Hungry Man: Dragonbreath Chili

By Alex Ziebart

Chase Christian: One of the many perks of working for WoW Insider are the industry freebies that get sent our way. After seeing the box of Hungry Man's Gamer Grub arrive, I was confused as to why someone would forward frozen dinners to our headquarters. However, after a quick inspection, I found many great WoW-themed meals available inside. Luckily, it's not against the terms of Ghostcrawler and my restraining order if he is the one sending the packaged, deceased animals.

The first dish I taste-tested was one of my all-time favorites: Dragonbreath Chili. I have been waiting for a chili to truly be able to knock my socks off with spiciness. Even after just a few moments in the microwave, I could already smell the succulent alligator (beef) and beans simmering together in cajun spices. My mouth was watering before the chili was even finished cooking!

I was prepared for a spicy, I was even prepared for fiery, but nothing could describe the raw intensity of this dish. The mildly flavored alligator chunks did little to dampen the pure heat that radiated from the bowl. My eyes were watering and my tongue was on fire. It was everything I had ever wanted from a chili- and more. No more generic brands for me that offer "hot chili". I knew that unless it came straight from a dragon's mouth, it wouldn't be able to satisfy my craving for fire and brimstone.

Unfortunately, there were some... unexpected side effects. I won't go into the gritty details, but many of the other writers in cubicles adjacent to mine weren't so thrilled with my choice in lunches. Matt Rossi threatened to roll on all of my leather gear unless I left the room, Michael Sacco made a noise I didn't think talbuks were capable of, and Adam Ziebart threatened to report me to the Cenarion Circle for crimes against man and nature. Needless to say, I'll only be stocking up on Hungry Man's Gamer Grub: Dragonbreath Chili for my personal stash.

Zach Yonzon: I'm a huge fan of cajun food and I certainly love a good bowl of chili, so imagine my excitement when I learned that one of Hungry Man's variants for their Gamer Grub line of frozen dinners was Dragonbreath Chili. Hungry Man's version of chili takes an exotic Louisiana recipe using alligator meat, something the box describes as "straight from the bayou".

Unfortunately, I didn't get to taste this seemingly delectable dish, but if it's anything like the gator chili I had back in 2006, it should be darned good. Then again, it is still a frozen dinner so I don't know just how much it can replicate that good old cajun cooking. According to Faye Kerr, the woman behind the Gamer Grub concept, Dragonbreath Chili was one of the top on their list when it came to in-game foods that players wanted to see "made real".
"We had to look for something to make it more dragon-like," Kerr explained, "and obviously it had to be extremely spicy, so alligator meat and cajun spices just made perfect sense." According to Kerr, this variant was Blizzard loremeister Chris Metzen's favorite, who requested for extra stacks of the sample dinners for "his crew" when they made biker road trip to Pismo Beach.
Metzen couldn't be reached for comment, but Samwise Didier (or someone who sounded like him), who answered the phone at the Sons of the Storm studios, said, "dude, it's Dragonbreath Chili! That's just hot, man! It tasted so good I think I'm gonna write a song about it." Didier is also the frontman for the world famous band L80ETC.

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