For me, when it’s cold outside there’s nothing better than a bowl of hot warming chili to make me feel better. So a few weeks ago when I was at the Chocolate Festival and it was absolutely freezing I was so happy to see Anna Mae’s had set up a chili shack and were serving up their Bowl O’ Red.
When I’ve tried Anna Mae’s before it was for their deliciously creamy Mac N Cheese, so I had high hopes for the chili. Served with Monteray Jack cheese, sour cream and a wedge of lime the chili had a good kick to it, without being too over powering. And while it might not be the traditional way of making a Texas chilli I was glad to see they included kidney beans as its the way I make mine.
However one thing I don’t usually include in my chili is chocolate, but because this was the chocolate festival it was pretty much a requirement! Anna Mae’s used Willie’s Venezuelan black cacao and it added a really nice depth of flavour – chocolate might be the way forward with chili.
One other thing I got to try for the first time was cornbread, this version with jalapeños. Now I can’t tell you whether it was a good cornbread or not as I’ve no idea what a good one tastes like, but it had a great flavour with the kick of the chilli, though the texture was a bit of a surprise as it was quite crumbly and a little drier than I expected, but you might tell me this is exactly how it should be?.
So after trying their fantastic Texas red chili all I need to do now is try their Pulled Pork (the Notorious P.I.G.) and i’ll have tasted the trifecta of Anna Mae’s Southern inspired street food. Bring on the pig!
street feast 
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