February 07, 2007
CHILI TIME
About six years ago, I discovered the blog Big Dead Place, written about life at the South Pole's McMurdo Station. It struck me that other than the harsh weather, desolate landscape and extreme isolation, work there was a lot like work here. We all have the same issues. Idiot co-workers, penny pinching employers, mundane work, bad facilities. It especially struck home at the time because I was working at a place that seemed a lot like Antarctica.
Anyway, that blog eventually went on a permanent hiatus. Every now and again I check back, hoping to read something as gut-wrenchingly funny as Modern Drunkard Magazine's interview with the author and the uproarious Guidebook for Distinguished Congressional Visitors.
Then about a month ago, I tripped over a blog that linked to a post at Sandwich Girl, which is written by a woman at McMurdo who goes by the name Sandwich. She also carries a sandwich-shaped lunchbox that she likes to pose with giant penguins. When I saw that she used to work in the galley there, I sensed a possible food story. That and she goes by the name "Sandwich." Oh, and she did a map of coffee and doughnut availability at the station.
I'm quick that way.
I e-mailed Sandwich and she replied with alarming speed. I asked if she worked in the galley and she replied she no longer did.
I looked at the rest of her site and saw that there was a chili cookoff as part of festivities for New Year's Eve 2005 that resembled some sort of icy Lalapalooza. I asked if they had the chili cookoff again this year and she replied that in fact they had. I asked if she could send me photos and write something short about that event and she said she'd ask for clearance to do so.
Fast-forward about a month.
I got an e-mail the other day that she had been given clearance. She sent this note about the World's Southernmost Chili Cook-off:
The T-shirts claim that the first annual Chili Cook-off was in 1957, back when the US Navy ran McMurdo Station. Nowadays, our Chili Cook-off runs in conjunction with our New Year's outdoor music festival, Icestock. Icestock is an all-day event, and one of the rare times the entire station gets to set loose from the demanding and fatiguing round-the-clock work of supporting and performing science here at McMurdo Station.
Eight shipping containers (locally called "milvans") line the perimeter of the event, and each team can decorate and brew their concoctions in them as early as 1 a.m., as per the rules of the event. Of course, each team tried to out-do the next by also dressing up the milvans in flashy southwestern-themed styles, but it really comes down to who's got the best grub.
The contestants may only use ingredients supplied by the galley, which they must submit an order for weeks in advance.
Tina and Dave Pacheco of "New Mexican Chili" (center and right above) prefer to send down their own green chiles and spices from home for a special chili they make for the event, but they claim to stick by the rules for the separate award-winning pot they enter in the competition. "We do it as a thank-you to the community," says Tina, standing under a string of chili-shaped christmas lights. They also offered sopapillas and a 5-gallon jug of margueritas, gratis. Their efforts and community spirit awarded them 1st place winners of the 2007 McMurdo Chili Cook-off. The New Mexican couple both work in the Facilities, Maintenance, Engineering and Construction department.
The second place chili, Milvan of Truth, was won by a solo contestant, Holly (Hailaeos) Troy, (above) who fixes and troubleshoots computer problems in the Station's Science Lab. Third place went to SOPP (SPAWAR office of Polar Programs).
Sandwich's personal honorable mentions go to the Cargo team for their cardboard cactus and chili costumes, and Janitor Chili for their decorative skills, which included a pyramid of toilet paper, sombreros, and Mexican blankets.
To see more photos of the event, check out Sandwich's Flickr gallery.