I tried my wife's vindaloo lamb in Mumbai, oh the pain, the pain.
I think you may have to come to Britain to get a Phal.
As far as I can tell it evolved from drunken dares over who can eat the hottest curry so the chefs here invented something hotter than a vindaloo.
The hottest dish I've ever eaten was a starter in a Thai restaurant.
It was innocently advertised as 'Minced Chicken with Thai Herbs', no mention that it might be hot or even spicy.
It looked like it consisted of 50% minced (ground I think is the North American term) and 50% green herbs. Turns out practically all the green 'herbs' were minced Bird's Eye chilies!
But, driving, and cleaning the machine every time is a pain - "convenience" is a big word in day to day living ... if one works out a quick and easy way to get a decent hit - that's good enough for us. BTW, very important - properly filtered water is key, we've been using one of the cartridge units for 25 years.
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Since the start of the JA series on MTV, I fail to understand the 21st century.
Masochism appears the dominant feature of Generation Why.
Late evening snack, French toast with Surinam Scotch Bonnets, ~2 per sandwich.
(my g/f is at a 3D printing convention, http://www.rapidpro.nl/home-en-us/ , leaves my son and me free to eat as we please. For dinner, we had stir-fried beef tenderloin in the Scotch Bonnet sauce. Ever since he was a few years old, my son wanted to try whatever I ate, but he doesn't eat hot peppers on a regular basis. He's part Indonesian, which may suggest that genetics is a factor in Scoville heat tolerance. As my family is a bunch of fornicators, unlikely that there's even a fragment of Aryan left in me, which might explain my odd eating habits)
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It does seem silly, they sell a salsa which is mostly ground up Scotch Bonnets. At the restaurant no one survives Hell Night, if need be 1,000,000 Scoville ghost peppers will be poured right in IIRC.
First prize at our county fair, eat local.
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IIRC there is a subspecies called in Thai "garden mouse dropping chilie", one small piece and it was all over for me.
I have a friend who frequents Hell Night and he would agree. Think pasta aglio e olio except with oil extract of the peppers a perfect delivery mechanism.
Jacco, you and I seem to have moved in opposite directions. My ethnic background is 75% Slav and 25% Austrian (Vienna, Lintz), but I have been told many times that I have a "Germanic" face. It seems it's not the percentage, but the mileage. 
Just one Wiener schnitzel can spoil the work of centuries. And the illustrious work of my ancestors, a long tradition of participating in all uprisings against the Turks we ever had.
Just one Wiener schnitzel can spoil the work of centuries.
And the illustrious work of my ancestors, a long tradition of participating in all uprisings against the Turks we ever had.And that rebellious strain (The Force?) is still strong in my family. By a trick of fate, my late father was caught by the end of WWII in May 1945 as a captain in the partisans and as a colonel in the SS. My late uncle, dad's half brother by their dad, was the commander of the Second Proletarian Brigade, and dad was in the intelligence section of that brigade. Now, dad was truly bilingual, having beeen educated in the high schools of Wienna, so they clothed him in the uniform of the German officer last captured and send him with a detail behing the German lines to bring back a live prisoner. It just so happened that in the last mission of the war the last man caught was an SS officer.
I often teased him that he should have reported as the colonel and thus gained a German war pension. Not that the role fitted him, he was an easy going man, so he left the army as soon as demobilisation was proclaimed and returned to the university to finish his studies of mechanical engineering (he had just enrolled in 1941 when the war came to Yugoslavia). His first professional job upon graduation was to modify the gearbox of a Russian T34 tank to make it better suited to mountaneous terrain, which made like 70% of Yugoslav territory. The second was to modify the gearbox of American Patton tanks, supplied as US military aid, to make it more suitable for the plains. It was most unsuitable for mountain work, beause those Detroit engines were true gas guzzlers and in the mountains, they had to pull their own fuel reserves along, which made them extremely vulnerable (T34 used a Diesel engine).
I often teased him that he should have reported as the colonel and thus gained a German war pension.
