HYDERABAD, India - A fire has broken out at one of India’s largest chili markets, burning hundreds of thousands of pounds of chili peppers.

Residents and officials say the burning chili smoke is stinging the eyes and throats of people in Guntur in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

One local official says 150,000 bags of chilies have been destroyed across a 20-hectare area in Saturday’s blaze.

Officials have evacuated nearby residents, and firefighters are still trying to control the flames.

No causalities have been reported. It remains unclear what started the fire. Source

Eat hot sauce, lose weight?

How to lose weight and add some spice to your meals.
By Dee Van Dyk (canadianliving.com)

Baltimore-based orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Spiro Antoniades hit rock bottom in 2004 when his own doctor told Antoniades he was starting to become diabetic.

“I panicked and took a whole week off work, which for me was a big deal,” says Antoniades. “I went to the medical library and studied everything that I could think of.”

Like many other people struggling with excess weight, Antoniades had tried other diets before, but without success. “And I was exercising three or four times a week pretty vigorously, but not enough.”

The answer came in a bottle. A hot sauce bottle. Antoniades began to use hot sauce to punish his bad behaviours. “I knew that hot sauce, hot peppers and chilli peppers suppressed my appetite and kept me from overeating,” he says.

“The hot sauce diet was, for me, the catalyst. I already understood everything I was doing wrong, but even though I consider myself a very disciplined and smart person, I couldn’t control myself.”

A year after starting his hot sauce diet, Antoniades had lost 70 pounds and put his personal dieting experience into an inspiring and humorous book called The Hot Sauce Diet: A Journey of Behavior Modification (iUniverse, 2006).

The science of hot sauce
Hot sauce works to advance weight loss in three ways, says Antoniades:

1. It’s an appetite suppressant.

2. It makes you thirsty, which makes you drink more water and therefore eat less.

3. Hot sauce is toxic and can make your face flush and feel uncomfortable. This discomfort creates a situation of aversive conditioning.

Antoniades took a shot of hot sauce when he was experiencing abnormal eating behaviours that included a feeling of being way too hungry. The hot sauce shot would curb his hunger.

Is it as simple as it sounds?
No, says Antoniades. He maintains that you have to know yourself and the wrong behaviour for his method to be successful. Antoniades recognized early in his own weight loss process that one of his weak periods was after work. “I’d come home starving and I’d eat the whole family dinner before we even sat down at the dinner table, and then I’d eat another dinner.”

Antoniades employed his “pushback” — one teaspoon of hot sauce in a glass of tomato juice — to calm his appetite, pique his thirst and cause him to drink water. He found that, by using his pushback, he was able to eat dinner normally.

At work, Antoniades would do the same at lunch, liberally lacing his soup with hot sauce. Then, using a stopwatch, he timed himself with a goal of taking 10 minutes to finish his soup. “That’s something else I’ve learned from the behavioural psychology research. It should take you about 20 minutes to eat a meal. My meals used to average 30 seconds.”

How to make the hot sauce diet work for you
1. Count your calories and know the details of your diet.
2. Slap the Angry Hungry Man (or Woman) with some hot sauce.
3. Let the sauce work, and drink a lot of water to remove the burn.
4. Eat a balanced, sensible diet.

Dangers of consuming too much hot sauce?
“The active ingredient in hot sauce is capsaicin,” says Antoniades. “It’s toxic, but you have to drink about 1.5 litres.”

What about ulcers? Antoniades cites a study where rats subjected to lethal doses of capsaicin died from respiratory failure and, upon autopsy, no ulcers were found. But what if you’re a human? “I was worried about ulcers when I started the diet, but I found nothing happened. In fact, there’s no scientific evidence that spicy food or substances cause ulcers.”

Just a quick announcement here that Blair’s Pure Death is now available on his website www.extremefood.com.

Pure Death
Orange Habanero Chili Pods, Jolokia Chili Pods, Vinegar, and Baked Hawaiin Red Salt……That is It….PURE—–Clean, Use it on Everything….The Heat is Balanced not Piercing just perfect…On Our Heat Scale Pure Death Falls in the After Death Level But contains No Extract….It is BRIGHT orange and so Fresh…….Enjoy

http://extremefood.com/product.php?id=164

Growing a market for a unique product
First step in selling green garlic was showing people how to use it, entrepreneur says

By SANDRA BRETTING
For The Chronicle

It all began for Dilip Naik when he tried to find fresh green garlic like the type used by his grandmother in his native India.

