Is Cincinnati The True Food Capital Of America?

I was in Cincinnati this weekend for a Red Bull Flugtag video and the city exceeded my expectations. I'll be honest, I went into the weekend with low expectations, assuming I would hate the city. I've been in or around New York City my entire life so I usually leave smaller cities pretty unimpressed. And I was feeling pretty good about that call when our Uber driver picked us up with his girlfriend in the front seat. It was an XL so there should've been 6 seats available for passengers. But there was only 5 thanks to them turning an Uber ride into a date. Luckily there were only 5 of us, but it's the principle that matters! "What a bunch of weirdo Midwesterners" I thought to myself. 

I knew four things about Cincinnati coming into the weekend. They love the Bengals. The Reds play here. Dana Beers picked it as his favorite college team for some reason. And Skyline chili. I first heard about it from Pardon My Take back in the day and all I knew was that these people fucking LOVED their Skyline chili. I knew it was some gross combination of spaghetti and chili which did not sound appetizing to me at all. But it's all I was hearing about all weekend so I figured I had to try it. 

And I'll admit it .......... I was wrong. You can watch my full review above, but the gist is that Skyline chili is actually good. It makes no sense. It sounds disgusting. It looks disgusting. Nothing about it should be appetizing. But it somehow defies the laws of science of logic. I kept waiting for it to turn bad but it just never did. Hell, it was even good. I expected to have a few bites and spit it out, but I ended up eating most of the plate. I thought it was maybe a citywide prank tricking the rest of the nation. But it turns out that's not the case. Now I will say that it's not the best thing I've ever eaten. Regular chili is better. Regular pasta is better. If I never eat Skyline chili again, I will certainly survive. But if I'm in Cincinnati again, I would definitely try and make a stop to eat it. Skyline chili is just somehow good no matter how gross you think it should be. 

And I think that might be the theme for Cincinnati. Taking gross sounding food and somehow making it good. Another local delicacy I tried there was called goetta. It's a breakfast meat that is described as "a meat-and-grain sausage or mush." That sounds downright disgusting. But once again, I was surprised and delighted. 

If you're ever in Cincinnati, I would recommend giving both a try. You will expect both to taste bad. The plate will plop down in front of you will think "Surely there's no chance this is good." But you will be pleasantly surprised. There's a reason they take this stuff so seriously. And my God do they take it seriously. I got an astounding amount of replies saying I ate it wrong and that I should have cut it with a knife or something. But as a true Italian I don't cut spaghetti. I don't know why it appears like I didn't chew at all in the video though. Appeared like I just inhaled it whole. That was odd. I do see why the food review content industry is so big though. The engagement I got on these videos shocked me. People just love watching others eat food I guess. 

Anyway, Cincinnati I have your new city motto. Cincinnati: Where Gross Food Is Somehow Good.