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Nick Lindauer and John Defcon Creator Dilley on TV Video from 2007
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A huge thanks to John "Creator" Dilley of Defcon Sauces for uploading this to YouTube. It's a huge blast from the past, even though it's only 5-6 years old.
The following video is an episode of How the Best is Done, which was a series shown on the low-rated Fuse TV and has since been shown on Halogen TV. This 29-minute-long program closely mirrors a lot of the hot sauce/spicy food "phenomenon" shows that have been aired on the History Channel and the Food Network over the years. This one dates back to probably 2007.
What makes this a bit different is that it's probably the first appearance of a hot sauce blogger on a nationally-televised program. If you're a fan of ScottRobertsweb.com, as well as other prominent fiery foods blogs, then you're probably well aware that it has its roots in groundbreaking sites such as HotSauceBlog.com and TheHotZoneOnline.com, both of which date back to the mid-'00s. Anyway, the blogger I speak of is none other than Nick Lindauer, owner of the non-defunct HotSauceBlog.com, who gets quite a bit of face time to wax poetic about hot sauces and spicy food.
If you've been following the chilehead community, you might recognize another face or two. You'll see Nick join John Dilley and his wife, Maggie; Amir from Green Bandit; and Csigi from Csigi Gourmet inside of Spanky's BBQ by Times Square sharing and testing hot sauces, including an early version of Defcon ZERO back in 2006. Representatives from Chile Pepper Magazine (who of course, are no longer with them as they've since changed ownership once or twice) also are featured and explain the basics of chile peppers and capsaicin. The Louisiana food spicy culture also gets ample airtime.
Interesting, the hottest chile pepper at this time, the naga morich, was just starting to make news at this point in time. Within less than a year of this episode, Dr. Paul Bosland and the Chile Pepper Institute got awarded the Guinness World Record for Hottest chile with the bhut jolokia (aka ghost chile), which is closely related to, if not the same thing as, the naga morich.
All in all it's a very well-done episode and is worth a half-hour of your time.
Review - Duke and Baron's All-American Diablo Verde
I've been really digging on some spectacular green sauces lately. In my opinion, the salsa verde sub-genre is one of the most underrated in the world of condiments and food enhancers.
Diablo Verde is yet another entry in this type of hot sauce. It is produced by Duke & Baron's All American, a gourmet specialty foods company that uses only organic, whole food ingredients. The company was formed by a few friends who share a love for great food and wanted to do something to show our appreciation for the brave men and women who defend our great country. How do they do this? Well, for every product you purchase from Duke & Baron's All American, they will donate a product to both active and inactive U.S. military personnel.
Duke & Baron's All American has an expanding line of products which include hot sauces, BBQ sauces, rubs and marinades. They obviously support a great cause, but can they produce a great product? Jim Lemkin of Duke & Baron's sent me a few bottles of Diablo Verde to see if it indeed belongs among all the other excellent green sauces I've been trying lately...
Is Your Calendar Filled Up Yet? Attend These Hot Sauce and Chilehead Festivals and Events
When people ask me if it's worth it to make a trip to a chilehead, spicy foods or hot sauce trade show or festival. The majority of the time, it's a big, resounding "YES!". Most of these destinations have plenty of great new fiery products, sauces, seasonings and all-around flavor enhancers to try and purchase, some have fun activities, but almost all can boast most awesome people! From vendors to chilehead attendees, you get to meet and hang out with some of the coolest, salt-of-the-earth folks you'll ever encounter. Even if you live hundreds of miles away from a venue, quite often it's highly worth a weekend trip to experience everything and partake in the chilehead camaraderie.
I've recently updated my Chileheads Events Calendar to reflect some of the newer dates of happenings taking place in 2012. A couple of events - more specifically, Open Fields and the NOLA Hot Sauce & Gourmet Show - are tentatively scheduled and no official dates can be given yet. But rest assured - I've been told directly from the event producers that they are coming in the early Fall. Keep the calendar bookmarked and watch this blog, as I'll post new info when I receive it!
So take a look at the chileheads events database and start planning your trip today! And who knows? I might get to meet you later this year!
Review - Tabanero Hot Sauce
Our story started approximately seven years ago. Still a burgeoning chilehead, I recall jumping on the non-defunct Hot Sauce Blog and seeing a posted notice that there was an offer out to get a free bottle of some new hot sauce called Tabanero. From what I recollect, I bought an issue of Chile Pepper Magazine (I was not a regular subscriber then) and took advantage of the "only pay for shipping" offer.
The bottle arrived in the mail a few weeks after. I remember that the label had the word "Tabasco" in additional to the name of the sauce (which is easy to guess that it's a blend of "Tabasco" and "Habanero"), so what registered on my head? Yep, you guessed it...I thought this was an official McIlhenny Company product before closely examining the contact info on the label. I'm sure a lot of folks made that false assumption, perhaps not even knowing that there is a state in the country of Mexico called Tabasco, let alone a chile pepper with that moniker. (Yes, there was a label change following this initial shipment, possibly because they heard from McIlhenny's attorneys.)
