When Americans celebrate their independence, they often love to watch fireworks explode in the night sky. For Mexican Independence Day however, the biggest explosions may be in people’s mouths as they test and taste some of the super-hot entries in TIA’s annual Chili and Salsa Contest! The contest, a long standing and loved tradition at Tucson International Academy, brings out some explosively hot competition by TIA students, parents and teachers!
Students, Parents and Teachers Compete
Ever since TIA’s first year, the school has celebrated Mexico’s Independence from Spain in mid-September with food, fun, music, and student performances . The staff at TIA, in their on-going effort to bring the world to their students, embraced this opportunity to bring Mexican culture and history alive on their campuses. Everyone chipped in to the make the celebration memorable, and soon an unspoken competition for who could make the best salsa and who could make the best chili had emerged. That was the start of what is now the official Chili and Salsa Competition held each year. And even though the only prize is bragging rights for 1st, 2nd or 3rd place, the competitors are very serious about their craft!
Salsa Competition
The salsas entered have been everything from sweet and tangy to dangerously hot and spicy. Someone even tried to enter a “store bought” salsa one year, but it didn’t even place in the top three! The ingredients for these homemade masterpieces range from the traditional tomato and onions to the more surprising ingredients of mango or pineapple. This year there will be an additional category of competition just for the teachers. They will be concocting their own salsa recipes to be judged by the volunteer judges.
Chili Competition
The chili competition appears to have a front runner again this year. The Gilliam family has won first place for the last several years, even with different groups of volunteer judges each year. If 2014 is to be the year the Gilliam chili dynasty falls, folks better get in the kitchen and start working on their own secret recipes.
Each TIA campus will host its own Chili and Salsa Competition during the Mexican Independence Day festivities.
Tucson International Academy
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Written by Betty Kruszka~TheJ3Effect