I could have chosen any of a number of post topics covered over the past week… But I really wanted to take another swipe at the Hot Sauce fad/thing/trend. I can’t for the life of me, figure out why so many diners use SO much hot sauce!
The official Hot Ones Hot Sauce Challenge: Who in their right mind…?
If you read my post this past week about hot sauce overload, I should not have to say anything more before offering my questions for you to muse upon. But I still have some excess venom in my system to burn off.
Why?
I just don’t understand why folks insist on taking part in such activities as hot sauce challenges. DO thy think it makes them appear tougher? More Heroic? Somehow superior to the ‘Mild Salsa’ Set? As far as I’m concerned, they’re just a bunch of masochists competing to see who can take the most self-punishment.
But there are other reasons to shun the hot sauce sphere…
An objective view
Taking an objective view, I first have to note that too much of a too-hot substance can actually harm, or even kill you.
Remember the sad, misguided hot chili craze which even spawned a commercial product? It was called Paqui’s One Chip Challenge? It featured a ‘kit’ daring participants could buy. The kit contained a single, explosive corn chip – dosed with a blend of extracts from Carolina Reapers, the hottest commercially cultivated peppers on earth, and Naga Vipers. (See photo, top of page.)
Worcester, Mass. teen Harris Wolobah died hours after taking the One Chip Challenge. Harris’s family told CBS News they wanted the product banned. It has now been taken off the shelves.
“I hope, I pray to God that no [other] parents will go through what I’m going through. I don’t want to see anybody hurting the way I’m hurting.” Harris’s mother Lois Wolobah told WBZ-TV.
A more-practical approach
Extremes aside, I object to overly hot chili pepper sauces on principle. Classic Tabasco Sauce is the hottest such condiment anyone should need. And it’s a million of times less powerful than the stuff that killed Harris Wolobah.
The issue is simply this: too-hot a pepper sauce, or too much of a reasonably hot one will always drown the flavour of what you’re putting it on. So what’s the point?
Even staying under the heat level of Tabasco, you have a grand array of different peppers to work with including, Poblanos, Jalapenos, Anaheims, Banana Peppers, and preparations such as Adobo (made from red, ripened Jalapenos).
They’re not so hot that you won’t be able to tell their unique flavours apart. And they will comple-ment, not ruin the foods you put them on – or in.
My take
I love dishes such as Chilis, Moles, Asian specialties such as Kung Pao Chicken, Curries, Jambalayas and Gumbos, and Italian classics such as Arribbiatta Sauce. And I MUST have mild or medium Salsa, and/or Red and Green sauces on the table when I’m dining on Mexican or Tex-Mex delicacies.
So hot sauce fans: I’m not crazy or a hater. I just like to taste what I’m eating. And I don’t want to end up in the hospital with oral or esophageal burns…
My questions to you:
Do you like chili peppers?
Do you use hot sauces?
Have you ever had a sauce so hot that you couldn’t taste the food you put it on?
Have you ever taken part in a Hot Pepper Challenge?
Muse on that…
~ Maggie J.