Palate and passport under threat

Hi Everyone, You know I like pepper right? Really hot pepper! Over the years I have written to you many times about my obsession with the fiery beauty in all forms – sauced, pickled, dried, boiled and flaked. From this you might have been able to discern that I do not shy away from sinus-clearing-teary eyes-can’t breathe, blisteringly hot pepper sauce. While that is true, I have to confess that all of that well-earned reputation came under serious threat on a recent visit to Guyana. To put it bluntly, I was told that I have been living in Barbados for too long.

20140621pink cynthiaIt all began as I sat down to my first meal of a hot fish curry cooked by my mother. Given that my nephew was part-taking in the meal no pepper was cooked in the curry so all the hot-mouths in the house had to use pepper sauce on the side. Pat, my sister, brought a bottle of very red pepper sauce to the table; you could smell the heat emanating from the opened bottle. Now that’s some proper pepper sauce I thought. Pat asked me how much I wanted. Without hesitation I said I wanted a heaped spoonful and a little more. I asked her to put it at the side of the plate so that I can dip into it as I ate with my hands. I tucked in. My fingers danced on my plate as they mixed the curry, and pepper sauce with the rice; soft fluffy white rice that gently caressed my hands. I felt the sting of heat from the first mouthful of food and by the third mouthful, I found myself looking up to see who was not eating and could get me some water. The pepper sauce was numbingly hot! A Bajan friend of mine, Susan, who was visiting with me saw my searching eyes and asked what was wrong, to which I quickly responded, “nothing.”

As the meal progressed I couldn’t hold it in any longer, I leaned over to my friend and whispered, “The pepper sauce is really hot man!” Susan laughed heartily, in good-natured mockery. My sister (Pat) wanted to know what Susan was laughing at. My eyes pleaded with Susan not to say what it was but I knew it was too good not to share, and she told Pat what I said about the pepper sauce. They had a good laugh and that was when my sister told me that I had been living in Barbados too long. In other words, I had clearly become accustomed to eating Bajan-style pepper sauce which heat seekers consider to be a nice hot sauce but not a real, real pepper sauce, say like a Guyanese pepper sauce.

I was stung and felt my heat-eating pride wounded. I can eat very hot pepper! I can consume generous servings of very hot pepper sauce with a variety of foods! I can. I know I can. Several occasions would follow over a 10-day period in which I would cower under the heat of Guyanese pepper sauce. It was on one of those occasions, that I was told that my passport might need to be taken away. My credibility as a heat-loving, heat-seeking, heat-celebrating food enthusiast was clearly under threat. How could this happen? I do buy copious amounts of scotch bonnets and habanero and bird pepper whenever in season. I prepare them in a variety of ways and eat them. How come ‘then’ I was having this crisis of lower tolerance for the intensely flavourful heat of Guyanese pepper sauce?

Guyanese Pepper sauce (left) Bajan Pepper sauce (right) (Photo by Cynthia Nelson)
Guyanese Pepper sauce (left) Bajan Pepper sauce (right) (Photo by Cynthia Nelson)

It was time to ascertain where things had gone awry. You know what? It is amazing how in the space of 4 months, someone who has been consuming furiously hot pepper sauce for decades can have their palette altered in such a way that makes something they once could tolerate, almost unbearable.

Here is what happened.

Over the 2014 Christmas holidays when family and friends were visiting Barbados, on a couple occasions, I took them to my favourite place to have rotisserie chicken and chips, Chicken Barn. At Chicken Barn, once you have collected your order, you add the condiments to suit – salt, mayo, ketchup, and pepper sauce. I usually just have a little ketchup and then I go-to-town on the pepper sauce. If you’re reading this and you’re not West Indian, I mean that I take a whole lot of pepper sauce with my chicken and chips. The sauce has excellent piquancy. It has a good kick and goes perfectly with the offerings at Chicken Barn. I so love the pepper sauce that I asked one of the attendants for the brand name of the sauce they use because I wanted to have that pepper sauce on my table, at home.

When I learnt the name of the pepper sauce, ECAF, I immediately bought two bottles so that I would not ever run out. When one bottle is finished, I replace it so that there is always a spare bottle. I love this hot sauce a lot and soon I found myself exclusively eating the Bajan hot sauce instead of my homemade Guyanese-style

pepper sauce.

When I gushed about my new-found love for Bajan pepper sauce, my Bajan friends were pleasantly surprised because we Guyanese generally scoff at the Bajan pepper sauce saying it is too mild. I used to call it Bajan mustard sauce – because of the colour. Bajans add fresh turmeric to their pepper sauce, which not only gives good flavour but also an intense yellow-to-orange colour. That sunset colour is the signature colour of Bajan pepper sauce, just as ours (Guyanese) is intensely red.

Since my return to Barbados I have exclusively been eating my Guyanese pepper sauce. I need to build back my tolerance level for the scorching heat. I can’t afford to lose my passport over a bottle of pepper sauce. My Bajan hot sauce still and will always be on my countertop, I’m not giving it up, but I have to ensure that I maintain some balance. I do have a reputation to maintain.

 

Cynthia

Cynthia@tasteslikehome.org

www.tasteslikehome.org