Comments on: Gimme some o’ that Hot Stuff

By: xnomad

xnomad — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:52:41 +0000

If you are in the Austin, Texas area try "The Source" at Tears of Joy-

The hottest product on the market is The Source made by Original Juan. This pure extract is a mind-blowing 7.1 MILLION Scoville Units (Tears of Joy sells this, but at the store location only). Pure crystalline capsaicin is 16 million Scoville Units.

At the Austin Hot Sauce festival they give samples of this on a the tiny tip of a toothpick and you place it on your tongue to feel the burn

By: lirelou

lirelou — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 07:25:30 +0000

Only fair to point out that the soil any chiles are grown in effect their potency. Thus a pepper from one farm may be hotter than the same variety grown on another. So claims that some Indian varieties are hotter than, say, the same variety tried in Mexico may tbe accurate. My wife claims that the type of fertilizer also helps. She prefers chicken droppings. As for the black pepper, the black peppercorns I get in Vietnam are much hotter than any in North America. Likewise, within North America, the wife used to get her ground black pepper mailed from Canada, as it was spicier than any sold in the U.S.(Indian or other Asian peppercorns perhaps?) Glad to see that Desi commenters are not offended by the thought that chiles (and corn and tomatoes) came from Mexico. Many Korean commenters go ballistic when someone suggests that kimchi was invented with an assist from Mexico. (likely by way of Japan)

Curry must be Indian, as the Vietnamese word for it is "ca ri", and many of their home grown curry trademarks show what is supposed to be an Indian in a highly stylized turban.

By: Mr Kobayashi

Mr Kobayashi — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 05:11:14 +0000

In any event I've always wanted to have an international spicy food or pepper eating contest similar to the Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest with Kobahyashi and the IFOCE

Vurd.

By: circus in jungle

circus in jungle — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 04:36:41 +0000

It seems like the hottest chilli is from Assam, India. This is from Times of India so needs to be taken with a pinch of salt..

By: chitrana

chitrana — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 19:46:03 +0000

Corn isn’t native to India either but we use it in so many dishes. I don’t think I could handle Indian food from 500 years ago.

By: green angel

green angel — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 18:49:36 +0000

What kind of chilli is the ‘Extra Red Hot Chilli powder’ that you get in stores made of?

By: sakshi

sakshi — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 03:28:46 +0000

And to begin with, pass the pepper. -What's that you say?- The trees themselves are surprised into speech. (And have you never, in solitude and despair, talked to the walls, to your idiot pooch, to empty air?) I repeat: the pepper, if you please; for if it had not been for peppercorns, then what is ending now in East and West might never have begun. Pepper it was that brought Vasco da Gama's tall ships across the ocean, from Lisbon's Tower of Bel?m to the Malabar Coast: first to Calicut and later, for its lagoony harbour, to Cochin. English and French sailed in the wake of that first-arrived Portugee, so that in the period called Discovery-of-India-but how could we be discovered when we were not covered before?-we were 'not so much sub-continent as sub-condiment', as my distinguished mother had it. 'From the beginning, what the world wanted from bloody mother India was daylight-clear,' she'd say. 'They came for the hot stuff, just like any man calling on a tart.'

-Rushdie (The Moor's Last Sigh)

By: A S

A S — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 02:27:46 +0000

You do know that chillies aren’t native to India right?
Really! Wow, I’m amazed. So what did desis spice up their food with about 500 years ago?

As has been noted above, black pepper was commonly used since ancient times. It is called Maricha in Sanskrit from which the Hindi Mirch has been derived. As most people are probably aware, this among the valuable spices that were traded with the Europeans in the ancient and medieval times, and the reason starting from Alexander to Columbus to Vasco Da Gama, conquerers, sailors and traders sought better routes to India.

* It is funny that the photos of the drying red chillis reminds quite a few of us of the film Mirch Masala

By: Shodan

Shodan — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 20:59:31 +0000

We thought the white stuff was sour cream. So, all of us heaped a tablespoon each of that stuff on our food.

That’s how locals mess w/ tourists. In Maharashtra they serve safed rassa (white curry) made of mirchi seeds. It’s fun to see a grown man cry

By: GujuDude

GujuDude — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 20:05:44 +0000

My lord, I love the habanero pepper so much it's almost painful. But these...now they look worthy of being challenged!

Hot peppers and sauces are awesome, only when you're not suprised by them. Daves Insanity and a whole host of hot sauces are wonderful. When I pass the hot sauce isle in a grocery store, I gawk.

However, when you're not prepared for them and ingest it, absolute pain is the result. In cancun, my buddies and I were eating quesadillas at a stand. The condiments were lined up - regular salsa, some green salsa, and white stuff. We thought the white stuff was sour cream. So, all of us heaped a tablespoon each of that stuff on our food.

The white stuff was some type of habanero paste. Three drunk desi guys with water streaming from eyes while screaming was a funny site for those around us.