Naga Jolokia,Bhut Jolokia Hot Peppers and Me

"VIRGIN HEAT" My Bhut Jolokia Sauce Review

2010-06-17T06:37:00.000-07:00

Myself and hot peppers go hand in hand. I love experimenting with peppers . I have an added advantage of preparing new type of pickles and sauces in both Eastern and Western ways.
My DEAD MOUTH Mach II and Mach 7 sauces drew a rave review from friends.
Encouraged by this , I prepared hitherto never made sauce using Bhut Jolokia and all oriental and India specific spices.
I named this sauce as "VIRGIN HEAT".
You can see and hear the review by Mr.Justin and his girl friend Ms.Gabriella .

I am planning few more surprises soon.

Hemant Trivedi

INDIAN PEPPER VARIETY SEEDS

2010-01-13T18:06:00.000-08:00

Friends,

I am now in a position to offer seeds of the following Indian varieties.

SANNAM
PUSA JWALA (sannam on left and Pusa Jwala on right)

CHOT MENSINAKAI

KANTHARI

MUNDU

DUNDICUT

BYDGI

RESHAMPATTI
PHOTOGRAPH BEING LOADED SOON

BHUT JOLOKIA

These are very viable last season's seeds . If you are interested, please mail me
at hkrtrivedi@gmail.com.

If you are outside of USA, Please varify import rules of your country.

NJA

WHY AM I NOT POSTING?

2009-12-07T16:17:00.000-08:00

This is the same question I have been asking myself .
The reason is not far to look for. I was busy creating my new food blog and also fashining and creating Hot and Ultra Hot sauces.
Very soon, I will be bringing something new to all of you.
A picture of my ULTRA HOT SAUCE which has got rave review from a chilli head and my friends.

NJA

Chilli peppers help relieve nerve pain

2009-10-14T03:44:00.000-07:00

ANI14 October 2009, 01:26pm IST

A new study by British researchers suggests that people suffering peripheral pain â€“ which produces stinging sensations, numbness, weakness, Chilli peppers may help relive tingling nerve pain (Getty Images)
burning pain â€“ can get respite by taking capsaicin cream, an active constituent of chilli peppers .

Peripheral pains often accompany disorders like diabetes, AIDS, shingles and arthritis; cancer patients can have peripheral neuropathies after receiving their therapies.

Now a team at Oxford University has found that 40 percent people can get some relief from pain by having topical capsaicin cream containing medication.

Sheena Derry and Andrew Moore led the researcher, which compromised nine studies with 1,600 adult volunteers.

The team said that capsaicin cream could be used when the treatment has not been affective. The report has been published in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library .

However, Scott Zashin, a clinical associate professor of medicine at the Southwestern Medical School at the University of Texas, had a different take on the use of capsaicin.

He said: â€œOne lack in this study is a failure to compare capsaicin creams to common counterirritants, such as Ben Gay or Icy Hot. The counterirritants create a warm or cool feeling to distract from the pain and they can be used on an as-needed basis, while capsaicin must be used regularly.â€

Zashin said the report ignored the â€œthe fact that there are little data looking at the benefit-to-risk ratio of the high dose capsaicin. In addition, patients receiving the high-dose formulation required pretreatment with a local anesthetic preparation. It is unclear if this product is any better than other over-the-counter pain gels and may be more irritating with side effects such as burning.

With thanks from Times Of India

SAGA JOLOKIA....New fad of US Hot pepper lovers

2009-09-05T14:31:00.000-07:00

Indian chilli acquires cult following in US

Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN 5 September 2009, 09:41pm IST
WASHINGTON:

Nearly a decade after it was first discovered to be the hottest chilli on earth, the Indian firecracker named Bhut Jolokia, aka Naga Jolokia, has acquired a cult following in the west among so-called chilli-heads.

Thatâ€™s right; like Dead-heads, who idolize the rock group Grateful Dead, and gear-heads who worship all things mechanical, chilli-heads revere some of the hottest chillis on the planet. And they donâ€™t come hotter than Bhut (or Naga) Jolokia, so-named because it is native to the fiery Naga tribe, and those who taste it are said to turn ghostly.

Measured at more than one million Scofield Heat Units (SHU), Bhut Jolokia is twice as hot as the previous champ -â€“ Californiaâ€™s Red Savina -- who it worsted earlier this decade (Mexican pretenders like Habanero were no match). Since then, the little hottie has become a legend among chilli-heads, grown tenderly in hothouses across the country, discussed animatedly in the higher reaches of the spice world, and sold like gold and other precious commodity on the Internet. Last month, there were 92 Jolokia related items on eBay.

''Bhut Jolokia is a beauty,'' chortled John Hard, whose Ohio-based company CaJohn (after Cajun) sells the Indian chilli in several forms, mostly sauces. ''There are lots of pretenders cranked up with oleoresins, but BJ delivers both flavor and heat in a natural way.''

Hard first heard of the fiery Indian chilli after New Mexico State Universityâ€™s Chilli-Pepper Institute followed up on the claims of the Indian Ministry of Defence and found that its assertion of having found the hottest chilli in the world was true (It's not hard to guess what the MoD is using it for). Word quickly got around the esoteric (or, es-hot-teric) world of chilli-heads, and before long, it was being grown with feverish passion.

Itâ€™s a tough ask in the US, where the weather in most parts of the country is not exactly conducive to growing jolokias. Barbara Blankenship, a radiologist, and her husband Toby Morris, a fire-fighter, have just about managed to coax a few saplings in their greenhouse outside Seattle, a city better known for its cool, damp climate. ''We wanted to grow it after reading about it in a cooking magazine,â€ says Blankenship, an ardent gardener. ''We got the seed from Seedrack.com down in Oregon and we now have five plants that are doing well.''

