Sesame

Dalston Double

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Hello again, everyone. Today, we’re looking at a sauce that’s been gaining a lot of traction, lately, but that I still hadn’t heard hide nor hair about until it arrived on my doorstep. A gift from my aunt, in london, to whom this week’s product is quite local.

This is Common Sanity’s Dalston Sunshine – The name of the sauce telling you exactly what borough its company are based in and their own hinting at an interest in mental health. With a portion of the company’s profits going to charity for that very reason.

Yet the common “Common Sanity” name, as a whole, is apparently a play on commensality, the act of communal eating. Not anything to do with the word “Common”. Which is just as well because, as much as it may look like a common caribbean mustard sauce, their Dalston Sunshine’s main ingredient is actually the fatalii chilli. An african relative of the habanero which, despite growing popularity in recent years, is still far from “common”.

And it’s not today’s only unexpected fusion flavour, either, since my little care package also contained a second item from the company:

Not a sauce, this time, but a chinese or filipino-style crispy oil. Filled with mexican chillies, seeds and nuts for a beautifully rich sounding, yet equally unorthodox blend that they call Fuego Greeze.

I’m very eager to try them both out.

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Extra Hot Art

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Hey folks, it’s tuesday again and, today, we’re taking a look a Geki Kara. A sauce by 3D Spice which stood out massively when it was featured among Bauce Brothers’ Hot 100. Albeit not necessarily for the right reasons.

In fact, I saw a fair bit of controversy around it, at the time, over its high price and the anime-esque, scantily clad, demon girl on its label. Implying that it might not have been the sauce, itself, which they were selling.

Perhaps I’ll mention her again, later on, but, now that all of the initial criticism has died down, what I really want to talk about is whether or not it was actually deserved. Because, with the bottle here in front of me, it’s clear that a lot more has gone into making the product than is immediately obvious online.

Hopefully there’s some real flavour locked inside, rather than it simply relying on a seductive exterior, like people thought.

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Gods of Sesame

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Hey folks, I’ve got another import sauce or two for you, this week, and they’re just as highly spoken of as the last. Despite the makers being a far younger company:

These are the Korean and Passion Fruit Korean sauces from Gods of Sauces. An australian company who popped up, like many, in response to covid precautions shutting down their in-person food business. So, like our good friend at Alkemio Kitchen, they’ve only been around for a year or two. And yet they’re already here in the UK, courtesy of Aussie Hot Sauces.

Today, I’m going to be trying out their mildest two. But there are plenty more available, if the company’s style catches your interest, like it did mine.

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Pineapple Twins

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Surprise! It’s not an East Coast Chilli Co item for today’s review.

I thought about posting one today but, after cracking open a bottle to try, I realised I wanted to draw comparison with another upcoming item. One that I’m not able to showcase until early next month.

In the mean time, we’re going to take a look at a couple of items that’ve been waiting for a good moment to be discussed.

The leeds-made Pineapple, Scotch Bonnet & Sesame Oil Sauce from The Crafty Bustard and Sierra Nevada’s Salsa Picante De Chipotle-Piña, imported from either spain or california.

Honestly, I’m not really sure. The company mention both places and my spanish isn’t good enough to tell where they’re actually based.

Both are pineapple based sauces, though, and both are sweet ones with a bit of a savoury twist. Yet they both achieve that in quite different ways and with very different end results.

After all, one’s a tropical sauce with sesame and the other’s a smoked jalapeño sauce that seems like it’s going to be using its fruit for sweetness and be something of a barbecue item.

We’ll find out if that really is the case in a moment.

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Light and Leafy

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Hello again heat eaters, for april I have another recipe/review fusion for you but this one isn’t my review of someone else’s recipe. No, this month I’m looking into an odd idea that recently caught my eye.

Chilli leaf salad.

I never thought I’d do a salad for this blog. Practically every salad I make just comes down to sticking my favourite raw veg in a bowl with olive oil and my latest chilli infused vinegar. There’s nothing exciting about it and it certainly doesn’t make for a main dish.

But, while this recipe won’t ever be the bulk of a meal, it is definitely an attention grabbing concept. Enough so, I feel, to stand on its own here.

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