I've always enjoyed good chilis. It goes especially well with asian food. In fact, for some people, the meal is incomplete without chili!

There are 2 important characteristics of chili:
- Hotness: Self-explanatory.
- Piquancy: This refers to the chili having a sharp, tart taste. Some chilis may be hot, but if they lack the piquancy ( http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/piquant ), then they will not add as much flavour to the food.

Serving the chili
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Slice the fresh chili and serve them with soy-sause. I recommend a light one so as to not overpower the flavour of the chili. Most Asian restaurants would serve the chili this way. There are some people who mix garlic in addition to the soy-sause but I'm not in favour of it.

These are some of the chilis that I've tasted/used:

Bird's eye chili (also referred to a chili padi, if you're from malaysia/singapore/indonesia)
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These are the chilis that you'll encounter when going to SEA countries. They are not particularly hot, but they add a nice piquancy to food. I was born in Malaysia, so these were the first chilis that I ate. I'll consume lots of these during meals when I'm in Malaysia.

Cayenne pepper
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I haven't eaten this chili fresh but frequently use it in powder form. Great for pizzas (instead of those mild chili flakes) and great for adding some spice to food. A feature about cayenne pepper is it's mild piquancy and hence will not change the basic characterisitc of the food that you're eating. Thus, it's useful to make something hot. I thus use this alot to spice up curries.

Cayenne pepper also makes a great seasoning for rice!

Tabasco sause
Most people should be familiar with this sause - great for pizzas or oysters. Very mild, but has a nice tangy flavour. I have not tried the habanero version of it, but I heard that it's not particularly hot:

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Nandos sause
One of my favourite places to eat is Nandos. The characteristics of the various sauses are quite interesting. The 'Hot' sause has a smooth flavour but the 'Extra Hot' is tangy and sour. Recently, some stores have an 'Extra Extra Hot' sause. It's possible that the 'Extra Extra Hot' sause contain habaneros because of the delayed heat sensation from it.

Nandos was probably when I started expanding my love for chili.

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Sriracha (thx to Thrax for reminding me!)
An absolutely amazing chili sause! It's both hot and has a sharp taste. I find that it goes very well with fried food (e.g. KFC) or grilled chicken wings. Can be used for sausages as well, but I won't use it with read meat. A must try.

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A word of warning! There are many fake srirachas out there since it's so popular. I once bought a fake one and it was absolutely rubbish (I couldn't take it and had to throw it away). The key to knowing whether it's the real one is the correct packaging and the colour of the sause. The real sriracha will have a dark red colour.

Chilis in Australia
I'm not sure what type of chilis they have over here, but they are usually of the larger size (compared to the bird's eye chili). My mum grows some in her garden and so, I've a large supply of fresh chili. My experience with chili in Aust is that some can be fairly hot but doesn't have as much piquancy.

Habanero
Currently, this is my favourite chili. Formerly the hottest chili in the world and is speculated to have originated in South America. The habanero is not only hot, but it's highly piquant as well. Great with almost any food, it adds a hot, sharp taste. Nom nom, I get chills even thinking about it!

My first encounter with the habanero was at a client site where someone brought in fresh habaneros. Prior to that, I've only heard about this chili but never experienced it. I, being the foolhardy chili daredevil, ate the entire chili pepper (crunching it and all). This is what happened when someone else also did something like this:

Needless to say, I started drinking lots of water but that didn't cut it, so I drank mild instead. It got to a point where I realised I was getting full from drinking too much milk and had to stop. I basically took myself out for about an hour!

Habaneros are quite rare in Perth - Australia, and about a couple of months ago, I managed to get my hands on some from Coles. The habaneros were fantastic! I haven't seen any recently and is always on the lookout. Anyone know where to get some?

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Blair's death sause
I'm about to order this: http://chilliandspice.com.au/index.php?p=product&id=186&parent=0

Has anyone tried it before?

World's hottest chili
The habanero chili at one time was considered the hottest in the world. The bhut jolokia (or ghost chili) then replaced it as the hottest in 2007. In 2010, a farmer created the naga viper pepper which is a 3-way hybrid of some of the world's hottest chili. Apparently, it's unstable, so they can't reliably reproduce it. I haven't had the pleasure of eating a fresh bhut jolokia or naga (only had them in sauses) so I'm longing to try!