Toby has a more involved explanation about why jolokia has become such a hot commodity. ''I think Americans are pretty fascinated with things that are the oldest, biggest, whateverest,â€ he says, recalling that he grew up with a copy of the Guinness Book of World Records. In the Fire Service, his colleagues were always trying to make the hottest chili (soupy dish); not always the tastiest, just the hottest. â€œMaybe it is that there aren't too many dragons for a guy to slay anymore and no frontiers to conquer?'' he wonders.

But the Seattle coupleâ€™s saplings are yet to bear any glowing results. John ''CaJohn'' Hard, who is also a former fire-fighter, has been quicker off the blocks. Last month, when he spoke to ToI, he had a jolokia plant that bore six chilli pods.

But across US, and in fact, even in Europe (who would have thunk?) chilli-heads are starting to crank them out with increasing success, says CaJohn. Most of the stuff is still imported from India though, from a company in Tezpur.

CaJohn has a whole array of Jolokia products, most of them priced around $ 10 for a bottle. The first of them is called Holy Jolokia, but the rest, driven by the ownerâ€™s spicy fervor, has lapsed into blasphemy.

When Hard came up with a Jolokia sauce and named it Nagasaurus, an artist who did the label for the bottle joked that it should be named ''Naga-sore-ass.'' He did, and the sore-ass label now outsells the saurus by 40 to one. Next up, CaJohn came up with ''Kiss my Bhut.''

Its the beginning of Saga Jolokia.

Report in Times Of India 5th sept 2009

CHILI PEPPER FACE WASH....Bye bye acne

2009-08-03T13:42:00.000-07:00

A new product called "Capisderm", made from chili peppers, is said to help eliminate acne. The product, made by SiCap Industries, LLC, a manufacturer of herbal supplements, claims to wipe out acne in a matter of days, without any of the burning sensation people come to expect from chili peppers.

The key ingredient is Capsaicin, naturally found in chili peppers, and known to be a promising acne fighter. According to Capisderm's press release...

Researchers believe it works on two fronts - First the thermal heat action of Capsaicin helps to open pores and increase blood flow to the surface of the skin. Secondly, Capsaicin has powerful antimicrobial properties that help distinguish harmful bacteria that's hiding within the layers of skin. Capsaicin also helps to desensitize sensitive skin by affecting a series of tiny nerves, and in this way it may also be beneficial for relieving chronic topical pain associated with certain circulatory conditions.
The company claims that there are immediate results within the first day or two of use. Most acne conditions will disappear completely within the first week, even with severe cases, and also prevents future outbreaks. The company claims that it will reduce wrinkles.

Eventhough this news is a bit old, it is worth a mention here.

Chili Pepper Face Wash
by Steve
Monday, July 25, 2005
With thanks from "Strange new products" a clear digital media publication

CHILI PEPPER FACE WASH......!!!!

2009-08-03T13:38:00.000-07:00

Eventhough This news is a bit old, it is worth a mention here.

Chili Pepper Face Wash
by Steve
Monday, July 25, 2005

A new product called "Capisderm", made from chili peppers, is said to help eliminate acne. The product, made by SiCap Industries, LLC, a manufacturer of herbal supplements, claims to wipe out acne in a matter of days, without any of the burning sensation people come to expect from chili peppers.

The key ingredient is Capsaicin, naturally found in chili peppers, and known to be a promising acne fighter. According to Capisderm's press release...

Researchers believe it works on two fronts - First the thermal heat action of Capsaicin helps to open pores and increase blood flow to the surface of the skin. Secondly, Capsaicin has powerful antimicrobial properties that help distinguish harmful bacteria that's hiding within the layers of skin. Capsaicin also helps to desensitize sensitive skin by affecting a series of tiny nerves, and in this way it may also be beneficial for relieving chronic topical pain associated with certain circulatory conditions.
The company claims that there are immediate results within the first day or two of use. Most acne conditions will disappear completely within the first week, even with severe cases, and also prevents future outbreaks. The company claims that it will reduce wrinkles.

ATMs ....Equipped now with Pepper spray

2009-07-23T05:47:00.000-07:00

Pepper-spray defence means

Thieves face squirt of eye-watering chemical

New security feature to thwart exploding cash machine
raids

David Smith in Johannesburg guardian.co.uk, Sunday 12 July 2009 17.27 BST

Cash machines offer an ever-growing menu of services beyond merely dispensing money. For tampering criminals, this now includes a squirt of pepper spray in the face .

The extreme measure is the latest in South Africa's escalating war against armed robbers who target banks and cash delivery vans. The number of cash machines blown up with explosives has risen from 54 in 2006 to 387 in 2007 and nearly 500 last year.

The technology uses cameras to detect people tampering with the card slots. Another machine then ejects pepper spray to stun the culprit while police response teams race to the scene.

But the mechanism backfired in one incident last week when pepper spray was inadvertently inhaled by three technicians who required treatment from paramedics.

Patrick Wadula, spokesman for the Absa bank, which is piloting the scheme, told the Mail & Guardian Online: "During a routine maintenance check at an Absa ATM in Fish Hoek, the pepper spray device was accidentally activated.

"At the time there were no customers using the ATM. However, the spray spread into the shopping centre where the ATMs are situated."

In conjunction with the police, Absa is using the technology at 11 sites, identified as high-risk by branch managers.

If successful, it will be expanded to cash machines around the country.

With thanks from Guardian

CHINESE DRIVING ........Trick or Treat?

2009-07-19T05:16:00.000-07:00

Police in southwest China are spicing up drivers with raw chili in a bid to stop them from falling asleep at the wheel, a newspaper said.

Police in Chongqing started serving drivers chili peppers at highway service stations, holding to the traditional Chinese belief people often feel more sleepy in the Spring, the Chongqing Evening News said.

Most of the drivers are from neighboring Sichuan, Yunnan and Hunan provinces, where chilies are a local favorite, it added.