But back to the product itself. I took great pleasure in Tabanero's citrusy tang, its sharpness and its fresh vegetable notes, not unlike Marie Sharp's. In fact, it was this very sauce that I credit for making me fall head over heels in love with the "carrot style" hot sauce genre, with subsequent examples of the style being Benito's Original Naranja Hot Sauce and Intensity Academy Hot Cubed.
From what I understand is that in the years since, Tabanero Hot Sauce Picante has been reformulated. Let's see if it still has both a uniqueness and a familiarity I once was crazy about.
Review - Honeyblaze Wing Sauces
Long before ZestFest 2012, there was a bit of conversation about a new wing sauce containing the distinctive flair of honey. This product called Honeyblaze Wing Sauce had received accolades on The Hot Pepper forums, and had been reviewed on I Love It Spicy.
Now, you know that if you mention anything about wings, I'll make a mental note about it; and if you start giving phrases to a wing sauce, my attention will grow from being a stat in the backburner of my mind to a heavy salivation and a rumbling in my stomach to try it as soon as possible. Al "Buddah" Goldenberg had then declared Honeyblaze his wing sauce of the year, so it had become even more of desire to grab some of this.
I had met Honeyblaze's owner Miller Townsend at ZestFest. Miller provided a couple of small sample bottles that I could take with me on the plane ride back home to St. Louis. I cracked open said bottles, and was immediately met with a heavy and potent honey aroma. Honestly, although I can admire the usage of honey in a product - I love a bulk of the fiery sauces and spreads that Sam and Tina McCanless of Zane & Zack's World Famous Honey Co. have whipped up - a quick taste lick from the Honeyblaze samplers revealed a tremendous amount of honey. Perhaps too much, so I had developed doubts, as premature as those opinions may have been.
Now I've since ordered a pair of normal 16 oz. bottles of both Honeyblaze Original Wing Sauce and Honeyblaze Medium Wing Sauce for review. I should be fair and see how they fare on some actual wings, so read on to find out what I thought.
Third Annual Jerky Challenge
Do you make jerky that you think out-rivals the store bought variety?
Do you think your jerky is the best you have ever tired?
Do you think if there were a jerky competition you would win it?
Its back! Were talking about the ThirdAnnual Jerky Contest which, like the event last year, is a World Class Jerky Competition. Again this year we will be doing a winner take all contest. Whether it's hot or mild, we will be combining all types of jerky into one category.
Fiery Things to Do Before You Die - Do You Have a Spicy Bucket List?
Do you have a list of foodie-related things to do before you leave this world? Are there any hot sauce, chile pepper, BBQ or general culinary activities that you want to check off your bucket list? Would any of them include:
Creating and marketing you own hot sauce or salsa?
Conquering every hot wing challenge known to man?
Making the journey to a major fiery foods show?
Opening up your own restaurant, bar or diner?
Eventually eating the world's hottest chile pepper?
Travelling and visiting the best curry houses in the UK?
Forming and competing with your own competition BBQ team?
Eating a spicy dish on every continent?
Finally building up enough courage to try some caviar?
Writing a cookbook?
Getting your own cooking show on TV?
Chowing down on some barbecue in Australia, Uruguay, or Europe?
Let everyone know in the comments below!
The World's Hottest Vodka? 100,000 Scovilles Naga Chilli Vodka
Do you know of a hotter vodka than 100,000 Scovilles Naga Chilli Vodka?
Packing more heat than the devil with a shotgun, this dangerously spicy vodka is up there with the Habanero chile pepper and Scotch Bonnet pepper on the Scoville Heat Scale infamous scale. Claimed as the world's hottest vodka, this volatile blend is only for the serious chilehead. Forget hot toddies, the makers even warn against drinking this powerful stuff in measures as large as a shot.
Interested parties can find it for sale on http://www.firebox.com, plus you can view a video of fine British folks sampling it here.
All the Spicy Foods Found in My Local Supermarket - A Photo Documentation
This, like many other ideas I conjure up for blog posts, struck me out of the blue.
The topic is, what is every single spicy item for sale at my local grocery store? I know that more and more foods made "hot" by chile peppers are gaining huge acceptance in the mainstream populace. It's interesting to see the contrast from what grocers offered 20, 10, and even as little as 5 years ago. It was difficult to spot little more than a few cayenne-style pepper sauces. Now the fiery edibles are becoming for and more prevalent down many supermarket aisles.
For this demonstration of what can be found at the typical American grocery store, I chose the place I patronize for most of my basic food shopping: Shop N' Save in Fenton, Missouri. Yes, before you say anything, I realize there are numerous other retailers around the St. Louis metropolitan area that specialize in cuisine from cultures more atuned to spiciness, e.g. Asian or Indian food. What's more, there are other retail chains that have shown some surprising pushes towards super-hot heat; one outstanding example are the dried bhut jolokia AKA ghost chile pepper pods I once found at Dierberg's. And numerous other smaller grocers and specialty/gourmet shops offer some scorching fare. So instead of going for the extremes or establishments with an inclination towards the more exotic, I wanted to see what homogonized, middle-America had on sale for chileheads.
