CaJohns‘ new chili parlour received quite a great write-up in the most recent edition of the Columbus Alive paper, which we happily bring to your attention. We’ve nibble on some of the selection, and they are all that and a bag of (tortilla) chips:

Chili-out

By G.A. Benton

When a hot sauce at the terrific North Market shop called CaJohn’s says on its label it contains the world’s hottest pepper, believe it. Do not — like a certain goofily grinning, thick-headed idiot I know (OK, me) — allow hubris to define your next action.

Because even the teensiest possible pinpoint of that blazing, wicked stuff barely spotting the end of a pretzel stick will, when applied to a stupidly outstretched tongue, induce convulsions of pure agony. Will initiate a penetrating self-hatred. Will force a dancing outburst of the Watusi. Will cause a usually gentle adult to knock over grandmothers and small children in an ugly and wobbly sprint to buy ice cream.

So take my advice and do not try anything at CaJohn’s that says it’s made with the hottest pepper in the world. But do try about everything else. Because this family-run, nationally lauded operation (winner of more than 100 country-wide first-place awards) has lots of other great hot sauces, salsas and chili kits that are packed with flavor but nowhere near as incendiary as that burnin’-like-Chernobyl stuff I unwisely sampled.

Click here to read the rest of the source article from the Columbus Alive paper

Well, I finally got around to using some of the “hotter” hot sauces from the folks at Arturo’s Hot Flavors of Hawaii. I have been carrying this sauce around with me for a few weeks now, and each time I sit down to try and write something…I’m not sure what to say. It’s not bad, mind you, but I seem to have suffered a bit of “writer’s block” about this hot sauce, and it bugs me a little.

One of the things I can say about this sauce, as well as others that I have tried from Hot Sauce Hawaii, is that it’s just plain different than mainland hot sauces. The list of ingredients is similar to many sauce I’ve tried, but they just seem to be a different breed in taste and consistency:

Ingredients: water, habanero chiles, thai chiles, vinegar, modified food starch, and salt

The plainly stated label warns you to use this sauce with caution, but I did not despair. Without the words “extract” somewhere associated with capsaicin or oleoresin, I felt pretty safe being able to use this sauce with reckless abandon. The website description has this to say about this sauce:

All three North Shore Nitro sauces were created to inflict a truly flavorful, endorphin-inducing heat upon our unsuspecting public. Force 3 is the introductory version of our volcanic Thai and Habanero Pepper Sauces.

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Gretchen VanEsselstyn, the editor for Chile Pepper Magazine, sent us this quick update about the latest news for their upcoming events:

2009 Fiery Food Challenge on the web!
We wanted to let you know that you can now enter the Fiery Food Challenge from our website at chilepepper.com. Entry season has just begun, and you have just about a month to get our early bird rates. Will this be your year to win a Golden Chile? We’re rooting for you! Any questions about the Fiery Food Challenge? Call Pam Betz at (888) 338-1445 or email Pam@chilepepper.com

Also, don’t forget to make your plans to attend Texas ZestFest 2008 at the Will Rogers Center in Fort Worth, September 5-7. We’re finalizing the lineup now and it’s going to be an amazing show! To book a booth, contact June DeRousse at 866-431-8771 or june@chilepepper.com

Ever since our review of the Ass Murdering Hot Sauce we did a few weeks ago, we’ve been finding lots of different entrees to use it upon. However, we aren’t the only ones to find good uses for it. Check out this recipe pass along to us from Todd Ross of Bisummo.com:

Ass Murdering Hot Sauce: Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Jalapeno’s

Here’s a slight modification on an old favorite. Thanks to Brian at hotsaucedaily.com for finding this jewel in the archives and providing the inspiration for a new Ass Murdering Hot Sauce recipe. Enjoy!

* 24 Fresh Jalapeno Peppers
* 1 lb. Fresh, Raw Ground Pork
* 8 Tablespoons of Ass Murdering Hot Sauce
* 24 Slices of Bacon
* 8 oz. Four Cheese Mexican Style Blend (Monterey Jack, Cheddar, Queso Blanco & Asadero Cheese)
* 8 oz. Cream Cheese, softened

1. Cook the pork in a hot skillet over medium heat until cooked. Add 8 tablespoons of Ass Murdering Hot Sauce towards the end of cooking the pork. Drain excess grease. Set aside.

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It’s always a pleasure to do reviews on spicy snack fare, and beef jerky is no exception. Jerky itself, I’m told, is fairly easy to make. That said, few jerky makers seem to make jerky fairly well. Too dry. Too touch. Too bland. The list goes on and on. I give credit to those, however, who at least pay enough homage to the chileheads of the world by making some spicy jerky to try to please their palates.

In that same vein, we were delighted to receive an email from Amy Williams from Williams and Conner, who are Texan purveyors of some quality beef and deer jerky. They offer five distinct varieties of beef jerky, of which the Pepper Trio Beef Jerky appears to be their spiciest one. Quite honestly, all their varieties look as though they would be quite good, but I was saving my opinion for their spicy version to see how it stacks up against some others that I’ve tasted.

Ingredients: beef whole muscle, soy sauce (water, wheat, soy beans, salt, sodium benzoate), water, hickory smoke flavor, worcestershire sauce (distilled white vinegar, water, molasses, high fructose corn syrup, salt, soy sauce, natural flavoring, caramel coloring, anchovies, polysorbate 80, soy flour, garlic extract), garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper

An extraordinary blend of cayenne pepper, black pepper, and crushed red pepper brings the bold taste of the southwest to you.

