Chilis — Hot, Hotter and Omigod

Henry Shukman writes about chilis in a New York Times review of three new Santa Fe restaurants: Aqua Santa, Trattoria Nostrani and Kasa Soba.

One of the many things I’m grateful to New Mexico for, now that I’ve lived there on and off for over a decade, is converting me to the chili. It happened one afternoon, on a long, lonely drive through the Black Mountains. I stopped at a small general store and bought tortilla chips, and on a whim, a jar of hot sauce called Religious Experience: The Wrath. It was the name that did it. I set the jar between my legs as I drove, and began by touching just the corner of a chip to the oil on the salsa’s surface. As I drove I kept mechanically doing it. Something happened. The pain started up, but instead of shying away from it, I dipped back for more. Soon I was shoveling it in. By the time I reached my destination, I was a high, happy devotee. And the jar was empty.

Among hot sauces in NewMexiKen’s kitchen (all unopened I confess):

Dr. U.B. Burnin
Dave’s Insanity Sauce
Viper Venom Hot Sauce
Whoop Ass Hot Sauce
Two Flaming Arrows
Smart Ass Hot Sauce
Arizona Gunslinger
Sudden Death Sauce