I spent 4 years perfecting a chili that everyone loved, and I crossed out, appended and rewrote parts by taste, every batch I made. I had one copy of the recipe, and I lost it in a move. I haven't been able to bring myself to start over yet. I can throw together a batch of chili that everyone likes, but that one recipe was awesome. I wish my memory for stuff like that was better.
My father-in-law, up in Jersey, thinks chili is a soup made out of chunks of bell pepper, kidney beans, meat and chili powder. But the biggest chili insult of all, came when I moved here to Kentucky. They put spaghetti in their chili. I went to a school fund-raiser supper for my son, and ordered a bowl of chili. It had spaghetti in it. I said, "What the hell is this?" They didn't know what I was talking about. I explained that chili didn't have noodles in it. They informed me that around here, a lot of people make it like that. I then informed them that they would likely be run out of Texas for putting beans in it, and probably shot for using spaghetti.
In Illinois they use kidney beans in their chili and serve it over mashed potatoes. I think I’ll avoid any chili dishes in Kentucky.
My friend makes Cincinnati Chili. It’s very runny and is served on spaghetti. It’s very odd but tastes decent. You could serve it one night and a bowl of my chili the next and no one would complain about eating chili twice in a row because they are so completely different! :0)