Chilli-Labor/atory

China schätzt frische Zutaten – wie man am Fisch, frisch vom Markt, leicht merkt:
China values fresh ingredients – as you can tell from the fish, fresh from the market:

In anderer Form braucht man ihn dann allerdings…
It’s needed in a slightly different form, however…

… und erhält ausgezeichnetes Essen.
… to give an excellent dish.

Rezept folgt. Der hier verwendete Fisch sind übrigens Karauschen

Stumbled across some really nice reporting of a trip to Assam/Nagaland on the trail of the Bhut Jolokia / Naga Jolokia pepper, the new record-holder with regards to pungency.

Article by Karen Coates on her website, here (pdf), further pictures by Jerry Redfern here.

Getting chocolate in China is not as difficult as some seem to think.

Dove chocolates can be found rather easily, and they are good enough to satisfy a quick craving. Though, admittedly, I’m a chocoholic, not a chocolate snob, so I’ll eat most things chocolate-y enough…

Yet, for finding really good chocolates, one has to find one’s “dealers.” Hence, a word of advice:
I’m not sure if it’s just because I have good relations to them, but Xocolat, Austria’s preeminent chocolate store, will ship internationally. The website is just in German, but if you can understand (or find something interesting just so), try to ask nicely… For me, they certainly have been of great help, and I wanted to acknowledge that also in this way.
Coppeneur is one of my favorite chocolate makers. They produce excellent truffles, creative truffle bars (including some with – at least some – chile pepper and other spices), and high-class “normal” bars. CandyAndMore first put me off because they also offer many other (not so high-class, in my opinion) sweets, but then I tried them anyways – good thing, as they offer the widest selection of Coppeneur’s products and have excellent customer service, to boot.

After all this commercialism, some news from the sweet heat-front:

• Montezuma’s has (had?) a milk chocolate bar with lime and chile pepper. As far as I can remember the taste of that, it tastes just like Cowgirl Chocolate’s (also former, it seems) Lime/Tequila truffles…
  Now, all seem to be going for dark chocolate in that…
• Akesson’s is not going for chile pepper (yet, maybe), but producing their own cacao and black pepper, and using both in chocolates. I had some of their “75% Trinitario cocoa & black pepper,” which is very dark, very strong, and well worth sampling

Both makers’ chocolates are hard to get, but Xocolat does (sometimes) offer them.

Fascinating.

There are stories of cowboys putting chile pepper powder into their socks to warm the feet.

China has taken that idea a step further:

You can find clothes like this, with capsaicin worked into the textile in order to get a warming effect…

So, female underwear that, for once, is cute and yet meant to get the wearer hot, not the onlooker.

The uses to which chile peppers can be put

Fiery Foods and Barbecue SuperSite – China and the World – of Chile Peppers.

Schweden-Bohnen – Essen – derStandard.at › Essen & Trinken.

Ganz interessanter Artikel über Akesson’s, die durch ihre Kakao- und Pfeffer-Plantagen und Schokoladen die beides kombinieren immer mehr von sich reden machen.

LU Domino Black

I was recently on the lookout for products I had come to know during my sojourn in Latvia (I credit Fazer’s Christmas Chocolate with getting me through the winter there).

One discovery: the LU cookies which are rather like Oreo’s – but in a flavor you won’t be getting anywhere other than Scandinavia – salmiac (which is salty licorice) and chilli.

Honestly, I don’t know if I’d want to try that. It sure would be something different, though

In case you’d like to: Suomikauppa is selling them online (their shipping charges are rather high, but the service is good – disclaimer: just a customer, no affiliation)

Ungarische Küche: In aller Schärfe – Merian – Reiseziele.

Wie so üblich – umso weiter man weg ist, umso mehr liest man über Dinge in der Nähe… ich hoffe allerdings, bald auch wieder selbst zu schreiben

Nicht nur, dass sich Chilli in der chinesischen Küche gerne wiederfindet, es wird auch für seine verschlankende Wirkung geschätzt. Und nein, nicht weil das Essen so scharf gerät, dass man es nicht mehr essen kann…

Der neueste Streich: Watson’s, so etwas wie Schlecker in China, hat gar seine eigene Reihe schlankmachender Körperpflege ins Angebot genommen. (Übrigens angeblich mit Chilli-Extrakt aus Frankreich. – Gute Kosmetik kommt doch aus Frankreich, oder?)

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Not only do we find chile peppers in Chinese cuisine, it’s also valued for its slimming properties. And no, not because the food gets so spicy, one can’t eat it…

The latest: Watson’s, China’s Walgreen’s, if you will, has introduced its own line of slimming products . (According to the packaging, with chile pepper extract from France. – Isn’t all good cosmetics from France?)

Den Artikel über meine Abenteuer auf der “Jagd” nach Chilli in China gibt es auch in deutscher Übersetzung, nämlich auf Harald Zoschke’s Pepperworld