My name’s Bill, and my taste buds haven’t always been paved with asphalt.
My wife, daughter, and I live in southern New Jersey, although my tastes have been cultivated by a life on the road. My first encounter with the fire occurred at a chili cookoff at the Astrodome in Houston Texas in the mid 70’s. Later my tongue would be honed by exposure to the fierce cuisine of southeast Asia. It didn’t take long before I was hooked.
Now I look around our house and see entire shelves in the refrigerator and cupboard dedicated to sauces and salsas. Bottles of chile infused oil stand on the counter at the ready, and ristras hang on our walls. Our small garden features jalepenos, cayennes, serranos, and habaneros.
And nothing else.
As far as my current favorite hot sauce, I’d say it’s a toss-up between El Yucateco (green or red) and Sontava XX. We buy the Sontava by the case, and even then are literally unable to keep it in the house we use it so often. I’m looking forward to participating in the “review panel” here at HotSauceBlog.com. We “chile-heads” love swapping stories and reading about peppers and other spicy things almost as much as we do eating them!
Written by Bill
Nick Lindauer founded Hot Sauce Blog in 2004, making it one of the internet's very first hot sauce review sites. After 20+ years of tasting, reviewing, and attending every major fiery foods event in the country, he's back behind the keyboard covering the hot sauce world he helped build.
4 responses to “Greetings…”
Hot and Spicy
I’ve been invited to be a guest reviewer for the HotSauceBlog. Check out my intro here……
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My husband has always made his own salsa with jalepenos from the store. He is going on a detox program that restricts vinegar. Since jalepenos are bottled in distilled vinegar we need an alternative. If we use fresh jalepenos the sauce isn’t hot. How do you get jalepenos to have the “hot” flavor? Will heating them, roasting them in olive oil, or boiling produce the spicy taste? If so, Can you roast them and then refrig or freeze them for later use??Thanks for your help
Ma’am, you just need to look around for ‘hot’ jalapenos, that or move up the food chain a bit to hotter chiles. The heat of jalapenos is variable in the extreme! I’ve had some that were as hot as habaneros and some that were milder than bells. Keep looking around until you find a store that consistently has the kind you prefer. I’d suggest a Mercado or ethnic store since they are more likely to have the hotter ones… as their clients would demand. Best of luck!