​Food events help keep the winter blues away

By Rick Gion

rickgion@gmail.com

The below zero temperatures endured this recent January and February were a motivator to find something fun and interesting to do to lift the spirits. (Insert blue, teeth-chattering emoji here.) To warm up, attending local food-featured events was just what the mental health doctor ordered.

Perhaps the most frequent winter food event with eating involved around here is the chili cookoff. There seems to be one of these spicy shindigs at a local drinking establishment just about every weekend during the miserable months of January and February. Just peruse local bar pages on Facebook and take your pick of which spicy event to attend.

Last year, I attended chili cookoffs at Duffy’s Tavern and the Moorhead American Legion. The format at those events was very similar: registration, crockpot set up, judging and then public tasting. Public tasting happens after the judging takes place. Judging can often take a couple of hours. This can test patience while waiting as a patron. These events are obviously designed so that cool beverages can be sold during the interim. If you’re impatient like me, call ahead and ask when the public can sample.

What’s interesting to me is that the judges at voluminous chili competitions usually have other food items to consume as palate cleansers between the sampling, including crackers, gummy bears, lemons and limes. These items are needed to cut through the multiple chili rounds. Some of these events feature 35 chilis to try. That’s a lot of taste testing. I’m sure after a few cool beverages, some of the chilis start tasting the same. They would to me anyway. I have never judged a chili competition, but I feel like starting small would be the way to go. As they say in barbecue competitions, sometimes go “hot and fast.”

This year, I attended the annual chili cookoff at Swing Barrel Brewing in downtown Moorhead. Swing Barrel now has an event space on the east side of the venue, so there was plenty of room to mingle. The rules on the Facebook event page said that there were 12 competitors allowed. The event was also described as a “no a-holes chili cookoff,” obviously to ward off any potential competitors with peppers stuck up their behinds. Public tasting was in a convenient time frame for this event, thank goodness. It took place on a Thursday evening, so I’m sure that was a factor.

At Swing Barrel, Chef Joe Swegarden won the “best overall” award from the three judges for his beef cheek and buffalo Chili Colorado. This chili was delicious. Swegarden is no stranger to the F-M food scene. He currently works for Heart-n-Soul Community Cafe. He’s also worked at Blackbird Woodfire, BernBaum’s, Rosewild, and Maxwell’s. Even with all that fine dining experience, Swegarden is still extremely down to earth. The winning award was definitely fitting in more than one way.

Next year, I plan to attend a new-to-me chili cookoff to tickle the taste buds. One particular annual event at Icewind Brewing in Mapleton is calling my name. It’s a little bit of a drive from my downtown Fargo apartment, but could be worth it.

Hotdish contests have also become quite popular around the area over the past five years. I’m guessing the largest attendance for these events goes to the annual Fargo Hotdish Festival at Brewhalla. It’s organized by the creative folks at Drekker Brewing Company. Ticket sales for this event go fast. It usually sells out in less than a week.

As many of you may know, I was a judge at the last two Fargo Hotdish Festivals at Brewhalla. Judging these events was a blast. It was also an honor. Thank you again to the fine folks at Drekker Brewing Company for the tasty opportunities.

I also attended a hotdish competition at the Moorhead American Legion in late January of this year. The judges there were busy taste-testing 17 hotdishes. Most importantly, proceeds from this event helped benefit the Veterans Honor Flight of North Dakota and Minnesota. It’s definitely a good food event to attend while supporting a worthy cause.

There was a Hotdish Hoedown recently at the Sons of Norway in downtown Fargo. I counted twelve hotdishes on the buffet, including a tasty lutefisk hotdish. I had to try all of them, and all of them were good. The Sons of Norway has all sorts of fun food events during the winter months — brunches, dinners, and lutefisk and meatball feeds. Also, don’t forget to hang out in the Troll Lounge. There can be some good bands featured on Thursday nights in the Troll Lounge too.

Church events can be interesting as well. I recently attended a soup and pie dinner at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Moorhead. There were 10 homemade soups to try in the fellowship hall. Homemade popovers accompanied the soup. The homemade pie selection was also expansive, taking up three long tables. The pie selection alone made the event worthwhile.

Friday fish frys during Lenten season can also be fun. I have actually found that many of the rural church fish fries are superior. This is due to the fact that the cooks at these small town churches batter the fish by hand before dunking it in the hot oil. This means no frozen, pre-battered fish product is used. The hand battering is key to a crispy crust. A trained chef will also tell you that keeping the batter cold and fairly thin also optimizes the crunch factor.

Some of these church fish fry events can garner large crowds. However, I don’t think any food event in North Dakota and western Minnesota comes close to serving the volume of eaters as the annual Kiwanis Pancake Karnival at the Fargodome. This is the full-stack of winter food events around here. This year, 7,000 people were served at the Dome. Proceeds always go to helping kids in need. It’s a worthy cause.

Speaking of pancakes, one of the best brunch deals in the area is at the Moorhead Masonic Lodge during colder months. The menu includes coffee, eggs, juice, sausage and Swedish pancakes for a flat fee of $10 at the door. The Swedish pancakes are large and are all you can eat. It’s a heckuva deal.

Another popular event for food seekers is the Winter Red River Market. This event is monthly and is often at West Acres. Many of the vendors there are at the Red River Market in downtown Fargo during warmer months. Please keep in mind though, the summer version of the market is weekly on Saturdays. The winter version is monthly, but does fall on a Saturday.

The annual opening day of the Moorhead Dairy Queen on March 1 is also very popular. This year, it took place on a Saturday. Lines were long and thousands were served. I ordered a large twist cone. The nice thing about eating this ice cream lance outdoors at 19 degrees Fahrenheit is that it doesn’t quickly melt and topple over. There are actually benefits to eating ice cream outdoors in cold weather.

Lastly, one of the more passive winter food events is the ever-popular meat raffle. Meat raffles can take on many forms, and I’m not talking about cuts of meat. Some establishments just sell physical raffle tickets for the competition. Sometimes there’s bingo involved. And, frequently, there’s a spin-the-wheel program. Whichever form this takes on, meat is won in frozen bricks of burger, chops, roasts, and steaks. It’s cold-carnivore gambling at its finest.

Whichever flavor of food event is your jam, exploring the offerings in the area is what’s important. And, win or lose, attending a local food competition can definitely lift the spirits and fill the stomach during a cold Midwest winter. The events listed in this column serve as a seasonal recap and should also serve to keep you busy next winter. Eating events are actually good for your health.

Rick Gion administers a Facebook food group called “Fargo-Moorhead Eats” that’s dedicated to the area’s great cooks and cuisine. The group now has over 45,000 followers. Check it out, join, and feel free to post items about your local culinary adventures and home cooking. And, while you’re at it, also join the Instagram and TikTok pages. Rick is also a featured guest on Prairie Public Radio’s “Main Street.” His weekly segment about food called “Prairie Plates” airs between 3 and 4 p.m. every Wednesday.