A tablespoon! ■■■■ a duck, that’s insane. Fraction of a teaspoon of that stuff is too much for me.
I don’t recall any Indian restaurant in recent memory that even gave me tears of joy. And I’ve sent many a Vindaloo back to the kitchen for more heat. I once had to send a dish back three times for extra heat - and the chef came out because he said he could not believe I was eating it.
But then I grow Carolina Reapers (amongst other super-hots) and make my own sauce; Nathan’s Napalm, which I give away to friends and family. So I’m not your average consumer.
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That reminds me. I was going through a “I can handle more than you” phase about a decade ago when I decided to take on the hottest chilli sauce at the chilli sauce shop that used to exist on the cnr of Walcott and Knutsford St North Perth. I goaded the shopkeep into letting me try a teaspoon’s worth of his own personal supply which was not available on the shelf for purchase. In his defense, he did ask me several times if I was sure I wanted to do this. Mrs diggers same. I told them both to shut their clams and to hand over the chilli. Well that was a mistake. I ended up on all fours, halfway in the shop and halfway on the footpath outside, begging for some milk. Reckon it took about 20 minutes to settle down. My God that was hot.
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I did all but that in a Boston mall once. Asked for the second hottest…boy, oh boy! Raced around looking for yoghurt. It burnt my frigging teeth.
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There’s some game folks on here.
I tried a sauce rated 8 (on a scale from 1 to 10) in a chili sauce shop on the San Diego Promenade some years ago. I like hot sauces to a point (i.e. good and spicy, but not to the detriment of actual flavour), but that was just silly. I only had the end of an icy pole stick’s worth, but could still feel the remnants of it a few hours later. God only knows what a 9 or 10 would do…
Inside the shop they had a locked cabinet which contained small jars of what looked to all intents and purposes like bitumen. It was a couple of hundred bucks per jar. Supposedly the end of a teaspoon was sufficient to aggressively spice up a commercial-sized vat of curry/soup/whatever. The mind truly boggles…
Up to five or six years ago there was a hot chili festival out past Pakenham, which attracted vendors from all over the world. Some of the sauces there were simply ludicrous…
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I had a similar experience at a farmers market (also ignoring all warnings), and had serious halucinations while on all fours… also took about 20 minutes to come back to civilisation…
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The old Jindivick festival? Yeah, that was fun, I used to go to that one religiously. Apparently it finally got wound up cos bike gangs were causing too much trouble, which seems weird but there always was a high representation of the black leather & beards fraternity in attendance, not sure why.
There’s been a new one running across in Wandin for a few years now, skewed a bit more to the foodie/hippie/family market but most of the same sauces are still there. And they actually sell chilli plants at this one, which is something I always reckon Jindivick should have done.
Wandin? As in Wandin Valley?
It’s on a hill. So no.
For a minute there…
Yeah, I went to the first one at Wandin a few years ago. From memory, I thought the admittance price (high twenties?) was outrageous for the privilege of looking at/sampling a few sauce vendors’ wares and a handful of food vans. Never bothered again.
From that same festival I bought a chili plant native to the Andes in South America. It’s grown OK but has never flowered or fruited. Not sure why…
What do you know. Not a thread about McNiece…
Back in the day I had quite a good heat tolerance and was a fan of spicy food of all kinds (still am but a bit out of practice). Got invited to a work mate’s weekly “chilli night” with his friends. On the way there we stopped at the supermarket for ingredients. He practically filled one of those bags on the rollers in the fruit and veg section with the little Serrano peppers. The type didn’t scare me but the quantity had me intrigued. When we got there someone else had a 700ml jar of what looked to be pure minced chilli of ambiguous origin. All of it went into this curry as well as other spices I didn’t have the fortune to see. While everyone (including a couple of very attractive and fit looking young women) sat around watching the newb trying to cope with the heat I recall wondering if it was a pointless exercise if you can’t actually taste anything because the membranes in your mouth and parts of your face feel like they’ve been chemically destroyed. Then the weird cramps and gurgling that happens in the small intestines that you’ve never experienced despite having eaten a lot of spicy food in your life.
I declined the invitation the following week. I’d found my limit and I’m not much of a maso-chist.
Apparently that last word is far too rude for the swear filter.
I’ve grown the Rocoto chilli before (which is from that region). The way they grow reminded me more of a tomato plant. Likewise I didn’t have much success with it (a handful of fruit over its lifetime) - which came at the end of the season. I wish it had been more successful - the chillies had a nice slow-burn and fruity flavour.
Yes, I used to visit that Chilli store in North Perth. At the time I was importing chilli sauces myself as a bit of a side-business. I remember getting a box of Dave’s Ultimate Insanity sauces, and reached in without looking. Unfortunately there was a breakage covering my hand in chilli sauce. It was so hot I actually got a chemical burn on my hand.
Rocoto is a beautiful flavour. I get the Peruvian Rocoto sauce from a Latin grocer. Specific trip.
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Rocotos and Manzanos (very similar) are one of the few chilli varieties you can cultivate reliably in the southern parts of Aust cos they tolerate the cold well. Great flavour too. I know Disaster Bay Chilli (try their chilli wine, if you haven’t already) uses them mostly. I have terrible trouble keeping habanero plants etc alive over winter without a greenhouse.
Every time I try to grow habaneros the possums eat them 
. Fark them. Hope they get ring burn
I have bottle of Disaster Bay Chilli Wine, haven’t opened it yet. How hot is it?
Not very hot. There’s some spice to it, but you’d have to be very sensitive to chilli to have any problems with it.
It’s pretty unique. Almost more of a sweet liqueur than a wine.
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Same here - the first frost of winter usually does them in.
I’m told the key is to use sand in the dirt and water them only occasionally during the cold aeason (otherwise they get root-rot). Still, have never quite managed to nurse any of them through.