Waddesdon Manor Chilli Festival

Today we headed out to the Waddesdon manor Chilli festival, Free to get in and was rather fun, we had planned to go to a larger Chilli festival earlier in the year but we didn't go as this was around Sophie's attack, so we were please that this small and near one came to town.

There were many stalls, all but 1 selling chilli products, the one that didn't i thought to be the clever one they were selling cool yoghurt and they cornered the market, what smarty pants they are.



As soon as we got there Ali headed straight for the beer tent, this could be a good idea on any other occasion but the beer here was, yes you guessed it laced with chilli, and the man at the stall started giving out samples of 5 of his chilli beers and ciders, and they got hotter and hotter, the first we had was a green chilli Ale and both Ali and i agreed it just tasted as if we were drinking fresh green chillies and nothing else, there was a chilli cider that was o'k but i wouldn't have bought a bottle and the final one was called Black Death, oh my god that burnt our chests as we drank it.  Don't get me wrong Ali and I are not shy of chilli and we do enjoy a few hot dishes but seriously there no need to go over board in the chilli just to make a novelty product you are supposed to enjoy it to. We left the stall feeling a bit bemused as we were looking forward to buying some chilli beer, thank god for the sausage stand next to them who gave out free samples of really nice sausages which took some of the pain out of our mouths, these guys got the chilli level right and the product was really enjoyable.   They were in competition with the stall opposite who were selling chilli burgers but the burger people won as they cooked their meat on a BBQ and the smell just filled the air and was delicious, if we had been there nearer lunch time i think we would have had a burger each.

There were lots of people selling pots of chilli chutney, jams, jellies, oils, cheeses, plants you name it if a chilli could go in it then it was for sale.

One stall had Ali's attention for a while as they sold some really great tasting sauces and salsas as we really enjoyed working our way up and down the stall tasting the samples  that was until Ali tasted something called the ring of fire and after he ate it it looked like he had a close death experience, he stood in front of me with beads of sweat on his brow and a red face whofting his hand around his mouth trying to cool it off. He will pay for that one tomorrow me thinks, especially if the lable name was anything to go by. It did make me laugh that was until he popped a cashew nut in my mouth to taste that blew my socks off and then he was the one laughing, the little git.  After that we were unable to taste any samples as Ali had 3rd degree burns in his mouth and couldn't taste anything at all, until i found him a stall that thankfully was selling sweet jam with no chilli in it and that helped him a lot to regain the use of his mouth.

While walking about there was a Mariachi band which sounded brilliant and Sophie just loved them and stopped running around like a crazy thing yelling Chillies at the top of her voice and listened to them, i wonder if they do home visits.

As a souvenir Ali and i both choose something to take home and i got a big bag of mixed chillies which i plan to try and grow from next year as there are some really exciting chillies in the pack.  Ali made a bee line for the hot nut stall and got 2 tubs of killer nuts which he thought might be nice to pick at before dinner, i'm thinking of hiding under the stairs as i think he forgot about the one he put in my mouth earlier.

Ali is all fired up now ( excuse the pun) from today's activity and is in the kitchen cooking chilli with crunches to go with cold pints of larger thankful the larger is chilli free.