Port Elizabeth: MyPE - 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.

Rosselle Naido - Chilli Festival Port Elizabeth

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.

Chilli Eating Champ Port Elizabeth - Tertius Botha

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.