"It's really good to have some hot peppers when you are tired from driving," van driver Chen Jun was quoted by the newspaper as saying. "They make you alert."

China's roads have long been among the most dangerous in the world due to overloaded and speeding trucks and drivers who switch lanes without signaling and often ignore traffic lights.With thanks from the net

OFFICIAL "HOLY JOLOKIA SAUCE"

2009-07-17T05:11:00.000-07:00

Monday, May 4, 2009

NMSU inks hot deal on world’s spiciest pepperNew Mexico Business Weekly

The Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University has partnered with a private company to create a hot sauce with the world’s hottest chile pepper.

It’s the first time the Institute has joined with a private firm to produce a product. The Holy Jolokia sauce is produced by CaJohns Fiery Foods, based in Columbus, Ohio, and is made from the Bhut Jolokia pepper, which the Institute and the Guinness Book of Records certify is the hottest pepper on the planet.

Paul Bosland, director of the Chile Pepper Institute, said the new product will help further cement New Mexico as the chile capital of the world.

The Bhut Jolokia chiles are grown in India and their reputation has boosted production in that country by more than 25 percent, according to NMSU officials.

The pepper has more than one million Scoville Heat Units, which makes it nearly twice as hot as the Red Savina, the pepper which once held the hottest crown.

New Mexico green chile contains about 1,500 Scoville Heat Units. An average jalapeño has about 10,000.

The 5-ounce bottles of Holy Jolokia retail for $10 and a portion of the sales will help fund research and education at the Chile Pepper Institute. The Institute is the only organization devoted to education, research and archiving information on chile peppers. Plans are in the works to raise $10 million for an endowed chair in the institute and establish a new facility with a tourist venue that will include accommodations for conferences and teaching, and a demonstration garden and greenhouse.

With thanks from net

New device uses carbon nanotubes to rate chillis hotness

2009-07-03T07:18:00.000-07:00

London, May 13 (ANI): Scientists have developed a new device that takes the help of carbon nanotubes to provide an objective and cost effective way to rate how hot a particular chilli is.
According to a report in Nature News, Richard Compton, a chemist at the University of Oxford, UK, and his colleagues have made the device, which measures the accumulated concentrations of the capsaicins in a chilli simultaneously.

Capsaicins are chemicals, which cause the hotness in a chilli. The higher the concentration, the hotter a chilli tastes.

The conventional method to determine the heat of a chilli or chilli sauce was devised in 1912 by chemist Wilbur Scoville.

Scoville ratings are worked out by diluting a chilli-containing sauce to the point at which a team of five expert tasters can no longer detect the heat.

But Richard Compton and his colleagues have developed a way to get a Scoville rating for a sauce while sparing the tasters tongues, and without blowing a cooks budget.

The device that they have developed measures the accumulated concentrations of the capsaicins in a chilli simultaneously.

The technique involves coating electrodes covered in carbon nanotubes with the chilli sample. The nanotubes have a high surface area, which means that they can absorb lots of the sample.

The whole device is then dunked in an ethanol-based solution to oxidize the capsaicins, which causes current to flow.

Stronger chillies mean more electric current, said Compton.

According to Compton, his method is cheaper than the only other available tester-free method, called high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC).

The HPLC technique involves separating out the capsaicins in a sauce and working out their concentrations individually an expensive process.

By using mass-producible electrodes screen-printed with carbon nanotubes, Compton reckons he can bring down the cost of a sampler to around 30 pounds. By comparison, an HPLC machine costs around 40,000 pounds.

Compton has applied for a patent for his device and is attracting commercial interest for what he envisages as a cheap, disposable hand-held heat detector that keen cooks could use in their own kitchens. (ANI)

with thanks to Thaindian news

2009-06-26T04:40:00.000-07:00

Hot chilli grenades

Indian defence scientists are planning to put one of the
world's hottest chilli powders into hand grenades.

They say the devices will be used to control rioters and in counter-insurgency operations.

Researchers say the idea is to replace explosives in small hand grenades with a certain variety of red chilli to immobilise people without killing them.

The chilli, known as Bhut Jolokia, is said to be 1,000 times hotter than commonly used kitchen chilli.

Scientists at India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) are quoted as saying the potent chilli will be used as a food additive for troops operating in cold conditions.

And the powder will also be spread on the fences around army barracks in the hope the strong smell will keep out animals.

Other forms of pepper spray are commonly used for crowd control in many parts of the world.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/8119591.stm

Published: 2009/06/25 17:54:10 GMT

KEFIR.....AND .....KEFIR LADY

2009-06-10T07:21:00.000-07:00

KEFIR

About seven years back, I was asked by a famous Food writer in India to write for her on Yogurt, Curds and like. This was to be written as a ghost writer.I flatly refused her offer. But I started working on the same out of sheer personal interest. That is when I came across "Kefir"

I was so much taken in by the sheer material available on internet, that I wanted to give it a go. Unfortunately, nobody had heard about kefir in India and getting kefir starter was just out of question. One must understand that India , is a strongly Yogurt loving country.Nothing else can dislodge curd/yogurt from its position on the culinary menu.

Getting kefir grains from Dom from OZ was out of question. I mailed a lady friend in Portugal Mrs. Ivete Ramos to send me some grains which she kindly did and thus started my affair with kefir. For some time, it was good going and I also established a kefir club but my endevour was cut short due to some quirk of fate and pollution. My grains got spoiled and immediately thereafter, I moved to US for good.

After coming over to US, recently I had to get filling of my tooth to be re done. My dentist put me on a week's course of antibiotic for a tooth job and forgot to prescribe any probiotics. I had the worst attack of candida infection due to this and suffered badly for couple of weeks.
Suddenly I remembered Kefir. I tried commercially available brands owned by a Chicago based company. But it was missing that "zing" and taste that real kefir from grains give you. A week's usage did not help much.I started mining the web-mines. Well , google is next to God and again I was looking at thousands of sites on my monitor all claiming to give you the best starter.

