Peppers at the Beach Diary
Pictured above Chip Hearn of Peppers of Rehoboth Beach and John “The Creator” Dilley of Defcon Sauces
I am not sure what I will say and if I will have much time to say it. If you want a live shot of things, then head over to EatMoreHeat.com for their live webcast at the event starting at 9am Saturday and Sunday. I am sure he will have a load of guests and be sampling a lot of different things. Time at these shows is fleeting. It will be over as soon as it starts.
What is planned? Well, I know there is talk about having another Blogger’s Round Table with Brian and Marilyn Meagher of HotSauceWeekly.com and their podcast. I am not sure when that will be going down, but on the slate besides the Meaghers and myself are Scott Roberts, Doug Spiros of PeppersandMore.com, and perhaps James Beck, Jr. if we can pry him away from his live camera feed long enough. There should be a lot we can discuss. Hopefully we will be able to do it with as many blogs as the show has representing.
There is a Defcon Deathmatch kicking off at Noon on Sunday, so that is always a special thing to behold. There will also be some wing challenges that Peppers is organizing. Something new that I was not expecting. Beyond that, there will be some serious sampling going on. I will do my usual filming, and hope to bring back some great footage to share. Maybe an interview if I can hook me a good one. Scott and I will be arriving late Friday evening long after the first day is in the books. So until I have something worthy to talk about, I will catch you all later.
After picking up Scott at the airport we hightailed it to world famous restaurant Nando’s Peri-Peri. I am sure Scott will give you his thoughts on his website. My meal was superb. I think he regretted not getting the grilled chicken, but seemed pleased with everything else. Speaking briefly with the General Manager he informed us that more Nando’s are planned including one in my town of Leesburg. Awesome!
Once our bellies were satisfied we got back on the road to Peppers. We got to our hotel at 10pm. We then met up with John Rizzoti of Rippin Red wing sauce for a nite cap at Krabby Dicks. Scott and I exchange silly pics, each embarrassing in their own way. He quickly posted mine on Facebook which quickly illicited comments. That is all I am going to say on that.
Before calling it a night, we went down to the boardwalk to see if the Peppers ice cream stand was open. Before they locked up Scott and I sampled two new flavors. One was their special hot sauce flavor(name escapes me), and the other was my own creation that Chip made for me. Last year he promised he would, and he delivered. P-Cubed, a pistachio nut ice cream based with peanut butter swirl and pineapple pieces. I declare it a success although I didn’t detect much pineapple. The workers thought it was a successful creation as well.
That was pretty much it for yesterday. Today is the big day. I will share my Scorpion Peanut Butter Pie creation and see of it is a success. I can’t wait to start the sampling of products and see all the familiar faces and names. Later! :photographer:
Saturday was a huge crowd day. We had about 20-30 tents/tables setup. Some local restaurants in the mix. What I took away from today was the amount of chicken wings made was staggering. Wings were donated by Mount Aire in amount of 4,000 wings. The contest involved 25 variations in the most unusual category. The big problem was that these wings were F’n Huge! No one could come close to sampling all of them, and since there was no rules to judge by I really do not know how a tray of 6 wings could go up against a tray of 50 wings with a crowd that we had. Winners were declared though. My favorite unusual wing amongst the ones I tried were Chicken and Waffle Wings. Wings dipped in waffle batter, deep fried, on top of Ham gravy and drizzled with maple syrup. Quite the creative effort. There was too many to try so I just gave up after 8-9 wings. There was also a restaurant wing contest and a Buffalo style. I know Johnny from Heartbreaking Dawns and Defcon got first and second respectfully. Congrats guts.
The day went so fast and I shot a load of video reviews, another Bloggers’ Round Table(45 minutes) and a 20 minute interview with Peppers Chip Hearn with Scott as interviewer. I ran out of room, 2 hours of footage maxed out my Flip cam. I do look forward to all the editing.
We went to the free BBQ after party at Bethany BBQ and hung out with all the vendors. Too many companies to name everyone but suffice it say the company was great. I got to pass out my P-Cubed ice cream to everyone and it was a total hit. Once the crowd scattered James Beck Jr of EatMoreHeat.com, Christina Eastburn of Peppers, Scott and I all met up at Dogfish Head for a nitecap. We had some good laughs mostly because of my foo-foo selections and Mothra the giant moth hovering around the patio area. James went to the bathroom and never returned. We figured he either hooked up with some fan or passed out in his own drool puddle. The rest of us didn’t care to find out and pulled a Seinfeld and left. Maybe we get more answers today. Buddah Out!
Looking forward to see the video.
I was beat when I got home, so this was put on hold until I could upload/download/edit some videos starting with the Blogger’s Round Table. The last day was shortened by the fact that I had to take Scott back to the airport, so we had to leave at 11:45 to give us 5 hours just in case of traffic. There was some, so I am glad we left when we did. Anyway, there wasn’t much going on when we arrived at 9am. We got a chance to chat with a few people, shop a little at Peppers and sample some of their offerings.
John Rizzoti of Rippin’ Red Wing Sauce grilled some wings with his sauce and the new BBQ rub from Fat Kid Sauces. They were so good with the char from the grill, and it was nice to see two companies combining efforts. The weather wasn’t so good, and since Maggie Dilley of Defcon got a call to go to work at midnight, they did not stay long. They said their goodbyes and took off about 10am. Other companies did not show up or showed up late. This was similar to last year, as Saturday was the big day, and Sunday being Church day, was slow to get going.
Overall it was fun to see many of the familiar faces and as always meet some new ones. It is always so hard to end the trip, but then there is always the next one. My mind is all ready on NOLA in July.
A huge thanks to the entire Peppers team and all those involved in making this event special for everyone. A big thanks to Bethany BBQ and Mount Aire for supplying us with grub for the weekend. That is a huge plus when you are dealing with travel costs and want to save some cash to buy spicy products. It allows you to spend more money to support some of the companies you love.
Good read, Buddah. I might be able to get around to posting and writing some stuff up tonight for my own site.