Top Ten Things to Do at Hatch Chile Festival:

The top ten things you should do at Central Market's Hatch Chile Festival:

1. If they are giving a sample and it has a chile in the ingredients, take it.

2. Purchase a very cold drink.

3. Stop by the salad bar, admire the fresh vegetables and display. No purchases here today.

4. Find the free sample of the hot chile sausage wrap. Get one.

5. Walk through the store and see what other samples are available. Taste all.

6. Put on disguise glasses and mustache and go back for another Hatch Chile sausage sample. Use foreign accent when saying, thank you.

7. Enjoy a 16 ounce Shiner summer ale or some such draft beer.

8. Buy one of everything with a chile in it.

9. Stop by Costco on the way home, you need a deep freezer.

10. Thank God you live in Texas.

11. __________________________

Okay that took me about 10 minutes -- what am I missing?

Hatch Chile Festival. Weekends: Aug. 21 and Aug. 28.

2014 Update:
Hatch Chile Festival August 6 - August 19. Just go you won't be disappointed.
http://www.centralmarket.com/Home------------------------------------------------------

My favorite Central Market event. The Hatch Chile Festival. The following is taken directly from their website.

It's always been Central Market's claim to flame – each August, more than eight full truckloads of these beauties are delivered from Hatch, New Mexico, the Chile Capital of the World, as part of a celebration so big it takes not one, but two weekends to do it right. This time of year, we take our usual delicious recipes and add Hatch Chiles for an extra kick. Make sure to pick up your favorites, and look for our Hatch Chile cookbook, filled with Hatch-heavy recipes from savvy Central Market cooks – our shoppers! Mild or hot, fresh or roasted, toasted or diced, it is – at last – that Hatch time of year!

I think my first introduction to Central Market was in the parking lot of the store maybe six months before it opened and when they were having their first Hatch Chile event. They had a small kiosk in the parking lot with a grill and plenty of Hatch Chiles. They handed me a hot Hatch Chile sausage link wrapped in a flour tortilla. Right off the grill. One bite and I was in chile heaven. I still buy them every year.

Have a favorite Hatch Chile product? Fill me in. Thanks.
-----------------------------------------------------
Central Market's annual Hatch Chile Festival
August 21 – August 23 & August 28 – August 30

http://www.centralmarket.com/Company.aspx

The Michael Vick Kick.

It's Sunday, and on Sunday I feel like I can write on things of a more philosophical or moral nature without compromising the focus of the weblog and driving away the folks that read the food reviews. As the title suggests this post is on the public reaction of anger or disgust directed at Michael Vick.

Michael Vick was a starting quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons and a very wealthy man, thanks to his contract with the Falcons. He was arrested and convicted of cruelty to animals for his involvement in dog fighting. The kind where dogs die or are maimed severely. It is a gruesome and cruel activity -- and legitimately illegal. Michael Vick spent 2 years in prison for his participation after his arrest and conviction.

Cynics suggest that Mr. Vick is now engaging in a public relations bit in order to play football again. That is, he needs the money and if does not display some humility the NFL and the public will not accept him back. I understand cynicism, but it can be wrong and misapplied.

Others suggest that the crime was, in some sense, unforgivable, that to allow him to play again in the NFL is a kind of tacit endorsement. Again, an understandable sentiment, but who among us will be left standing if mercy is always withheld.

My disposition is simply this: he admits that he has done wrong and acted recklessly. He is asking for a second chance. Not a third, fourth, or fifth, just a second. Give it to him.

I watched the first public interview of Vick, Coach Reid and Coach Dungy at his side, and frankly, Dungy's endorsement is good enough for me. The possibility that Mr. Vick is working them and us through them is not my concern. A man should be be taken at his word until he proves his word is not worth taking.

The worst that can happen is that we will have been duped. So what. Give Michael Vick a break. He served his time. He paid for his crime in prison-time and through the loss of everything he once had: his money, reputation, and occupation. Isn't that enough?

He deserves the forgiveness he is asking for and he deserves to get back on the football field to try to do life right.

Towards that end, I wish him well.