Not that the role fitted him, he was an easy going man, so he left the army as soon as demobilisation was proclaimed and returned to the university to finish his studies of mechanical engineering (he had just enrolled in 1941 when the war came to Yugoslavia). His first professional job upon graduation was to modify the gearbox of a Russian T34 tank to make it better suited to mountaneous terrain, which made like 70% of Yugoslav territory. The second was to modify the gearbox of American Patton tanks, supplied as US military aid, to make it more suitable for the plains. It was most unsuitable for mountain work, beause those Detroit engines were true gas guzzlers and in the mountains, they had to pull their own fuel reserves along, which made them extremely vulnerable (T34 used a Diesel engine).I did a bit more research into Snowball Earth which was about 650 million years ago ( Mya ). It seems reasonably certain it happened ( glacier deposits worldwide ), if not we would not be here. Prior to this the Earth might have had a 1% Oxygen atmosphere. The white ice reflects about 90% of light and the ocean water the opposite at about 15 %. Thus the Antarctic is at the sea ice boundry showing something at two extremes. Once a critical level is reached total ice is very possible. How the last Ice-age was less than total is a mystery. Oxygen is a poison which suits us. Oxydation is a big problem, cancer is the more obvious.
BTW. Spicy food helps one to absorb antioxidents ( my son the Bio-Chemist says ).
The counter arguement is no life could survive on Snowball Earth. This is nonsense as only a small moutain peak needs to escape the ice to allow life to continue. Increased volcanic activity is suggested for the ice melting. The gasses cause the greenhouse effect. The coulds in the sky can not hold the water needed to cover the whole Earth. This suggests we lost a lot of water when the Earth reheated.
The conjecture is the H2O2 was formed in the ice over maybe 25 million years. When the ice melted the 23 % O2 was arrived at ( maybe more ).
Global warming is unfortunate and also exciting. Global cooling would be disaster. Global warming might cuase the UK and much of Europe to become Iceland. The worst is global warming is raising the acidity of the sea. This will cause plenty of problems. Coral seems to die when the temperature rises. Red Sea Coral might have to be transpanted to Austrailia to maintain the reefs. The tollerence if I am right is + 2 C for Red Sea types.
Chatham and Norfolk Islands are worth a look. Norfolk needs lots of Aussi visitors. Lord Howe Island is a Paradice.
BTW. Spicy food helps one to absorb antioxidents ( my son the Bio-Chemist says ).
The counter arguement is no life could survive on Snowball Earth. This is nonsense as only a small moutain peak needs to escape the ice to allow life to continue. Increased volcanic activity is suggested for the ice melting. The gasses cause the greenhouse effect. The coulds in the sky can not hold the water needed to cover the whole Earth. This suggests we lost a lot of water when the Earth reheated.
The conjecture is the H2O2 was formed in the ice over maybe 25 million years. When the ice melted the 23 % O2 was arrived at ( maybe more ).
Global warming is unfortunate and also exciting. Global cooling would be disaster. Global warming might cuase the UK and much of Europe to become Iceland. The worst is global warming is raising the acidity of the sea. This will cause plenty of problems. Coral seems to die when the temperature rises. Red Sea Coral might have to be transpanted to Austrailia to maintain the reefs. The tollerence if I am right is + 2 C for Red Sea types.
Chatham and Norfolk Islands are worth a look. Norfolk needs lots of Aussi visitors. Lord Howe Island is a Paradice.
Your problem is that you are using a machine which probably keeps the coffee hot too. Keeping coffee hot for longer than it takes you to drink it is surefire way to drag real coffee flavour down to instant levels.
I use a cafetiere (french press), it's no more inconvenient than using instant and it beats any drip-filtered coffee for flavour.
Alternatively there are those stove-top espresso makers which are also great.
An espresso machine only makes sense if you run a café.
Btw my favourite coffee comes from Papua-Newguinea.
Tastes almost exactly like jamaican Blue Mountain at a fraction of the price.
