Yeah, I agree. I’ve had the cincy stuff and it’s not terrible, but it’s fast food on par with most fast food junk. It has precious little in the way of actual meat in it and it leaves one feeling carb’d out and kinda gross afterwards like any other fast food place. Most people have some memories of some homemade chili in their minds and when they try this it certainly doesn’t match with those memories.
Right, Skyline is fast food, and should be held to fast food standards. I hate when people call Cincinnati-style-chili “slop” when their only experience with it is the fast-food version though. Like, first of all, duh Skyline is slop, in the same way that Taco Bell beef is slop, and people (myself included) eat that shit up. Because fast food tastes good, even if it’s slop. There wouldn’t be hundreds of Skyline locations, or thousands of Taco Bell locations, all serving up various versions of slop, if that slop doesn’t taste good. And second of all, if people would take 5 minutes to read up on the history of the dish and understand it a bit more, they’d probably understand all the “weird” ingredients and quirks that make it different than The One True 'Merican Texas Style Chili ™️ (which traditionally uses chocolate/cocoa powder as well, by the way). It’s an Americanized version of sauces/dishes commonly eaten in Greek and Macedonian cuisine, which explains why the spice profile is so different. It was first served over hotdogs with mountains of cheese instead of the more-traditional pasta to cater to the American audience. But Cincinnati-style chili is essentially Greek bolognese, and it’s a beautiful, wonderful dish.
I’m sorry, none of this is directed at you, I’ll get off my soapbox now. I don’t know why I’m so passionate about Cincinnati chili, it just really grinds my gears when people get up on a high horse to look down on some food just because they happen to dislike it.
Hey man, I just love seeing that you’re passionate about something. Apathy and ignorance are the bane of society. When it comes to food, I’d argue most food people don’t like is because there is so much perversion of food that they’ve never had a chance to try the OG version of something. Don’t like salmon? I’d be willing to bet you haven’t had a well prepared high quality cut. The vast majority of restaurants totally fuck this up and people go on eating it.
