A hot bowl of soup or chili can nourish and replenish body and soul during the bitter, gray days of January.
Slow Fox Chili Parlor in the Columbia Food Park offers a variety of chili: Ray’s Red with ground beef, tomato, onion and peppers; Chili Carlos with ham hock, pork shoulder, chorizo verde, tomatillos, onion, peppers, and hominy; and Louie’s Lentils with tomato, onion, peppers, yam and kale ($7 per bowl with a side of cornbread).
Chef and owner Derek Saner’s hometown Cincinnati Chili is regularly offered as a special. In classic Cincinnati style, it comes three way ($6, spaghetti, chili and cheddar), four way ($7, add onion or kidney beans) or five way ($7.50, add onion and kidney beans).
Recently, Slow Fox offered its own twist on chole bhature, an Indian dish traditionally made with chana masala mixed with bhatura, a fried bread. Saner’s version (called Nikki’s Chickpeas) starts with frying spices like cinnamon, cloves and cumin in olive oil then adding them to a puree of tomatoes spiked with garlic, ginger and serrano peppers. The chickpeas are mixed into the tomato sauce and then finished with garam masala, turmeric, curry powder and other spices. No bread thickens his version. The result is a warm tomato broth with carefully layered flavors and tender chickpeas, topped with cilantro, and finished with a lemon-infused oil.
