> produce roadside greasy spoon Texas chili. Although this recipe calls for
> beans and no meat, I changed it from vegetarian to ground turkey.
>
> But the resulting basic flavor is very much like what I remember from my
> days of traveling on the Greyhound between Mexico and Utah, then later as
> a
> sales engineer.
>
> The secret appears to be a lot of cumin (which is not normally used in
> 'authentic' Mexican food) cinnamon, oregano and chile powder of your
> choice.
> I used a few chile ancho pods after being beaten to death in the blender.
>
> Wow!
>
> Just like the good old days!

I guess it would depend on where you got your greasy spoon chili.

I can't believe that what you describe was served anywhere in a greasy spoon
diner off the highway.

My recollections is that it was more like St. Louis style chili with beans
and ground meat in most places, and like a bad take on Texas chili in
others.

"DaveTwo" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Wayne Lundberg" > wrote in message
> ...
> > My wife gave me a recipe from an ad for Olive Oil for black bean chili a
-snip-
> My recollections is that it was more like St. Louis style chili with beans
> and ground meat in most places, and like a bad take on Texas chili in
> others.
>
Can't argue that point. Way back when traveling in the US I had a hard time
finding anything remotely similar to the Mexican food I had been brought up
on. So I'd usually order chili... in Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Diego (but
not Tijuana because there I could get my fill of stuff I loved) - Denver,
the many trips between Mexico and the US. Every greasy spoon offered a
similar mix of some kind of chile to make the chili and most often had
beans, was fairly thick, and always plenty of Saltene crackers on the side.
I loved every dish I ever ate! I never found a chili I did not like. But
things got much better when these greasy spoons started putting the little
bottles of Tabaso on the counter!!!
St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit... all pretty much the same. In Chicago my first
stop was always on Holstead St. In New Orleans I'd forsake chile for a
lunch at Antoine's, probably the best restaurant in the world. In Kentucky
it was catfish on the river... anywhere. In Florida - always oysters! And on
Padre Island it had to be crab.

Wayne



>