What do I define as fiery or spicy food? It's simply anything made more pungent by the heat of chile peppers, whether it be sauces, salsas, frozen/refrigerated/dry processed foods or prepared foods in the deli. Items that might have fit within a broad category such as Asian food or Mexican weren't necessarily deeemed spicy; therefore just because there are frozen burritos for sale doesn't mean they're a "fiery food". It they're labeled or considered to be "spicy," or for instance are said to be "jalapeno" flavored,then I will include them.
I'll go aisle by aisle and see what I can spot. As a journeyed around the store in the typical counter-clockwise fashion, first up was the Deli section beside the Produce department...
The Hot Sauce Bible is Being Updated, and We Want YOUR Information!
The Hot Sauce Bible: Revised Old & New Testament
by Dave DeWitt, Chuck Evans and Scott Roberts
The authors are seeking worldwide manufacturers who make spicy sauces & salsas with chile peppers as their primary occupation to submit their story for a book abut the history of the hot sauce manufacturing industry, to be published at a later date. The book will supplement pepper sauce and salsa manufacturing and is a follow-up to original The Hot Sauce Bible (1996) Crossing Press, which went out-of-print in 2001. The Hot Sauce Bible: New Testament will provide a history of the industry from 1996 to present, coupled with a revised Old Testament for a historical record of hot sauce and salsa manufacturing as has been pieced together by Chuck Evans.
Co-packer manufacturers are welcome to submit information for inclusion as long as the co-packer has their own in-house labeled product line.
Hobbyists, week-end chileheads, and manufacturers making products at home or...
ZZ Top's Billy F. Gibbons Launches Hot Sauces
ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons has launched a line of hot sauces. So far, there are two blends in the range.
One of the sauces is dubbed "BFG #44 Sauce Piquant" and it is described as a "blend of the finest peppers for a truly unique fire-inducing flavor" while the "BFG #44 BBQ Sauce" makes our mouth water with its description as "sweet, tangy, spicy and smoky."
Both sauces feature the guitarist's mug, and his famous long and furry beard, on the label.
Nab yours on the quick, since the are limited edition and available for a short time here.
Are you a hot sauce connoisseur? Are you going to grab a bottle from BFG?
Go to billygibbons.com for more information.
Scott Featured in StreetScape Magazine
I'm not one to pat myself on the back, and I don't ever want to turn onto someone who does. That's just not who I am.
Just at the insistence of a few friends, I'm going to mention that I was featured on the Spring 2012 issue of StreetScape Magazine, a local St. Louis, MO periodical. I was interviewed towards the tail-end of January 2012, and had a photo shoot done smack-dab in the middle of the hot sauce room at the awesome Figuero's in St. Charles (I think photographer Michael Schlueter did a fantastic job).
I'd like to thank the kindness and generosity displayed by the staff of StreetScape. It was loads of fun doing this! While the news that the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T as being the world's hottest chile pepper was already outdated by the time this was published, I'm glad that fiery foods in general got some good press.
If you'd like to read it, you can do so using their online viewer.
Randy Rhoads Remembered 30 Years Later
Many people know me as a huge Eddie Van Halen fanatic, with him influencing me both as a guitarist and as a non-musician (I at one point maintained three different VH websites - VHTrading.com. VHFAQ.com and VHGuitar.com).
Yet at one point there was someone else who inspired my playing just as much as Eddie. That person was the late, great Randy Rhoads.
For those of you unfamiliar with the story, here's the condensed version. Randy cut his teeth at his mother's music school while playing in the local L.A. music scene. He was a founding member of Quiet Riot, and left that band after ripping out two albums with them (and before they recorded their multi-platinum breakthrough Metal Health) to join Ozzy Osbourne's new solo outfit after he departed Black Sabbath in 1979. Randy became Ozzy's main man and songwriting partner, and together they forged instant metal masterpieces in the early '80s with Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman. Both of these records, with help of Van Halen's early material, created a blueprint of what guitar-dominated hard rock with be for the next 10 years...
Calling All Sauce Makers! Let's Help Out a Good Cause
If you were around back in the heyday of the Hot Sauce Blog, then you'll remember Eric "Eman" Nanista quite well.
Well, Eman is putting some hot sauce baskets together for a silent auction to benefit Cystic Fibrosis on April 15th for some local Missouri kids with this disease.
If you're a product manufacturer, please consider helping out! It doesn't matter if you make hot sauce, BBQ sauce, wing sauce, seasonings or whatever...your contributions will be greatly appreciated! So if you would like to have your brand represented or would like to just donate something, please email Eman at eric_nanista "at" yahoo.com and he will get you his shipping address. Thanks again!
Review - Senor Roberto's Mexican Hot Sauce
Next up on the review counter is Señor Roberto's Mexican Hot Sauce. According to its website, this sauce was originally concocted for a family-owned restaurant in Peoria, Illinois Mexican restaurant called Pepe Taco, which was known for having "Mexican Food for American Tastes." Rob Schunk, owner of Pepe Taco, retired from the restaurant business but still makes the Señor Roberto's Hot Sauce. Even though the website claims that this condiment is great for "pizza, wings and much more", I'm still eager to put it through its paces on Mexican cuisine...
