[Sca-cooks] ANOTHER SPICY STORY

[Gorgeous Muiredach]

>1) on my honeymoon in Montreal, David and I were at a Chinese restaurant. At
>the side of the table was a little pot with a sort of gel/liquid and some red
>pepper flakes floating in it.

Having grown up in Montreal, I'm entirely familiar with just the thing you
describe (though I suspect the practice is in no way restricted to
Montreal...)  ALways been funny to insist my friends try the nice little
"mild" sauce...  <g>

>Story #2)  A few years ago we bought a jar of Chinese chopped red chilli
>peppers.  (It comes in a clear pastic jar with a green lid, you may know it.)

Isn't this the one called "sambal Oelek" (which may just mean "hot stuff",
for all I know)?  Good stuff in any case.

As a matter of fact, I just made some hot sauce myself last night.  A bit
of tomatoes, a bit of garlice (well, a full head), some brown sugar, some
applecider vinegar, a small onion, and a half pound of habanero
peppers.  Boil the whole thing, then blend.  I am pretty impervious to most
things hot, got an eeeedyukashion on da hot stuff when I was living in West
Africa as a kid...  But that's even a little tough for me, I only use it in
moderation when I cook.

A few years back, the inn manager where I was sous-chef asked me to make
him a risotto.  He asked if I had anything on hand to spice it up, and I
showed him my hot sauce.  I warned him he wanted to use only about a
quarter or half a teaspoon at most.  He just smiled and said he liked it
hot.  Put a whole soup spoon in the thing...  Within two bites he'd gone
through several shade of red , and started sweatign profusely.  But being
the macho kind of guy he was, he ate the whole thing.

Following day, his wife called in sick for him, and asked to speak to
me.  She asked in an accusatory tone what I'd fed him, as he'd spent a good
45 minutes in the bathroom, howling!!!  Ahhhhh, 'dem were the days!

Gorgeous Muiredach
Rokkehealden Shire
Middle Kingdom
aka
Nicolas Steenhout
"You must deal with me as I think of myself" J. Hockenberry