Bhut Jolokia
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Naga Viper
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Latrommi

United States222 Posts

July 18 2011 17:43 GMT

When I saw this on the sidebar, I thought it said "A blog about Chill" and immediately clicked on it. I wasn't disappointed. But you have a really spicy taste. If I were to try any of the ones you mentioned, I would be crying for hours. Good blog, I might show some of my more adventurous friends this

Thrax

Canada1755 Posts

July 18 2011 17:52 GMT

This blog is incomplete without a mention of sriracha

Servius_Fulvius

United States947 Posts

July 18 2011 18:05 GMT

A friend of mine told me a story about an acquaintance that decided to eat a bhut jolokia in the same way you would have eaten the habanero. After extreme abdominal pain he was admitted to the hospital with intestinal ulcerations. Apparently just eating the pepper isn't a great idea, but perhaps he did it wrong.

I like the content of the thread, though. I've been making chili (the dish, not the peppers) for over a year now (and making my own seasonings for the last nine months). I haven't branched out to using peppers yet, but this gives me a nice list to try!

Gnial

Canada907 Posts

July 18 2011 18:17 GMT

Just looking at the Bhut Jolokia and the Naga Viper is making my eyes water.

Chill

Calgary26003 Posts

July 18 2011 18:17 GMT

Really interesting. I have zero diversity in my peppers. I basically use bell peppers, jalapenos, cayenne, and Sriracha. I would love it if my grocery store sold different types so I could cook with them and learn the differences.

I don't really like tobasco, outside of in soup. Never heard of nandos :O.

Ryalnos

United States1946 Posts

July 18 2011 18:20 GMT

I thought this was a blog about this guy ^

TerraTron

Canada137 Posts

July 18 2011 18:35 GMT

Here i was thinking it would be about Chill lol.
The sauces u mentioned, I've never even heard of before and every food thread makes me sooo hungry >.> Wish I could try some of those sometime

YourMom

Romania565 Posts

July 18 2011 18:44 GMT

Check out this story:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/jeremy_clarkson/article6860067.ece

Blazinghand

United States25562 Posts

July 18 2011 19:37 GMT

#10

I.... I thought this was a blog post about Chill. It wasn't until I got to the first image that I realized it was actually about Chili. It's pretty inforative, too >.>

Goot post. I had a chuckle, AND learned something

Hekisui

195 Posts

July 18 2011 20:22 GMT

#11

Chinense varieties is where it's at. Trinidad Scorpion Butch T is currently the hottest by the way.

Australia has quite some chili pepper enthusiasts. The Butch T variety was actually grown in Australia.

Don't buy seeds of big shot chinense varieties like Butch T, 7 pod, Trinidad Scorpion, Jolokia or Naga Viper. They are extremely hot. You need something 1/10th the hotness, like a normal Habanero or Scot's Bonnet. They will inflict so much pain you won't be able to eat any of the food prepared with them.
If you have any chinense and you slice it in half, you will instinctively realize it is seriously poisonous because of the smell. Of course it is, but in a pain inflicting way.

It can't be compared to using cayenne powder. It's so much more intense. Just try making a guacamole with a 150,000 to 300,000 scoville chinense.

Those Blair sauce people sell pure capsaicin. That's pretty crazy. They sell sauces that are way worse than spraying a bottle of pepper spray down your throat.

Probulous

Australia3894 Posts

July 19 2011 01:27 GMT

#12

On July 19 2011 03:17 Chill wrote:
Really interesting. I have zero diversity in my peppers. I basically use bell peppers, jalapenos, cayenne, and Sriracha. I would love it if my grocery store sold different types so I could cook with them and learn the differences.

I don't really like tobasco, outside of in soup. Never heard of nandos :O.

You poor bastard...

Nando's is the only takeaway food worth eating as it comes with some almighty spice!

I love Chilli...

A dish without spice is never ever nice...

That lingering heat of a proper vindaloo, the sharp pang of a fresh bird's eye. The slighty sour soothing of a pickled jalapeno.

One of my favourites things is for breakfast, instead of roasting tomatoes by themselves (seriously boring), plant a couple of jalapeno slices ontop and voila`. Pure awesomeness.