Whether served on white tablecloths at a swanky restaurant or in a Styrofoam cup mixed with Fritos at a high school football game, there is no argument that chili con carne is a Texas staple. Its origins are debated—many credit its invention to the mid-1800s “chili queens” of San Antonio’s Military Plaza—and so is whether to serve with beans. Since 1983, there have been two competing chili festivals held in November in Terlingua. Maybe writer and Texas native Margaret Cousins said it best: “Chili is not so much food as a state of mind.”