Jungle Jim’s Weekend of Fire X – 10 Years of Heating Up the Midwest

Are you serious? Jungle Jim’s Weekend of Fire fiery foods show is already turning 10 years old? Outrageous!

The venerable Weekend of Fire (or WOF for short) is an expo that will always remain special to me. Why? It was one of the first hot sauce festivals of any kind that I’ve attended. Unlike more “national”, larger-scale events like the Fiery Foods Show in Albuquerque, New Mexico or ZestFest in the Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas area, the WOF felt a little more like “home” in its more centrally-located digs in Fairfield, Ohio, inside of the Cincinnati metro area. During the first several years of the WOF, the Jungle Jim’s staff graciously let us fiery foods bloggers have our own booth (which we’ve used for various purposes, from being a “hub” to plug in and charge our electronic devices to raising money for charities) at the show. Us bloggers have been able to give massive amounts of input into the show, including the schedule structure and eating contests. We’ve recorded chilehead round table podcast episodes there on the premises. The WOF’s venue is the Oscar Event Center, which is technically a part of Jungle Jim’s International Market, one of the greatest supermarket experiences in the world. Last, but not least, the WOF has often coincided with the unaffiliated CaJohn’s Open Houses 90 minutes northeast in Columbus, Ohio, itself a lighter, fun excursion for hardcore chileheads.

And now…this li’l ol’ show has been going on for ten years? Where in the world has the time gone?

Anyway, this year’s Weekend of Fire marks a return of the Roberts clan to the event. We’ll be hitting most, if not all, of both days it is open – Saturday, October 1st and Sunday, October 2nd. If you happen to see any of us wondering about the show floor, feel free to stop and say “hi!”

If you are looking for any reason to attend, let me give you a few:

There are plenty of fun eating contests to participate in or just watch (merely witnessing eager contestants scarfing down large quantities of scorching hot buffalo wings, hot dogs, pie, pizza, and more while sweating and turning lobster-red is a blast in and of itself). A full schedule of food battles can be found at http://www.junglejims.com/weekendoffire/details/arena-of-fire.asp

As I’ve mentioned before…the adjacent Jungle Jim’s Market is a foodie paradise. You will geek out! Grab a map of the store (you’ll need it!) near the entrance, and experience nirvana for hours strolling around the different supermarket sections.

At the Weekend of Fire show itself, you can sample and taste hot sauces, BBQ sauces, salsas, and special foods of all kind from 50 different artisan food companies from across the nation. A list (subject to change) of companies to appear:

Alberto’s Food Products
All Spice Cafe Gourmet Foods
Angry Goat Pepper Co.
Angry Irishman
Bertman Original Ball Park Mustard
Black Swamp Gourmet
Bob’s Best Salsa
Cajohns Fiery Foods
Cajun Tex Salsa & More
Captain Catfish Sauces
Chili Rocks
Cin Chili & Company
Clamlube Brand Hot Sauce
Elijah’s Extreme Gourmet Sauces
Fatty & Skinny
Flavors of the Sun
Frontera Foods
Gold Rush Farms
Graeters Ice Cream
Grandad’s Original Homemade BBQ Sauce
Heartbreaking Dawns
High River Sauces
Jim Dandy’s Family BBQ
Katie Premium Jerky & Snacks
Kelley’s Gourmet Foods
Kentucky Smokin Grill
Lee’s Hot Mustard
Lindeman’s BBQ
Little Bird Chocolates
Little Diablo Salsa
Mad Sweet Heat
Mickey V’s Foods
Mixology Marmalades
Monsters in Heat
Ole Ray’s Sauces
Oscar Bar
Papi Joes
Peppers-R-Paradise
Pucker Butt Pepper Company
Rasta Bros.
Rub a Dub Rub
Scotty O’Hotty
Smither Family Kitchen
Spyce
Tabasco
Texas Pete
The Bossy Gourmet
The Chesterville Pepper Company
The Mustard Man
Volcanic Peppers
Walong Marketing Authenic Asian Flavors
Zach’s Wing Sauce

Grab up-to-the-minute details on the expo by going to http://www.junglejims.com/weekendoffire

[GARD]