Red hot peppers, stalls with spicy sauces and Mexican music: Sunday was the Dutch Chili Fest in the ‘Klokgebouw’ in Eindhoven. The festival is an ode to the chili pepper.
The most popular part of the festival is the pepper eating contest. You get a hotter pepper every time. Organiser Leo Hoeksema says “It started as a joke that would attract a few hundred, but the first edition already attracted about 3000. Then we noticed that there was a need for it and since then it has been bigger every year.”
During the eating contest, you are not allowed to drink milk, and you must eat the whole pepper except the stalk. You can win if you eat ten peppers and stick to those rules. If you eat the last pepper, the Carolina Reaper, you are the winner. In total there are three contests and therefore three winners. They go home with a trophy and the honour.
‘Hotter than expected’
The preparations for the pepper eating contest are different. “I had a bottle of pepper gin at home, so I had some of that. It’s spicy,” says Pieter, one of the participants. “I’ve been eating spicy noodles the last few days,” says another participant named Nicole. But all these preparations didn’t lead to success. “You get nauseous, and your eyes start to water. I’m really badly beaten up,” says Pieter. And he wasn’t the only one who left the battlefield with watery eyes and a red face.
In addition to the competition, the festival also has stalls with sauces and other spicy treats. You can buy sauces, chili oil and even spicy cupcakes during the party. The makers of the sauce can also win a prize for the audience’s favourite. A professional jury and the audience choose a favourite hot sauce and chili oil by voting for it.
“The festival will definitely be bigger next year, and I hope with even spicier peppers,” said Hoeksema.
Source: www.studio040.nl
Translated by Yawar Abbas