As a hardened marketing man , I always read between the lines. I rejected almost every single website that offered magical grains.

All of a sudden, I came across a simple, no nonsense, matter of fact website of "Kefir Lady" from Ohio. I read through her account carefully and one sentence that caught my eye was, "Kefir attracts honest people so it is not necessary to prepay."!!!

Something told me that this person is the one whom everyone must trust for giving the "REAL" grains.

Herez her website address,

http://www.kefirlady.com/

I shot off a mail to her and pronto, by next wednesday, I got wonderfully healthy fat kefir grains. Immediately I fed fasting and hungry kefir grains with whole milk (warmed to 30 C) and very next day, my first batch of wonderfully bubbling tasty kefir was ready. I immediately put myself on thrice a day dosage of kefir and within three to four days, My stomach came back to normal. My tooth infection disappeared and I became better than normal in no time.It is about three weeks since the kefir factory is churning out wonderful kefir on daily basis.

I am a stickler for perfection and hence I make my kefir , the old traditional way. I do not use metal at any point. I also do not use my hands to handle kefir grains. I use Nylon plastic strainer and plastic spoons. I use only neutral glass jar and bowls.

Enough about me and myself. Let us talk about the great Kefir lady in lime light.

I am reproducing her interview with Dawn as under .

Marilyn, the Kefir Lady, resides in Ohio on her farm where in addition to making and selling kefir (I purchased all my grains from Marilyn), she raises chickens, mice, ducks and goats (she has 50 adult goats ranging in size from the small Nigerian Dwarf goats to mid-size mini breeds to the giant Saanen). Marilyn, has been making kefir off and on for 35 years, and was kind enough to fill me in on how she got into kefir, and why the "organic" label doesn't cut it. Keep reading to learn more about Marilyn and how she got into all this kefir.

1. When did you learn about kefir? Or what got you involved in making kefir?I learned about kefir when I was working at Zerbo's Health Food store in Livonia, Michigan in 1975. Back then the brand was Alta Dena. I just loved it. One day one of Mr. Zerbo's customers, an elderly lady, gave me some kefir grains in a jar. She said to put milk over them, strain them out the next day. Use them over. Those were my only instructions. I laugh at all the questions and problems people seem to have with their kefir on account of all the conflicting advice on the internet. They deviate from those simple instructions. I tell people there are a hundred ways to make kefir and unless you understand all about fermentation you could run into trouble. I teach the one best way. Don't deviate from that and you will be successful every time.

It wasn't long before we moved 100 miles away from Detroit to a small town called, Waldron. I thought I had moved to the country because they let you have farm animals there. I immediately bought chickens, goats, and Sheltland Sheepdogs for herding the goats. We had two children, the second one a home birth. I raised kefir grains on the goat milk and sold them to Amish and other health minded people. We raised goats for about 10 years then sold them all. As our two home schooled children got older I realized that I didn't want them around the influence of the children in town, which is part of the reason they were home schooled. I knew I had to move to country. That's when ear candles came into my life and how I made my fortune and be able to afford the place where we live now in Fayette, Ohio.

When this place in Fayette was nearly paid for, the FDA did one of their infamous raids on my business. I went underground after that and for the next four years I sold "birthday candles". What you do with them is your business. That worked without a problem for three years. Since the FDA works for corporations that can't stand competition, they had an undercover agent buy my birthday candles for a whole year gathering exculpatory evidence against me that I was still selling ear candles, which according to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act is an adulterated and mis-branded medical device. The final blow to my candle business came in 1997 when the FDA hired the Justice Department against me. I was done and signed their consent decree stating I would not make, sell, store, distribute and on an on any ear candles or anything that resembles an ear candle.

Now I had all this time and no income. What could I do for a cottage industry? A friend of mine wanted to start drinking kefir and wanted my help locating some kefir grains. I knew exactly where to look. The internet! So I bought some kefir grains from Adnan from Toronto, author of the kefir grain exchange website. Later I bought some from Dom in Australia. Most of the kefir grains I now distribute are the offspring from the kefir grains I got from Dom.

2. What is your favorite kefir drink?I like it plain, of course. But I also like it with a little orange juice concentrate stirred in. The drink I have every day is 8 ounces kefir, a couple tablespoons of orange juice or cherry juice concentrate, 1 tablespoon each of spirulina, chlorella, Red Star Nutritional Yeast, and Beet powder. I blend it in my Bullet. I also make a whole vegetable juice with frozen cucumbers, greens, soaked dried fruit for sweetness, with kefir as a base. I blend that in my BlendTec.

3. Do you notice a difference between goat and cow's milk in kefir? Which do you prefer and why?There is a big difference between goat milk and cows milk so naturally the kefir will be different too. Goat milk kefir is always smooth. And depending on the breed of goat, it can be very creamy. I have goats that range from 2% butterfat to 8%. The little goats are the ones that make the denser milk, good for cheese and butter, and very rich, thick kefir. But most goat kefir is quite thin. That's because the standard size breeds don't have the milk solids or butterfat of the small and mini breeds.

Goat kefir goes through the strainer quicker so saves me lots of time when I am straining six gallon size jars of kefir at 5:30 in the morning before the goats come up to be milked. When I had my cow, the process would take hours for that many jars. Sometimes I'd spend ten minutes getting all the thick curds to go through the strainer for one jar. I had a Jersey cow and the kefir was very thick. I am glad I switched to goats. The smaller curd size of goat milk makes straining easy. Some people don't like that goat milk kefir doesn't get very thick. I always say to go by taste, never thickness.