No, the machine is a fairly simple one, doesn't do anything like that - I like my coffee hot, I hate it when the the temperature drops off, so I drink it fast, irrespective. To the point that I go to a lot of trouble to heat up all the containers prior to making the brew, so that the natural cooling is slowed - one of the reasons that the proper making is a pain, !
Also have a cafetiere, which we use now and again - with all the preheating rituals as well, - but having it every time, as strong as we like it, just loses its attractiveness fairly soon ...
Agree with you about the blend, PNG all the way - what's the point of going to the effort of doing the ritual, unless there's plenty of kick in the result!
BTW, Australia is full of specialist coffee bean producers, some very excellent brews are available if one wants to pay the money ...
!Also have a cafetiere, which we use now and again - with all the preheating rituals as well,
- but having it every time, as strong as we like it, just loses its attractiveness fairly soon ...Agree with you about the blend, PNG all the way
- what's the point of going to the effort of doing the ritual, unless there's plenty of kick in the result!BTW, Australia is full of specialist coffee bean producers, some very excellent brews are available if one wants to pay the money ...
So, as I understood this, fresh chili peppers are in fact as health food as it gets. Will bite some during lunch today.
Hard to push a a frog into the water, eh?
There you go , instinct wins the day. I do like really strong fresh coffee. For $3 we can get 200g od Ethiopain Sidamo Coffee from Lidl. This I suspect was the origin of coffee? Cafetiere easiest and best way to make it. Like in South of France I prefer without milk .
White coffee contains reaction products with the milk. Real Nescafe when about to be discontinued was kept when the French objected. They claim if mixed with cold water ( 10 % ) it retains more real coffee flavour than modern types. Then add boiling. If not the coffee becomes scorched. Real coffee also at about 5%.
White coffee contains reaction products with the milk. Real Nescafe when about to be discontinued was kept when the French objected. They claim if mixed with cold water ( 10 % ) it retains more real coffee flavour than modern types. Then add boiling. If not the coffee becomes scorched. Real coffee also at about 5%.
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We used to have (almost 40yr. ago) a coffee bar that treated it like wine. All beans sourced green and identified as to vintage and individual grower and never used more than 5-10 days after roasting. The variety that exists is incredible. The presse was the preferred brewing method.
Tabasco is an appetizer/cocktail sauce, not much good for cooking with. But, from across the pond, cooking Southern US food since I could reach those pesky rear-mounted stove controls, hot sauce is quite useful. But, not any like Tabasco, or any other with a lot of bite, and a quick kick. I make my own, nowadays, when in-season cheap peppers show up. The best is just quality fresh peppers ground up, with a bit of salt, allowed to ferment for about a week, and then stored in the fridge until needed. Bail-top jars make the fermentation and storage simple. If it's warm when I start, I sometimes cheat with some sauerkraut liquid to start it off with. It's not good as a condiment, but to use in a long-cooking dish, like a stew, or in jambalya, so the flavor can permeate everything, like the flavor of a good broth. But, even so, and even considering that it may go months before it is used, starting off with anything but the most vibrant, firm, fragrant, not a spec of brown anywhere on them peppers reduces the result to barely better than what is mass-produced, and is not worth the effort.
I grow my own Habs, jalapinos, hot banana peppers and such.
I made 3 gallons of Hab Sauce last year. The first two I used the whole hab. The last gallon batch I removed the seeds and membranes from the habs. I smoked the peppers with applewood smoke before running them through the blender with garlic, lime juice and salt.
After fermenting for 10 days, I hotpack it in half pint jars.
A little goes a long way. I can add a half teaspoon to a bowl of soup, stew or chili and that is as much as I feel comfortable with.
I made 3 gallons of Hab Sauce last year. The first two I used the whole hab. The last gallon batch I removed the seeds and membranes from the habs. I smoked the peppers with applewood smoke before running them through the blender with garlic, lime juice and salt.
After fermenting for 10 days, I hotpack it in half pint jars.
A little goes a long way. I can add a half teaspoon to a bowl of soup, stew or chili and that is as much as I feel comfortable with.
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