Peruvian

Simply Ají

Spicefreak1 Comment

What’s up my fiery food fans? As you all know by now, I’m a lover of all things weird and wonderful – A freak, you could say – and I started this site to explore the crazy flavours in chilli sauce.

Yet we all need a break, from time to time, so today I’m trying something simple. Something with only three, ordinary ingredients:

SDCFPeru

This is South Devon Chilli Farm’s Peruvian blend and those ingredients are:

Fresh Aji Chillies (60%), Spirit Vinegar, Salt.

It’s an incredibly simple sauce but its purity is high and it highlights a regional pepper strain. So let’s see how different that peruvian variety tastes, shall we?

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Honest Chutney

Spicefreak5 Comments

Hey there everybody. Last week, we looked at what was supposed to be a smoky mango sauce and, while it was pretty tasty, it most certainly wasn’t what it said on the label. So, in order to get our fix of the fruit and celebrate national curry week correctly, I’m going to spend today’s post looking at a pair of chutneys:

MChutneys

A pair that promise the same product type, yet take it in completely different directions, with completely different chillies.

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High-Class Crisps

Spicefreak3 Comments

Hey folks! It’s been a long time since 💀my last restaurant review💀 but, today, I’m coming to you from all the way out in london’s trendy soho district to feature the craziest establishment that I’ve ever seen.

HipShop

HipChips – A sit down or take away restaurant dedicated to providing the most gourmet version imaginable of a dish that I call “chips and dips”. But no, there aren’t any wide fries here. Every slice of potato is a wafer-thin crisp with a tonne of crunch.

It’s not usually a complex or well-balanced meal but it’s a darn good snack and I’m ever so curious to see what they’ve done to improve it. To spice it up, if you will.

And alright, they’ve provided a free lunch to entice me in but, honestly, I doubt I could have stayed away anyway. It’s just such a wild idea for an eatery!

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Not So Thai

Spicefreak7 Comments

Hey folks, it feels like I’m doing this almost every month now but here’s another two product review. A comparison, so much as there can be one, between two very different takes on a thai-style sauce.

One is a long awaited item from Devon Chilli Man, seen on my twitter midway through last year, and the other is one of the many I got from Grim Reaper Foods. Yet, despite being based on a thai sweet chilli, it’s not the last of the freebies from their thai-themed box.

No, that’ll have to wait just a little longer because Devon Chilli Man is the one with a green jalapeño sauce today. A green thai sweet chilli that he calls the Jalapeño Creaper, not because he can’t spell but because it also contains carolina reaper.

While the Grim Reaper shows us his Alchemy, another highly unusual sweet chilli sauce made using the lemon drop or aji limon chilli. A citrusy pepper that turns the sauce to gold, just like the alchemist’s dream.

Both are going to be at least a little stronger than your average thai sweet sauce but their unorthodox chilli choices also bring a unique flavour and appearance to the table.

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Pronouncing Peppers

Spicefreak3 Comments

Greetings everyone, it’s time for another thursday post. But not another sauce review.

Unlike the last two thursdays, this post isn’t about a product but it is inspired by one: The Dorset Chilli Shop’s chipotle extract. Because that one little bottle changed the way I talk.

It came labelled with the ancient aztec name of it’s chilli, “Chilpōctli”, which turned out not to be pronounced the way I thought.

So today we’re looking at pronunciation. At how to say the names of your favourite chillies and why they’re pronounced the way they are.

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