Chilli, chili or chile?

I like spicy hot food.  I like it REALLY hot.  So much in fact that every year I take a trip out to one of the chilli festivals that are held across the UK and this weekend saw me do just that.

In previous years I’d taken the long journey from Cambridgeshire down to West Dean Gardens near Chichester, normally sitting in traffic for hours, so when I found there was another event being held just down the A1 in Stevenage I decided that would be where I was headed this year.

Benington was the venue, taking place in the gardens of Benington Lordship and whilst it wasn’t on the same scale as West Dean, it was enough to satisfy my hunger for the chile for a while.

On my drive home I got thinking about the spelling of “chilli” (or chili/chile).  I’ve always used chilli to mean the pot of minced meat, beans and gravy known as chilli con carne, with chile meaning the actual chile pepper itself and chili being a product of the pepper, eg a chili sauce.

As it turns out, there’s no definitive answer and others trying to nail down the correct spellings have put a lot more effort into it than me, so I’ll just link there instead.  I guess at the end of the day though, everyone knows what you mean when you ask for chili, regardless of how it’s spelt.

Must get back to my hoarde of purchases from Chilli Pepper Pete…