And of course, raising goats is a delight compared to a cow. I like to get people started in raising their own goats. They are so much easier to handle than a cow. The males are not dangerous as are bulls. One of the best things I love about goats is that they are always clean, even in muddy spring weather. I hope not all cows are like this, but my cow didn't care if she laid in mud and there was always mud for her to lie down in. All summer she was in the mucky pond. Goats don't like to get their feet wet, so they stay out of the pond. Goats are also easier on the pasture.4. Did you notice a difference in your immune system after drinking kefir regularly?I was born sickly. I got interested in taking responsibility for my own health when I was sixteen when I read the book, "Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit" by Adelle Davis. I had no idea before reading that book that ill health was not genetic. So every change I made in diet and lifestyle made a difference. I started drinking kefir at such a young age that I didn't get to experience any of the drugs people take for digestive issues. I know I prevented tons of gut issues because many of my peers live on Tums until they start drinking kefir regularly.

5. What's your diet like day to day?My diet is 90% raw, including raw eggs, raw milk, some raw meat, raw cheese, raw vegetable salads, fruit, some steamed vegetables. I also eat cooked chicken, lamb, goat meat, and turkey. I pretty much only eat meat that I raised myself. I use coconut oil and raw goat butter I make myself. I drink kombucha tea and some water kefir. Whatever is in season, that's what I eat. I've been eating steamed asparagus every day for the last two weeks. Pretty soon here I'll be going on a mulberry and gooseberry diet. Not really, but you get the idea.

6. You mentioned you don't trust "organic"- why?Most of the milk labeled "organic" is from confined cows eating organic grain. Cows should be allowed to graze. They should not eat grain. So I am not impressed that the grain they eat is organic. Also a lot of this "organic" milk is pasteurized at ultra high temps. I call it ultra dead milk. If it was ever organic, it sure isn't after it's been cooked like that. The word "organic" used to mean raised and packaged in a healthy manner.

7. How long have you had your goats and how much milk do they produce? What do they eat?I milk 12-14 goats every morning. It varies because some still have kids on them. They give me plenty of milk for my kefir grains, cheese and sweet milk.

My goats get dairy quality alfalfa hay, free choice minerals, free choice kelp, fresh water with a radioactive stone in it from nighthawkminerals.com. They get kefir soaked barley on the stanchion when I milk them, which I call goatiola. I make wheat sprouts for them every day using ocean solutions, which is concentrated sea water for soaking and watering. You dilute it down 100 to one for farming and hydroponic situations. I would like to elaborate on that if you don't mind.

Good health is about getting all the minerals in the proper balance including trace minerals. Most farming methods only put back 3.and they call it NPK. Most hydroponic solutions have about 16 minerals in them. But there are 90 minerals that plants need. The only place you will find all the minerals and in the proper balance is in ocean water. This is why ocean animals do not age or get sick as virtually all land animals do. Every plant takes up a certain variety of minerals according to its nutritional needs. For example, tomatoes take up precisely 56 minerals if given the opportunity. They are always the same ones. But a tomato plant cannot get the minerals If they are not in the soil. That's why the out of season tomatoes in the store taste like cardboard. The winter greenhouse tomatoes are getting precisely 12 minerals. The plants are beautiful and make tomatoes but by not giving the plants ALL the minerals they require makes them have weak immune systems that attract pests and fungus.

It is gratifying to make wheat sprouts for the goats because it just so happens that wheat grass is one of the only plants that take up all ninety minerals. My sprouting method using ocean solutions insures they are getting these minerals. Oceangrown.com originally contacted me because one of my customer called them asking if their ocean solutions would be good for water kefir grains. In the course of the conversation they discovered my love of gardening, hydroponics, sprouting, and farming. I was already thoroughly familiar with Maynard Murray's work and sea solids. Acres, USA has published a couple books on this topic.

Ocean Grown asked me to become a distributor. I am thrilled to be given the opportunity to offer farmers in my area an inexpensive solution to chemical farming. Superior fertilizer in the form of ocean water is now available for every garden, hayfield, pasture, orchard, and farm. I guarantee there will be a huge difference in flavor. Everybody that sprouts for their poultry and dairy animals can now offer the best of the best.

8. What is sweet milk?Sweet milk is milk fresh from the cow, sheep, or goat. It has not been cultured or made sour.

9. Why is raw milk better than pasteurized milk?Raw milk is easily digested and comes with its own lactobacilli and other friendly bacteria. Pasteurized milk has been cooked to the point of damaging protein and fats making it very mucus forming and hard to digest. This makes people think they are allergic to milk. But what they are drinking is not milk at all, but adulterated milk product. I'm serious. The way the label laws are written, that white liquid you buy in the dairy section should not be allowed to be called milk because of how it has been processed. They take it all apart and put it back together in order to get skim, 2%, 3.5% also called whole milk. It goes through a heat process several times. It also goes through a process to remove pus because almost half the cows in this country have sub-clinical mastitis. One thing I can say for regular grocery store milk is that there are no antibiotic residues in the milk. They are strict about that. That means if that is all you can get, your kefir grains will do fine in pasteurized milk, prospering and growing and making probiotics for you.10. Do you need allot of room to raise goats? A couple years ago I sold a couple of mini-Nubian does to a family in Ypsilanti, Michigan. They have 1/8 acre right in town. They are exercising Michigan's "your right to farm" law. I only have 8 acres and 2 acres of that is a pond. All you need is a small barn for shelter and hay storage, good fencing and goat proof latches on your gates because they love to try to escape. You don't really need that much room for a few goats. And unless you need gallons of milk every day, I'd recommend one of the easier to handle mini breeds. You get 1/2 the feed bill and 3/4 the milk.

