I went to Downtown Ithaca’s Chili Cook-off today and it made me think about the name “chili”. My first thought was that it’s a variant of “chilly” or being cold since people like to eat hot food when the weather is colder. But “chili” is also an alternative spelling of “chile” which also makes sense as a name since often chili will have chile pepper/seasoning in it. But on the former but, why is it even the case that people have this preference for eating hot foods when its cold and cold foods when its hot. I get the practical concerns, like it would be pretty hard to drink a frozen beverage outside when it’s below freezing. And the origin of the tendency is pretty clear – it was only until relatively recently that people could sufficiently regulate the temperature around them. But still it seems artificial to eat stews mainly during the winter and ice cream mainly during the summer. I guess the question I’m getting at here is to what extent do cultural/social norms influence our food preferences vs legitimate practical/individual concerns. For some reason, I have the inclination it’s more of the former. But regardless Ithaca’s chili is pretty diverse and interesting. Although I will say at the cook off I didn’t see any white chili, chili dogs, or chili fries which was surprising. Also there seemed to be less people than at the Apple Festival, although perhaps that’s because of the colder weather.