EPTThere 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
![[image loading]](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Qt19NwlJjlg/SjZBKl_zjpI/AAAAAAAAC2o/3aNapR9zpJw/s400/5205-Golden-Century_fresh-chilli-soy-sauce.jpg)
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)
![[image loading]](http://chekyang.com/musings/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/blog-chili.jpg)
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
![[image loading]](http://www.masterfoods.com.au/Images/Product/300x300-CayennePepper.jpg)
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:
![[image loading]](http://chilemojo.com.au/images/products/tab148hab.jpg)
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.
![[image loading]](http://www.nandosusa.com/images/ProductPicHotSauces.jpg)
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.
![[image loading]](http://static-l3.blogcritics.org/09/10/09/115849/091006sriracha.jpg)
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?
![[image loading]](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_cPgL77NTIlc/TAealLxS2OI/AAAAAAAAAb0/vqLMhS9kNjg/s1600/habanero.jpg)
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
![[image loading]](http://images.sciencedaily.com/2007/10/071026162420-large.jpg)
Naga Viper
![[image loading]](http://www.whatsonxiamen.com/wine_images/3216_chilli.jpg)
