I am planning on doing the Dragon this year for the first time and have heard of this chilli cookoff thingy.

So, perhaps a really stupid question but does it have to be chilli? I'd prefer to do a curry. Apart from the fact that my curry is better than my chilli, nothing seems more quintescentially British than Indian food !

 

Details for the Chili Cookoff this year are in the planning stage. The event will
be hosted by AtlantaMINIS at Tapoco Lodge. We are attempting to define a
format which will free the contestants from having to prepare their chili at
home, transport it to Deal's Gap, and store it until the cookoff.

Stay tuned.

Oh, and yes it will be chili, not curry. Sorry.

 

Sounds like Curry Chili to me. One of my favorites. But I suppose we should play by the rules since they are doing the work to set it up.

 

What about parking? I know Tapoco has limited parking. And last year there were a lot of people there.

 

Oh, please. People whined and worried about this last year and it was
not a problem. I was in charge of parking and we didn't use half the space
we had available.

 

Just bring it down I'll eat it

 

I beg to differ. Relative to Fontana, parking WAS a concern at Tapoco Lodge. You don't realize how many of us decided to carpool down because of this very concern. I also want to point out that double parking or placing cars behind several others (with no way to "escape") is not considered an ideal situation by many people, since it makes it much harder for people to leave on their own timetable.

As I understand it, the details of the chili cook-off are yet to be fully decided. Besides the overall "parking" issue (one way or another), the other question is the amount of space for people - indoors. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Tapoco Lodge doesn't have a hall anywhere near as large as the one at Fontana... ?

 

IMHO care should be taken here not to offend. This group has worked hard every year on the Dragon Run, giving up loads of their free time that weekend. I think you would rarely find a base left uncovered by this group of MINI owners. As Pete said, less than half the parking area was used and I am pretty sure I heard them talking about their rain contingency last year. Tapoco would be as much their Dragon tradition as Fontana or the Microtel is to others. Might be good to let them do their planning and you plan to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Cheers,
Donna

 

We asked people to buddy-up last year because some people were worried
about the parking situation. We did not have a problem last year, or the year
before. I also don't recall anyone getting blocked in and being unable to
leave when they wanted to. If that is a concern for you or others then just
let us know when you arrive and we will place you somewhere where that
will not be an issue (Robbinsville? ).

Tapoco has a large indoor theater at the back of the property which can
easily handle everyone if necessary.

Also, this year we will be doing our registration through NAM, to make it
easier for everyone to sign up.

Anything else?

P.S. Thanks Donna.

 

I don't doubt that, queenB... although I do believe EVERY club that is involved in Dragon organization works very hard on this. Not to detract from Atlanta MINIs... but we're all working hard here. My apologies though, it was never my intention to offend... I was merely asking questions. I did not realize that full responsibility over the cook-off had been transferred to ATL MINIs... but I do have faith that they will do a great job with it. I also didn't realize Tapoco had a large indoor area available - I guess "out of sight, out of mind" applies here, since my only real exposure to TL last year was for the farewell dinner, which was of course in a limited area.

I do have one curiosity though - if they are the ones organizing the chili cook-off, who will be organizing the farewell dinner? Has that been decided yet?

Again, I'm only asking questions... there's no harm in that, right?

Glad to hear about a unified registration method. I know that some people (yes, including me) griped about the separate registration for the farewell dinner last year.

One way or another, we're all going to have a good time... that's for certain.

 

Asking questions? Loads of MINI fun where ever we may be?

Not sure anyone has stepped up on the Farewell Dinner. Someone else may have to answer that one as I had planned on being a lazy Dragon slayer this year.

 

Trying to fine tune a chili recipe for this year. Should be a good time.

Off Topic: Hey Edge. We need to get together at the Dragon for a shot of our license plates together. The only 2 SUV2BIG's that exist that I know of.

 

This year will be my first Dragon & I am planning on participating in the Chili cookoff. Can someone give me a bit of info please

Do we need to bring crock pots to heat up & keep our chili warm?

I see that an answer on whether we cook it at home or at the Dragon is forthcoming

 

I think they said prepare at event

 

I am mostly curious about if I need to bring crock pots or stock pots

 

Yes. Participants will need to bring cooking equipment and, probably, any portable stoves (camping stoves, etc) they might have available.

 

Thanks for the info. Don't have a cooking stove but have 2 crock pots (which are both needed for my chili). I assume they will have 2 plugs I can use (I hope )

 

Pete or QueenB, has a date and time been set yet?

 

queenB was just sticking her nose in, probably where it doesn't belong. Although she is tolerated in Atlanta she really belongs to Smoky Mountain MINIs.
Pete be 'da man.

 

Most definitely... and even though I missed the cutoff for Moskito's "license plate project", I'm glad you got in, just to "represent" the plate!

 

"Tolerated", my Aunt Fanny's fanny!! You and David are members of AtlantaMINIs whether you like it or not.

The Chili cookoff will be Friday night at Tapoco. Exact time and other details
remain to be worked out. We plan to make the dinner a bit later than in the
past (too much going on that day and we don't want people to be rushed to
get there) but contest entrants will need to be there earlier. That's all I can
say about it at this point.

 

No QueenB TSD rally this year?

I just might have had a chance to get up from near the bottom of the pack. After two years trying.....

 

I thought noclwns was going to try to do one. Have you contacted him? I've used all the best roads over towards TN. It's hard to do them on the NC side as you can't double back as easily. You have a long way to go between side roads because of the mountains.