The vegetable is grown during the winter months there, but Naik wanted to produce it in this country year-round.

“Green garlic is tricky,” Naik said. “It’s not a hardy plant, and when you grow it in soil, the cloves aren’t much to look at. Plus, a lot of people here don’t know what to do with it. They don’t realize you can use the stalk for chives, not just the clove of the plant.”

For Naik, a breakthrough occurred when he attempted hydroponics, a method of growing plants in water.

He had moved his family to Sugar Land and experimented with various growing methods for more than 10 years.

Today, his company, Gourmet Country Farm in Rosenberg, sells fresh green garlic and green garlic products to Whole Foods, Central Market and a Spec’s Liquor Store.

Bumps along the way
According to Naik, a structural engineer by trade, the journey from backyard gardener to produce company owner has been anything but easy.

“Because I know what the garlic should taste like, I wasn’t happy with the quality I was getting when I grew it in the ground,” Naik said.

“The problem is that nobody had developed the technology to harvest it, so everything I needed, I had to create myself.”

“Everything” included special growing beds, a water system that would adequately hydrate the plant without oversaturating it, and a method of harvesting that wouldn’t crush the cloves. Read More

GRILL IT! WITH BOBBY FLAY ON THE FOOD NETWORK!

Are you a Master Griller? Are all barbeques held at your house? If you’re a serious griller (charcoal or gas) and have the skills to prove it, then live out your culinary fantasy on Bobby Flay’s new half hour GRILL IT! series on the Food Network.

To apply, please create a 3-minute VHS Tape or DVD in which you cook us your favorite dish. Tell us how you created the recipe and the ingredients you use.

All applicants must have a terrific personality and must illustrate why you’d make a fantastic candidate for GRILL IT! with Bobby Flay! Unlike “Throwdown with Bobby Flay” there’s no winners or losers, instead GRILL IT! shows people how to grill with a well-stocked kitchen.

All applicants must live in the U.S and be 18 and over (although quick-witted teenagers with parents’ permission can apply).

To be considered, please mail your submission tape, original recipe and photo of yourself to the address below no later than March 15th.

ATT: GRILL IT!
110 Leroy Street
New York City, NY 10014

Questions? Email us at grillitwithbobby@gmail.com

Lars had a great article recently released in one of his local papers - It’s good to see a dedicated chilehead getting some good press!

By Helen Yanulus
Pocono Record Writer
January 28, 2008

Lars Chigi likes it hot, hot, hot.

The freezer of his home kitchen in Blue Mountain Lakes is packed with such fiery chili varieties as bhut jolokia, naga morich, fatalii, Cayenne Super II Hybrid and rocoto.
“I eat chili peppers in some form every day in at least two of my meals,” Chigi said. “It’s like a drug addiction. Once you get a hankering for flavor and heat, you want more. It’s a healthy addiction.”

Chigi has turned his passionate quest for the ultimate burn into a gourmet food business. Csigi Gourmet — which uses the Hungarian spelling of his surname — has been in business since 2005. His products, which include three varieties of hot sauces, pasta sauce, salsa, barbecue sauce and a balsamic vinaigrette, have won several awards.

And it all started when he was a youngster growing up in Hunterdon County, N.J., where he marveled at how his grandmother made the best pasta sauce. “Every time she made it, it tasted the same though she never measured it,” said Chigi, who watched her grind fresh tomatoes and add spices in a specific order as well as meat for flavor. “I try to emulate what she did in her kitchen in my own way.” Read the entire article here

From Yahoo News:

As vulnerable as naked mole rats seem, researchers now find the hairless, bucktoothed rodents are invulnerable to the pain of acid and the sting of chili peppers.

A better understanding of pain resistance in these sausage-like creatures could lead to new drugs for people with chronic pain, scientists added.

Read the entire story here

Charlottetown drum crafter Amiel LeBlanc brews up four sizzling hot sauces to torch the tongues of like-minded hot sauce aficionados.
MARY MACKAY
The Guardian

Some like it hot.

But hot sauce lovers like it hotter.

And Amiel LeBlanc of Cardigan has ignited his love of tongue-sizzling hot sauces into a business with four fiery delights made with the raging heat of the trademarked Red Savina habanero peppers.

“It’s the hottest habanero in the world,” this P.E.I. drum crafter says from his Funkfactory Drum Shop in Charlottetown where a Wall of Fire section is devoted to his sauces and other specialty brands.