11. Any other tips?Keep your kefir making process simple. Keep your culture jar at room temperature and out of the refrigerator. Cold temps make kefir grains go out of balance. Give your kefir grains the amount of milk they can handle in 24 hours, tasting every time so you can adjust the milk for the next batch. You may have to remove some kefir grains from time to time or they will eat you out of house and home. Seek out raw milk or move to the country and get your own dairy animal. Don't let any man tell you that you cannot or should not drink raw milk. Know your source. Buy local. Support small farms.

Thank you Marilyn for taking the time to answer my questions. It is great to be able to share your knowledge with others!

POSTED BY DAWN AT 11:00 AM SHARETHIS.

My reader friends are all internet savy. If you want to know about health benefits of Kefir, tons of info is available on the net and is available on click of a mouse.

HAPPY KEFIRING"

2009-04-08T13:50:00.000-07:00

MY FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH VERY HOT CHILLI PEPPERS AT KOVURU

For a village boy of about 8 years, I was thin and frail looking contraption.Two sticks struck on a torso were my hands and two twigs stuck under served as by legs.Coming to face, I was like ol'man/boy Benjamin Button and was known as "Budhho" meaning old man.

Even though my grandfather was known to down a spoon or two of hot chilli powder with lentils, all of us, the rest of the family comprising of my widowed aunt, another widowed lady and three of us brothers, were medium hot food eaters.

It was in 1957 summer, that we went to Rajahmundry which falls in Hottest region (chilli pepper growing and consumption wise)of India. World's biggest chilli pepper market is not much far from there in Guntur.My uncle who was elder to my father , lived plumb on Godavari river opposite of Godavari station.

We would spend hours looking at sail boats slowly crossing the river and coming back from Kovur on opposite bank. Kovur was a very small village then. My elder brother Dilip bhai was the most naughty of my siblings and had an adventurous streak .

Since we had never sailed in a boat, he asked and got permission from my uncle to cross the river in a boat.The charges to cross the river were 2 paise per head. It roughly translates into 0.0004 USD.Actually, he was not interested in sailing across the river but he wanted to eat Idly Dosai in road side eatery in Kovur. He had about 4 annas in his pocket that would have bought us two days of food for all the three of us.

We set sail on a roughly two mile trip to Kovur. After about 45 minutes, we reached the opposite bank at Kovur.The boatman informed us that we would be sailing back immediately as a lot of people were waiting to be ferried back.My elder brother ran to the nearest Idly vendor lady who was dishing out steaming puffed rice-lentil steamed cakes with fresh coconut chutney.The smell was heavenly and we were hungry.

Each of us took two huge idlies and a big dollop of Coconut chutney in Banana Leaf and scurried back to the boat.No sooner the boat sailed back, we opened our steaming packets and started the first hottest encounter of our very young lives.I took a huge bite of steaming hot idly first and was pleasantly shocked to taste its warm loving taste.Next I took a piece and liberally spread the coconut chutney on it and put the heavenly smelling piece in my mouth.I felt a bit hot but enjoyed the first encounter.I took another in less than five seconds when the searing heat hit me like a flame of volcano.I was neither able to spit out nor able to swallow.My face went red and I could almost see my smoking ears through my tears filled eyes.With great difficulty, I ate just 1 idly. Condition of my brothers were not much different.My younger brother started howling. We threw the remaining Idlies in river Godavari for fish to have a feast.There was no water with us and our hands could not reach the sweet water running beneath us and around us.The boatman and his helpers started laughing . He took pity on us and gave us tumblerful water each , fresh from the river.

By the time we reached the home shore , we were all on fire and crying. My elder brother had warned that we should not say anything about eating Idlies because we belong to priest class and we were not supposed to eat road side food.On reaching home, our faces and crying eyes told the story to everyone that something was wrong.My brother reeled off a story that we were mortally afraid that we would sink in the river and were afraid so we were crying.

Since people were not interested in children due to a religious event that was to be held the other day, we were not grilled to get at the truth.

The heat subsided after about three hours but again raised its head the next day when we went to the loo.

Since that time, I came to know that Andhra people make coconut chutney with just two ingredients. Hot green Sannam peppers and same amount of Coconut by weight.

I still remember my plight after 52 years.

The above photograph shows the old bridge exactly as it was 50 years back and is taken from river bank just besides where our house was.

Thanks to Chaitanaya K

UNIQUE RECIPE.......I love the style

2009-03-22T07:58:00.000-07:00

Gary's Salsa Godzilla Brand Habañero Sauce
Version 1.3(makes enough to alienate all your friends twice)

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 Oz. Dried habañero chiles. (This is the size package common in stores)

1/2 Tsp onion powder or the white section of one green onion.

3-4 Medium garlic cloves

1/4 Tsp sea salt

5 oz. Distilled water

1 Dozen strike anywhere kitchen matches.

1 #4 Grappling style fish hook.

1/2 Cup battery acid

1 Matchlite charcoal briquette.

1 G.E. Laundry iron.

1 1/2" X 4" Machine bolt.

DIRECTIONS:
Plug in the iron and turn it to the steam setting. Use a kitchen match to ignite the briquette, put the match out on the tip of your tongue. Remove the stems from the chilies and toss the chilies into a blender. Light the remaining kitchen matches on your teeth, putting them out as before. Add the garlic, onion, sea salt and water to the blender. Do your doggone best to swallow the fishhook. Set the Blender to frappé and fire that mother up. Gargle 1/2 cup battery acid but don't swallow any cause we don't want none of that macho crap here. Stop often to scrape the sides of the blender with a rubber spatula. Use the charcoal briquette to heat up the bolt to a cheerful cherry red then pick the red hot bolt up with your lips. You need to blend the ingredients in the blender for four or five minutes, until the chiles are completely liquefied. You can take this opportunity to see if the iron is ready by firmly pressing the flat of your tongue to it. Turn off the blender and pour the liquid into a small bottle. Extinguish the charcoal briquette by smothering it in your mouth. Turn off the iron. Refrigerate the habañero sauce between usage, and when you use this stuff, please try not to get any of it in your mouth!!

