Comments by Matt Fuerst
Rating: 5 | Once a year the Fuerst family decides to rent a cabin half the size of each of our houses, and stuff as many family members as possible in it. In spite of my sarcastic tone, it always is a great time. In general, one night during the week we take a trip from the boonies into "town" (which is semi-boonies). Last year (July 2005) we hit a nice little restaurant/bar called Chum's in East Tawas. The Chili Trek was up and breathing fire at that time so I was excited to see they had chili on the menu. Sadly, the chili, and most everything else on the menu was sold out that night. So I had to delay my chili sassifaction a whole year. Fast forward to July 2006, and I manage to conquer the Chum's chili. Was it worth the wait?
Not really. Chum's has a decent bowl of chili, a step up from coney sauce, but I can't encourage you to get in your car right now and start driving North (apologies to our huge Canadian following). What was slightly unusual from Chum's was the freshness of the chili. It was somewhat akin to CJ's in it's freshness, but it was more cohesive in terms of the texture. Sadly, there was a distinct lack of actual flavor. Why are restaurants so afraid of flavor? It could be argued people will send a dish back for being too spicy, but I imagine it's rare someone sends something back for being too bland. But dammit if I wanted boring I'd sit at home and cook up some white rice. Let's be daring people. Back to Chum's. A neat place, and if you're in the Tawas area I'd recommend it, but the chili isn't anything to wait a year for. |
