Ep 47: The San Antonio Chili Queens
Wise About Texas
Ken Wise
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 10 December 2017
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In late 1800’s San Antonio, the plazas were busy marketplaces during the day. But at night, the Chili Queens took over. These ladies brought the exotic flavors of Mexico to the population of San Antonio. Music, laughter and the pungent aroma of chili con carne filled the air. From the greatest to the least, every citizen and tourist had to make a pilgrimage to see the Chili Queens and sample the food that would later become known as Tex-Mex. Learn more about this scene in the latest episode of Wise About Texas.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Howdy and welcome to Wise About Texas, the Texas History Podcast. This is your host, Ken Wise, and I thank you very |
| 0:16.0 | much for tuning in to this episode and for your love of Texas History. As long time |
| 0:22.1 | listeners of this podcast know, the World Headquarters of |
| 0:25.0 | Wise About Texas is located in the Houston area and we've had quite the |
| 0:28.7 | interesting year in Houston. We had record rainfall from a hurricane, then we have the World Series Championship |
| 0:35.0 | won by our own Houston Astros and the week that I'm recording this it snowed |
| 0:42.4 | in Houston that's, it snowed in Houston. That's right. It snowed overnight in |
| 0:45.4 | Houston in a measurable amount that actually stayed on the ground for a few hours |
| 0:50.3 | in the morning. But though that's unusual, it's not unprecedented. It snowed in 2008, snowed in 2004, |
| 0:57.0 | snowed in 1983, several other snowfalls, but that doesn't stop everybody from going absolutely nuts when it happens in Houston |
| 1:07.0 | social media was flooded so to speak with pictures of |
| 1:11.6 | people jumping around in the snow anyway what a crazy year it's been. But I do love |
| 1:16.0 | the cold weather very much and one of the things that happens when the weather turns cold in Texas |
| 1:20.8 | is Texans get up a desire for a good bowl of Texas chili and like |
| 1:26.7 | so many others I am always in search of the next great chili recipe now I |
| 1:31.7 | never really want to settle on one because it's the |
| 1:35.0 | search process itself that allows me to make lots of different bowls of great chili and so I'm |
| 1:42.1 | not going to settle on one but I'm always trying one out. |
| 1:45.0 | And in this episode, we're going to talk about the origins of Texas Chili, |
| 1:49.0 | because it really is one of the unique aspects of Texas culture and it all began in San Antonio |
| 1:56.3 | with the famed San Antonio Chili Queen. So that's what we're going to talk about |
| 2:01.0 | today. So let's go back to San Antonio in the 19th century |
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