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Weekend of Fire

5th Annual Fiery Food Show in Fairfield

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If you’re looking for a fun, family-friendly way to spice up your weekend, check out Jungle Jim’s 5th annual Weekend of Fire this Saturday and Sunday for two days full of fun, food, and fire. This show has grown from 500 guests in year one to over 2500 in  attendance last year.  There’s something for everyone from the Fiery Food Expo to the Arena of Fire to BBQ Alley, it’s a guaranteed  hot time in Farifield this weekend.

Fifty five vendors from all across the country will be setting up shop this weekend in the Fiery Food Expo. They will be offering a variety of free samples, including hot sauces, BBQ sauces, salsas, rubs, and even ice cream with a spicy kick. Vendors will also be taking orders if you find something you’d like to take home and share!

The Arena of Fire is the place where all sorts of “wild and wacky” contests will be held hourly.  “We thought it was a great venue, we had a lot of fun. We really liked the contests,” said  Mike & Jill Shuster of last years event.  If you’re brave enough, you can sign up at the registration table and compete in the horseradish eating contest, the hot salsa contest or the kid friendly coney dot eating.  Can you take the heat?

If you’re not up to the heat of the competition, stroll outside and enjoy an outdoor lunch, dinner, or snack in BBQ Alley. This is the first year that BBQ Alley has been opened during the Weekend of Fire. You and your family can enjoy ribs, wings, Hawaiian shaved ice, funnel cakes, deep fried goodies, and much more. Vendors that will be providing food in BBQ Alley include: Dragon Fire Hot Sauce, Sweet Mama’s Jam-N-Salsa, Rib City, Goldie’s Q, and many more.

While attending the show, be sure to stop and vote for your favorites! Awards include Best Hot Sauce, BBQ Sauce, Best Salsa, and Best Hot Specialty. Trophies will be presented on Sunday before the end of the show.

Another special event you won’t want to miss is the DeafCon DeathMatch. The DeathMatch is a mysterious event that you will have to see to believe.  The bleachers will be  filled way before the contest as people vie for a good seat. Late comers cluster around the Arena of Fire, climbing on each others shoulders; anything to see. Contestants gather in a group awaiting their fate and take their place as The Creator calls their name. Tension mounts as The Creatress brings out the wings drenched in sauce so hot the contestants are required to sign a release to compete for bragging rights.  The event will take place in BBQ Alley at 8 p.m. on Saturday night.

If just one Weekend of Fire isn’t enough to fill your fiery hunger, sign up for Eat the Heat cooking class to bring some of fire back to your family. The class will be taught by Leigh Barnhart Ochs, the Cooking School Director. She will teach techniques, recipes, and what foods work together so you can spice up dinner time any day. Cost for the class is $50 and includes free tickets to the show. For more information on how to register, visit http://www.junglejims.com/weekendoffire/eat-the-heat.asp.

Jungle Jim’s Weekend of Fire will take place on October 1st from 10-6 p.m. and October 2nd from 11-5 p.m. at The Oscar Event Center which is located at  5440 Dixie Highway, just north of 275.  Tickets cost $5 if purchased in advance and $7 at the door. Admission cost includes admission to the Fiery Foods Expo, samples from all the vendors, the ability to purchase hundreds of products directly from the vendors, access to BBQ Alley, access to the Arena of Fire, and rides on the Monorail. Children under 6-years-old are free.

If all of these appetizing aspects of Jungle Jim’s Weekend of Fire are not enough to persuade you to attend, come out to show support for Dayton! Crazy Uncle Jester’s and Firehouse Pantry, local Dayton hot sauce makers, will have booths set up in the Fiery Foods Expo. Stop by and show some support for your local blazing businesses!

Weekend of Fire:

Saturday, October 1, 2011 from 10am – 8pm
Sunday, October 2, 2011 from 11am – 5pm
The Oscar Event Center at Jungle Jim’s International Market

Directions from Dayton

Take I-75 South
Merge I-275 West – To Indianapolis
Exit #41 toward Hamilton/Fairfield
Drive north 3.8 miles on Route 4/Dixie Highway
Turn right onto Jungle Jim’s Blvd

Some Like It Hot

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The annual “Weekend of Fire” is a complete consumer oriented show and if you like it hot and spicy you’ll want to head to Jungle Jim’s this Saturday and/or Sunday.  Prepare yourself for up to 75 booths of hot sauces, barbecue sauces, salsas, marinades, mustards, jerky’s, peppers and more from the all ‘cross the USA. The annual event is held inside The Oscar Event Center, located adjacent to the Jungle Jim’s six and a half acre megastore in Fairfield, Ohio, just north of Cincinnati.

Eat The Heat
A fiery food  cooking class is part of the fun. Join chefs on Saturday, 7/31/10 from 11am – 1:30pm and start your visit off with a cooking class (a show admission ticket is included in the price of the class).  You’ll learn techniques for working with hot peppers;  and get to eat all the delicious food that is made and even get the recipes to take with you. Learn to make your own hot sauce at home that will add flavor and flair to any meal!  The class menu includes: Tropical Island Hot Sauce, Spicy Grilled Shiitakes with Ginger and Garlic, Tangy Flank Steak Tampiqueno Tacos, Soul Slaw, Shrimp and Tasso with Five Pepper Jelly, Papaya with Lime.  Beer will be served as the chef’s beverage of choice. $50 per person (includes a good size sampling of everything made in class, a glass of beer, recipes and a ticket to the Weekend of Fire.)

Can You Handle The Heat?
If you think you’ve got what it takes to handle the hot stuff, Jungle Jim’s is giving you the chance to prove it.  Several eating contests will be held during the weekend for you to prove it:

Saturday:

1 pm — Hot Horseradish Eating Contest: Each contestant in this contest will be given an equal amount of horseradish on 10 slices of Wisconsin Bratwurst.

2 pm— Peanut Butter & Jelly Eating Contest: It’s the jelly that’s hot here.

3 pm  — Hot Ice Cream:  ice cream with spices.

4 pm — Hot Cracker Eating Contest featuring Texas Fire Crackers; no beverages are allowed.

5 pm— The Hot Lollipop Eating Contest

7 pm— Defcon Death Match Wings Eating Contest — No hot food showcase can be complete without wings. Sign up at Defcon’s booth on Saturday by 4 pm.

Sunday:

1 pm— The Bugsicle eating contest is for anyone who has ever wondered how many licks it takes to get to the creepy-crawly center of a bug pop. Contestants will be given a Hot Lix Insect Sucker and 10 minutes to get to the bug inside

2 pm  — Hot Ice Cream:  ice cream with spices.

3 pm — The Hot Lollipop Eating Contest

Also new this year are the best in show awards that rate the best hot sauce, the best salsa and the best barbecue sauce; these will be given out at 4 p.m. Sunday.

Get Your Face on a Hot Sauce Bottle!
Personalize your own bottle of Hot Sauce- visit the Face On A Label booth they;’ll take your photo and while you wander your way around the 75+ booths they’ll be putting your photo on a hot sauce bottle.  Then before you leave, stop back to where your unique bottle will be waiting for you. All this for only $5!

Ticket Sales
Weekend of Fire tickets purchased online and will be available for pick up at Will Call. You can click here to purchase WOF tickets online now.  After 5:00pm on July 30, WOF show tickets can only be purchased at Jungle Jim’s Customer Service counter or at the WOF show entrance.Tickets run $7 Per Person, Children under 12 are free.