OK OK the REAL Directions:

Add the ingredients to a blender and blend on medium until smooth. Stop the blender occasionally and push down the chili sauce that has been splashed onto the side of the blender carafe with a spatula. This will probably take about 5 minutes. When fully blended, remove the carafe and hold it between your hands. Swirl the contents against the side of the container to remove all the bubbles. That's all there is to it!
Put this into one of those 5 ounce bottles of store bought pepper sauce such as Tapatio hot sauce. It has a plastic stoppered mouth with a small shaker hole that is a great way to apply this sauce to your food. Just pour the store bought swill down the drain and wash the bottle out. You can reuse the same bottle for years. You should have some room left in the bottle, top it off with more distilled water. If the sauce is too thick once chilled, add more distilled water when there is room. Once mixed, keep the bottle of sauce refrigerated between uses. Shake before using.
Double the recipe and put it into a 10 oz. bottle if you are insane like me.

I loved the presentation so much that even without getting the permission to re publish, I posted this recipe on my blog.Thanks Gary for your sense of humor and the recipe.

Naga Jolokia Addict

2009-03-14T15:02:00.000-07:00

‘Chilli girl’ Anandita makes it to Shabash India

By A Staff Reporter GUWAHATI, Aug 2 –

When, as a five-year-old, she used some mild chilli preparations to cure a disorder of the tongue, little did she know that it would one day catapult her to fame and stardom. Anandita Dutta Tamuly’s claim to fame rests on this rather scary knack of relishing red-hot chillis in their dozens – the very thought of which is enough to make most of us go weak on our knees. Her love affair with chillis is not just confined to munching mouthfuls of Naga/Bhoot jalakia – the hottest known variety – but also smearing her eyes with its juice. Just back from the shooting of Zee TV’s Shabash India, which features extraordinary and bizarre feats by Indians, Anandita, a mother of a toddler, gave ample demonstration of her remarkable exploits before a jam-packed audience at the Swahid Nyas Bhavan today. She finished some 40 chillis in no time at all – and without the least indication of any discomfort. And followed it up by applying some more to her eyes, drawing a thunderous applause from the wide-eyed onlookers. For the Shabash India episode, which is scheduled for telecast at 10-30 pm on August 29, Anandita gobbled up a record-shattering 60 red-hot chillis in just a couple of minutes besides applying another dozen to her eyes in one minute. “The support and encouragement from my family, friends and well-wishers apart, I am thankful to the people of the State for giving me the motivation to take part in the programme and establish the record,” a modest Anandita said. Her next goal is the Guinness record, the ultimate aspiration of all record-setters. “After we had contacted the Guinness authorities, they asked me to give a demonstration of my abilities in the Guinness headquarters in London. However, financial constraints have affected my plan to perform there, as the whole exercise involves substantial expenditures. But with the blessings of the people and support from committed organisations, I do hope to set a mark at Guinness in the near future,” Anandita said. On her uncanny appetite for chillis, Anandita said that it began when she took some preparations made of chill to cure a sore on the tongue. “I was about five or six then, and after that incident I developed this unusual taste for eating chillis. Gradually I realized that I could eat even the hottest of chillis in great numbers,” she said.Did this practice ever affect her health, particularly her digestive system? “No, rather I can say that I have never experienced any stomach-related problems, and my overall health, too, is quite sound,” Anandita said. Before the demonstration, Anandita was accorded a warm felicitation by the All Assam Students Union (AASU) and Marwari Yuva Manch. Also present were a number of distinguished citizens including musician Ramen Baruah, veteran sports organiser Pulin Das and Khanindra Das, a leader of the Assam agitation besides Pankaj Tamuly, Anandita’s husband. Lauding her, AASU adviser Dr Samujjal Bhattacharya said Anandita was doing her motherland proud by her extraordinary feat. “The AASU will always be with her so that she can bring more glory for the State and the country,” he said.Anandita may very well become the first person from the State to etch her name in the famed Guinness Book of World Records, provided she gets the necessary support. People feel that the State Government and various social organizations should lend a helping hand to this young achiever in realizing her ultimate goal.

MORE ON "PAIN MANAGEMENT"

2009-02-25T07:47:00.000-08:00

Hot chillies can help mitigate pain

25 Feb 2009, 1858 hrs IST, ANI

WASHINGTON: Capsaicin, the active agent in spicy hot chili peppers, often acts as an irritant, but it may also be used to reduce pain.
Feng Qin, associate professor of physiology and biophysics at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine, and Jing Yao used capsaicin to unravel how pain-receptor systems can adapt to painful stimuli. For example, adaptation happens when your eyes adjust from a dark movie theatre during a matinee to the bright sunlight outside. Whether pain receptors truly adapt or rescale their responses (versus simply desensitising) has been an open question. Scientists had previously linked the analgesic or pain-relieving effects of capsaicin to a lipid called PIP2, found in cell membranes. When capsaicin is applied to the skin it induces a strong depletion of PIP2 in the cell membrane. "The receptor acts like a gate to the neurons," said Qin. "When stimulated it opens, letting outside calcium enter the cells until the receptor shuts down, a process called desensitisation." "The analgesic action of capsaicin is believed to involve this desensitization process. However, how the entry of calcium leads to the loss of sensitivity of the neurons was not clear," he said, according to a Buffalo release. Capsaicin creams are commonly sold over the counter as effective treatment for a variety of pain syndromes, from minor muscle or joint aches to those that are very difficult to treat, such as arthritis and neuropathic pain

Posted with thanks from ANI

Great Brown Bears Love Hot Pepper smell

2008-12-08T06:21:00.000-08:00

Some have heard that bear spray actually attracts bears?

Who would want to use something that does that?

