For us, nothing is more Californian than Mexican food. So I was very excited to attend The Great Salsa Championchip hosted by SF Food Wars this last Sunday. The competition is a partnership between Food Wars and CUESA to showcase some of SF's best salsa makers.

Two men enter, one man leaves!

Actually, twenty different chefs entered and the rest of us just left stuffed. The competition took place downtown at the Ferry Building along with 300 attendees all armed with organic tortilla chips by Casa Sanchez. The twenty teams, along with a description of there entry can be found below.

Salsa War

Purveyors of Awesome / Gravensalsa / Gravenstein apple salsa with a bit of heat.

DoomBunny en Fuego / Ceviche Verdura / A vegetarian ceviche with roasted corn.

DoomBunny en Fuego / Ceviche Verdura

Devórate Esto / My Mama's Salsa / A classic tomato salsa that is well balanced.

The Average Foodie / Summer Sweet, Summer Spice - Part Deux / Peach and pear salsa.

bangbangsalsa / salsa #9 / This three alarm fire is made with roasted habaneros.

Los Pares Deliciosos / Veraniega Sabrosa / Slightly sweet salsa with a hint of red wine.

El Charapo / Gutsy Red / A classic roasted salsa with a nice amount of garlic and veggies.

Ai Made It / GazPOWcho Salsa / Homegrown tomatoes make this salsa gaspacho-like.

Here are the first 8 salsas. Start with the #1 and move clockwise where #8, the GazPOWcho Salsa, is in the middle. Of this batch, I really enjoyed #7 (Gutsy Red) and #5 (Veraniega Sabrosa) the most. I thought the ceviche salsa was good but in my opinion it was less of a salsa and more of a salad with all of the toppings it had.

The first 8 salsas

Chi-Wow-Wow / El Niño / A family recipe from Chihuahua, Mexico.

Team Hellapeños / Salsa Delfina / Mexican salsa recipe from Grandma Delfina.

Team Steph / Salsa de Nino / A salsa recipe passed down by the chef's Godfather.

Dammit Tina! / Dammit! I Forgot the Salsa Again / Early girl-based Pico de Gallo salsa.

Spice Girls / When Harissa Met Salsa / Roasted tomatoes and North African spices.

(y)our food choices / Salsa-touille / Ratatouille-inspired salsa.

Desi Girls / Kuchumber / Salsa with an Indian spin.

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Huuyub / Green Monster / A cilantro-based salsa with lots of roasted tomatoes.

Chip trick / Chilesco Salsa / Mexican salsa with the smooth texture of Catalan Romesco.

Dr. Peppers / Belly-Warmin' Salsa / A mix of fire-roasted peppers and lots of love.

Iron Bunny / Salsa Pine-a-peño / Grilled pineapple and jalapeno salsa.

At then end of it all, we chose Salsa Pine-a-peño. We love tropical fruit-based salsas but usually they are too sweet. This particular salsa, however, could be eaten by the buckets. Well, we could anyway. Alas, it was not the winner of the competition.

Wanna know who won? Find out here.