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It’s been awhile since Passow did his mega-review on the products from California Habanero Blends, but we’re happy to see them in the news again. Check out this article from the ChicoER.com about Tim Sharkey and his fine products from California Habanero Blends:

Hot sauce creator fed up with “blah”
By LAURA URSENY - Business Editor
Article Launched: 05/11/2008 12:36:56 AM PDT

Tim Sharkey grew up in Vallejo in a family that loved to cook. His grandmother was a miracle maker with Spanish dishes, and he developed an appreciation for food with pluck.

But as the recipient of too many bottles of gifted hot sauce that were “just bad,” Sharkey took to the kitchen to concoct a respectable sauce.

He spent weeks stirring, adding, testing, coming up with a line of sauces for use in cooking, grilling and shaking on.

Sharkey has coaxed the best — not the bad kind of bite — from habanero chilies and other ingredients with his line of sauces, sold under the name California Habanero Blends.

“They’re really not too spicy. Just right.”

Click here to read the rest of the source article from the ChicoER.com

We have already announced that our good friend, Mark, over at The Chile Man.org has brought out his second batch of Naga Snake Bite. I just recently received a bottle of his Private Reserve with 10 whole naga pods contained in the sauce. I’ve already reviewed his first batch with 5 pods and this tastes almost exactly the same. So this won’t be a full review, just a little mention of what I feel is the difference between the two and also to plug a great sauce.

Naga Snake Bite: Private Reserve Ingredients: Onions, carrots, tomatoes, vinegar, Naga Morich, red chillies, ginger, sugar, Red Bell Peppers, garlic, olive oil, salt.

One thing I noticed is that he has taken my advice about the label not being centered on the bottle and has now centered it which definitely improves the look . That along with the gold banded shrink wrap makes this stand out on your “Self of Doom”. I also noticed that Mark’s added one new ingredient, sugar. The sauce does taste much sweeter but not in the way where it negatively effects the taste. The sugar actually pairs with the fruity taste of the Naga quite well.

Speaking of Naga, this 10 pod version really packs it in! The taste is so much more exquisite and really shows off the fruity taste if the Nagas. Here’s the real question, “Is there a heat improvement?”. I described the first batch’s heat as being akin to a snake bite, fast and hard. This sauce is no different.

The heat is much more harder biting and when used in the large quantities that I use it in, boy does it stick with you. Once again, the Naga’s trademark of numbing the section of tongue where it touches is quite prevalent here. This is what a sauce should be, mind blowing heat mixed with a fantastic taste. Perfection has be improved upon.

Taste: 9.7, Heat: 10

Oh, the pleasure of being a science geek! If anyone is interested in the chemistry of capsaicin, then you’ll love this article from a recent online article in the Science Daily:

Chemists Measure Chilli Sauce Hotness With Nanotubes

ScienceDaily (May 8, 2008) — If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen and into the lab – chemists can now use carbon nanotubes to judge the heat of chilli sauces. The technology might soon be available commercially as a cheap, disposable sensor for use in the food industry.

Richard Compton and his team at Oxford University, UK, have developed a sensitive technique to measure the levels of capsaicinoids, the substances that make chillies hot, in samples of chilli sauce. They report their findings in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal The Analyst.

The current industry procedure is to use a panel of taste-testers, and is highly subjective. Compton’s new method unambiguously determines the precise amount of capsaicinoids, and is not only quicker and cheaper than taste-testers but more reliable for purposes of food standards; tests could be rapidly carried out on the production line.

Click here to read the rest of the source article

A few weeks ago, we had written about an article which talked about Jake Melnick’s Corner Tap in Chicago and their dedication to spicy fare. Well, the debate rages on…this time about the merits of spicy chicken wings. Check out this cool article from HALife.com which revisits Jake Melnick’s as well as other topics:

A hot debate takes wing

By Peter Rowe
Copley News Service

There are two sides to the Buffalo chicken wings debate.

“There’s nothing better,” said author and restaurateur Kevin Roberts about enjoying a big plate of Buffalo wings. “But it’s all about the flavor. You don’t want it so hot that you can’t taste the food.”

In the heated argument over hot sauces, Roberts represents one side. Don’t call his side unmanly, though - at least not in Roberts’ hearing. His new hangout, East Village Tavern & Bowl in San Diego, is a testosterone-enriched haven for sports fans.

Besides, Roberts has a point. Thermonuclear sauces incinerate everything in their path, including the food’s flavors. That’s no fun.

Or is it?

On the other side of the hot sauce issue is Robin Rosenberg, chef de cuisine at Jake Melnick’s Corner Tap in Chicago. Before ripping into Rosenberg’s wings, diners must sign a waiver: “These wings are gonna be really H-O-T, and I hereby declare that the terms of this waiver and release have been completely read, and I totally get and voluntarily accept that I have no right to whine about anything that happens to my mouth after I accept the challenge.

“I am psyched. I am proud. I am ready.

“So bring ‘em on!”

Time to pick a side.

Click here to read the rest of the source article

Well, we finally manage to upload our photos of the 2008 Cinco D’Ohio show and it is now available for viewing:

Cinco D’Ohio 2008 slideshow

Many of the pictures were good, some were not. All are available for viewing/digestion. It was awesome fun both being a judge for all the competitions as well as just enjoying the show. Enjoy the pics!

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