Month: September 2009

If you frequent other hot sauce websites, you may have already read the story of how saucemaker Ed Rome used all of the peppers from his harvest to create only one hot sauce this year. That lone sauce is Inner Bhutty, a tribute to the Inner Beauty Hot Sauce. I’ve never tried Inner Beauty – it’s no longer in production and from what I’ve read, it was a fruity and mustard-heavy Caribbean-style elixir. Ed’s new Inner Bhutty (take note of the spelling) is supposedly strikingly similar with the presence of other chile peppers, including the bhut jolokia (but I bet you already figured that out, didn’t you?).

Because of prior buzz about the original Inner Beauty, I just had to get my hands on Ed’s variation and test it out for myself, to see if this was truly a “bhutty-ful” sauce or not.

There’s one thing I have to mention before a jump into this review. I am NOT a fan of Indian food, and when “Island style” offerings get too close to approximating eastern cuisine with an overabundance of curry and sweet ingredients such as honey, they can (to put it diplomatically) be a VERY acquired taste for me. But I’m open for trying just about anything, especially this Inner Bhutty…

Randy, one of the moderators from one of my other sites, lives in South Korea and recently had a mouth-watering Korean delicacy called “chicken ribs”. Here are his words and photos:

…So here you have Chicken Ribs. Yes – I wrote “CHICKEN RIBS.” You’re probably wondering…who the hell would eat chicken ribs? What are chicken ribs? Is there really such a thing as a chicken rib?

The only answer that I can give you is that there are no bones in this dish. Why do Koreans call it “chicken ribs?” I have no idea – I need to ask though. My wife and I drove up to the city of Chun Chon last night (roughly 100 kilometers northeast of Seoul) – it’s famous for chicken ribs and there are literally dozens upon dozens of chicken rib restaurants there…

For those of you who missed the segment on Travel Channel’s Extreme Conventions, the whole thing is posted below. This footage was taken from the Fiery Foods and BBQ Show held last February 27 – March 1, 2009:

Many of our hot sauce manufacturer friends are featured, including John “DEFCON Creator” Dilley, Firefighter Jim Campbell, Sue Hard of Cajohn’s, Chip Hearn of Peppers.com, Joe Leicht of Flaming Joe’s, Danny Cash, Sam McCanless and Co. of Zane and Zacks World Famous Honey, The German Chili Police, Cayenne Caramels from Lillie Belle Farms, and FFS producer Dave DeWitt. Thanks to James Beck of EatMoreHeat.com for providing the full list of featured folks.

Being both a chilehead and a fan of the Travel Channel’s Man v. Food, I always take great interest when host Adam Richman attempts to tackle spicy food-related eating challenges. For some reason, his recent battle against a four chile pepper hamburger really piqued my interest. He’s previously taken on super hot wings and scorching Indian curry, but I guess what got me intrigued was the fact that this particular challenge could be duplicated at home with relative ease. Instead of trying to figure out a secret formula, mystery recipe, or unknown ingredients that were essential puzzle pieces in other Man v. Food-featured dishes, the Four Horsemen Burger was something somebody like me would have been able to get all the parts necessary for in-home trial.

Okay, let’s get some background on the “real” burger. The Four Horsemen is the ultimate sandwich offered by Chunky’s Burgers in San Antonio, Texas. The “four” in its name represent the four chile peppers present on the burger: jalapeno, serrano, habanero, and the ghost chile, better known as the bhut jolokia. Those supposedly “brave enough to eat it” must put on rubber gloves to avoid “spice burns” and are given 25 minutes on the clock to wolf down the entire thing. After taking the last bite, the challenger must wait an additional 5 minutes to let the pain from the peppers set in, and cannot wipe his or her face or drink or eat anything to alleviate the burning, such as milk or ice cream.

Here’s a quick video snapshot story of how the Four Horsemen Burger is shown the episode…

In the early 1990s, the husband and wife chef team of Mike and Diane Greening went on vacation in Arizona and stumbled upon a hot sauce store boasting supposedly great sauces and bought some to try out. Unimpressed with their lackluster purchases,the couple went on a mission to create a much better product. After a bit of trial and error, one of my personal favorite line of sauces, Ring of Fire, was born, and Mike and Diane’s Gourmet Kitchen, their namesake company, has remained one of the pre-eminent manufacturers in the fiery food industry ever since.

Mike was kind enough to give me the opportunity to ask him a few questions about himself and his passion in this inaugural “FireTalkers” interview feature….