A few weeks ago I went to happy hour with my coworkers at Proper 21 on K St in DC. This is a pretty regular happy hour spot for us because they have a 2-4-1 deal on cocktails till 7pm so you can get two tall orange crushes for like twelve bucks.
Anyway, this exact restaurant is where I got the initial idea to start a chili blog, and of course being two orange crushes in, I bought the domain right then and there at the table. I had ordered a bowl of chili and had pretty strong opinions about it (it was bad) and I needed an outlet where I could express those opinions. But I waited too long to write the initial review and couldn’t remember exactly what I didn’t like about that chili, other than there were way too many red onions. And they were like, crunchy. Gross.
So I decided, against my better judgement, to try the chili again. This time, I was sure to ask for no cheese and patiently awaited my fate. As you’ll soon see, my bad memory proved to be a second chance that Proper K seized with a vengeance. This is what I was served:
Here we go.
Appearance
This chili has some great colors involved. The deep red of the tomatoes, bright green of the cilantro, and the dark maroon of the beans complement each other like a an artful bouquet. The composition of the ingredients is very even, although maybe lacking in corn, but that’s fine because I think corn in chili is kind of a rogue move. But more on that later.
Based on appearance, the chili looks a little dry. Less like a stew and more like sloppy joe’s. But honestly, this was preferable in my case because this was gonna be my dinner and more substance = more sustenance = happier me. So I can forgive the increased viscosity.
The presentation of this chili was pretty good considering the price. For $8 I thought this was a pretty large portion and I was happy to have some crackers to scoop up the chili. Maybe without the packaging would have been prettier, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers.
Overall appearance score: 5/5
Flavor
I was very happy with the flavor composition of this chili. The acidity of the tomatoes really complemented the duller flavors of the beans. I’m not usually a huge fan of ground turkey because I think it has a weird taste but the chili was seasoned such that I couldn’t even tell that it was ground turkey. Like I said, I initially thought the corn was rogue but there wasn’t too much of it and it added a unique kind of sweetness to the mixture. The flavors were definitely there, but I could have used some more heat. I didn’t ask for hot sauce, but maybe adding some cayenne pepper would have brought this rating up to a 5.
Overall flavor score: 4/5
Texture
Everything in this chili was cooked very well. That’s a low bar, but I really had no complaints about any of the textures present. I did notice that the beans were not as soft as I’d usually expect in a bowl of chili, but this actually fit pretty well with the hearty vibe of the rest of the mix. When I think back to the first time I ordered a bowl of chili here, when the onions were far too plenty and not cooked for nearly enough time, this bowl was a pleasant surprise. The onions were cooked to be so soft that you could barely notice they were there. Exactly as it should be.
Texture rating: 5/5
Food Dance Factor
I bobbed my head a little bit here. Like an aggressive nod, but a little more lateral. As if my head was saying, alright, this is pretty damn good.
Food Dance Factor rating: 2/5
Overall
I was really happy with this chili. I arrived hungry, spent 8 dollars, and left very satisfied. Maybe to chili purists, this didn’t have enough of a stew-like consistency, but who am I to define what chili is? It’s whatever you want it to be.
Overall rating: 16/20