To put the heat into perspective, on the Scoville heat units scale, a jalapeño pepper rates at 2,500 to 8,000, but a Red Savina habanero is a scorching 580,000. And the Red Savina extract that LeBlanc uses in his Give ’Er sauce is 1.5-million Scoville units.

LeBlanc brewed his first big batch of hot pepper sauce nearly eight years ago to send some to a Island friend out west.

He bottled up the rest for Christmas gifts.

Production really heated up when he presented some sauces along with his drums at craft shows a few years ago.

He now produces a series of four sauces: a garlic-flavoured Simply Savina, a mustard-based Yellow Devil, the extra-extra hot Give ’Er Sauce and a mango-peach sauce called Mango Madness. Read the entire story here

Howdy Folks,

I just wanted to let everyone know about the goings on here at DGF. It’s been a real eventful year for us. We won our 10th Scovie this year, Yippie!!!! Pineapple Punch got a 3rd in Fruit Hot Sauce. It’s always nice to have your products do well in these competitions as there are some real good products out there.

We also finally have distribution in the US through Hot Shots in North Carolina, so if you’re a retailer and you’d like to carry our products, they’re your guys. I’d like to say thanks to Dave Lutes at Hot Shots who took a chance on our products when no one else would. This link will take you to their website where you can find their contact info, catalog etc… http://hotshotshotsauce.com . There seem to be more and more on-line retailers with our stuff in the US. Hot Sauce World comes to mind and I believe they are carrying our whole line, although there are many others that you can find without to much trouble.

Something that has just evolved over time rather unexpectedly is that we’re doing more and more food service business. We’re selling a real lot of 4 litre jugs of hot sauce to restaurants and pubs. Private labeling is also a real growing concern. We’ve made sauces for pubs, restaurants, gift shops, delis, meat shops, fish shops, grocery stores, realtors, ski resorts, wedding invitations, party invitations, festivals, engineering firms and who knows what all else.

We’ve got a couple specials on right now. We’re selling our cute little wooden gift box shipping included to anywhere in the US and Canada for $50.00. You can choose any 6 combination of 6 bottles of our hot sauces. Also for 30 measley bucks you can get any 3 bottles of hot sauce shipping included to anywhere in the US or Canada, plus we’re throwing in a free bottle of the Gourmet Habanero. This offer will expire on February 28th, 2008. Just email me your selections as the shopping cart is not set up to handle this. We’re going to have some kind of deal each month so make sure you check back.

Things to watch for:

Mini Bottles - We’re going to make our sauces available in 50ml bottles real soon. I test marketed them in the fall and they were an overwhelming success. For sure all the sauces will be available individually, but I’d like to be able to offer the complete collection in some kind of rack or box. (I’m working on it)

Expansion of the Pantry – We’re going to be selling some other Okanagan/Shuswap area products on the website. There are so many great products being made around here and I’m convinced that this co-operative approach will be good for all involved. We’ll also be wholesaling them to our existing retailers if they so desire. We’re real excited about this and as products come on line we’ll be letting you know.

New Products – Mustards and BBQ sauces are on the agenda, as well as a couple new hot sauces. Nothing yet, but I’m close.

Some random musings…We’re desperately looking for an Eastern Canadian Distributor. If anyone can hook us up there’s a lot of free sauce in it for ya. Which brings me to something else I’ve been thinking about. I’d like to institute some sort of rewards program or finders fee perhaps for people that get us new customers, whether they be retail, private label or food service. Any thoughts???

Well I’d like to thank everyone that took the time to read this mess, and if you’d never like to hear from us again, please email me - denzel@denzelshotsauce.com - and I will make sure you are forever purged from our system.

Cheers,

Denzel

From the Columbus Dispatch:
Beating them at their game

When he first entered the Cajun Hot Sauce Festival in Louisiana several years ago, John Hard — a Columbus maker of hot sauces — wasn’t feeling any Southern hospitality.

“They didn’t even think we grew peppers up here,” he recalled.

Then a funny thing happened: The owner of CaJohns won first place in three of the five categories — and a Buckeye was named grand champion in Cajun country.

“Nobody could believe (that) this guy they were making fun of (won),” said Hard, who sells his sauces at the North Market and online (www.cajohns.com).

Two years later, in 2006, he took three more first-place prizes — and again became the grand champion.

“We went down there and kind of smoked ‘em twice,” he mused.

The OSU fan hopes that his team will do the same.

His advice for bayou beatings: “Just believe in yourself — and stay with your game plan.”