I was under the impression that no mammal except humans like and love Chili Peppers in spite of its fiery nature. Just the day before , I posted something on these lines about Elephant's dislike for peppr smell.

I may be wrong about "All Mammals" . I was watching a documentry about Alaska today morning when a scientist was seen preparing his pepper spray canister to ward off bears. On researching more on line, I discovered a first person account by a knowledgable Bearologist (If I can call Tom Smith a scientist stationed at Anchorage Alsaka.) which informs a dummy like me that Bears actually were seen wallowing in the Hot pepper sprayed part of the earth even after five days.!! Is it because they associate heat of Hot peppers with the female heat or do they increase their chances of mating with the Pepper perfume?

We may never know the truth.

How touching !! (Pun Intended). Read a complete account here by Dr. Tom Smith PhD

Q: Who would want to use pepper spray if it attracts bears?

A: I published a paper in 1998 in the Wildlife Society Bulletin (Vol. 26: 92-94) demonstrating that some Alaskan brown bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) were attracted to bear pepper spray residues. I decided to conduct this work after I’d observed a bear vigorously rolling in pepper spray residues put down by a person who had hoped that the spray would repel bears from his floatplane tied to the beach. It hadn’t worked and his neoprene float covers were damaged. Now here I was watching a bear vigorously scent rub in the orangish stain on the beach. “What if this stuff actually attracted bears?” I began to worry, but not whether or not the spray worked as a bear deterrent but rather regarding their interest in residues on objects regardless of how they got there. I reflected on the fact that only days before I had shown a new field assistant how to use pepper spray... by discharging it just outside my field camp perimeter. It never occurred to me that the residue might prove troublesome. What if this residue actually attracted bears? Considering this further, I knew of people who had applied pepper spray to objects in the hopes of repelling bears from them. I even knew of a PhD bear research scientist who lectured on bear safety and had suggested that spray could be used in this manner to protect items that couldn’t be otherwise protected from curious bears. I felt I needed to further investigate because property and people could possibly be injured by this misuse of the product.

For this research I sprayed red pepper spray directly onto the ground then sat back and observed bears' reactions to it. Many bears were clearly attracted to spray residues, some vigorously head rubbing, back rolling, pawing and eating the soils tainted with spray. I also observed somebears responding to these sites for up to a 5 days after spray application. So not only were they attracted to it but for some time after it had been dispensed. So I published a short note hoping to warn others of the potential dangers associated with misuse of the product.

Some persons have concluded that because pepper spray was shown to elicit and hold a bear’s interest is ought not be used as a deterrent. Does this make any sense? Of course not. All it means is that these sprays should only be used as intended by their manufacturers: directly into the face of an aggressive bear. Other uses, such as applying it to objects in the hopes that the spray might have some sort of repellent effect would be an outright waste of the product, and given my findings, potentially dangerous. Even after noting that some red pepper spray deterrents have this attractive quality about them, I never questioned their use or effectiveness. I carry theses products in bear country, my field assistants carry them and they are effective.

Tom S. Smith, Ph.D.U.S. Geological SurveyAlaska Science Center - Biological Science Office1011 E. Tudor Rd., MS 701Anchorage, AK 99503Office: (907) 786-3456Fax: (907) 786-3636email: tom_smith@usgs.gov

Photograph taken with thanks from

chroniclesandexploits.com/1500MilestoAmerica.htm

Naga Jolokia Addict

Elephants and Bhut Jolokia are No Friends

2008-12-06T13:49:00.000-08:00

One mammal that is highly allergic to Hotness of Chilli peppers is also the biggest land dwelling mammal. It also holds the record of having longest nose and also longest memory.

Yes, I am taling of MIGHTY ELEPHANTS.

Elephants are fearless animals and they stand their ground against any other animal of prey but when they come across Bhut Jolokia or other hot chili peppers, they raise their tails and run away as far as they can.

This fact was first discovered in Assam in India and quickly adopted by Africa and other countries people to ward of marauding hoards of elephants that destroyed crops and plantations.

Read the following stories from India and Africa.

Assam elephants are in for chilli shock

Rahul Karmakar, Hindustan TimesEmail AuthorGuwahati, November 14, 2007First Published: 00:27 IST(14/11/2007)

ELECTRIC FENCING has hardly proved a shocker for Assam's marauding elephants, so authorities have turned to a cheaper and hotter option. They are erecting rope fences dipped in chilli powder around paddy fields and plantations to reduce man-elephant conflicts.

The state Forest Department, in collaboration with WWF-India, has begun hot fencing using Bhot Jolokia in Balipara area of Sonitpur district. Bhot is the local term for anything of Bhutanese origin and Jolokia is the world's hottest chilli measuring 1,001,304 Scoville heat units nearly twice as hot as the Red Savina pepper it replaced in the record books in February.

We have begun work on this chilli-smeared rope fencing, Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain told the Assembly on Tuesday. These chillies are too hot even for the elephants, and we are banking on the success of this experiment to check man-animal conflicts.

Now we go to Africa for a similar story.

'Chilli brick' keeps elephants away

By Ed Stoddard

It has spiced up many a meal, but now the fiery chilli pepper is being used to cool an ancient feud between farmers and wild elephants in Africa.

In the Zambezi valley in southern Zambia, small-scale farmers are growing chilli peppers as a deterrent against elephants that raid their crops – and marketing the end result as an eco-friendly product.

“Elephants simply don't like the smell of chilli,” said Nina Gibson, project co-ordinator for the Elephant Pepper Development Trust.

'Elephants simply don't like the smell of chilli' The deterrents used are simpler to make than many chilli recipes, but probably have more kick.

“The farmers crush the chillies they grow and mix them with old engine oil. They smear that paste onto a simple string fence around their field, protecting their crops,” said Gibson.

Another approach involves mixing crushed, dried chillies with animal dung into a “chilli brick”.

These are burnt at night, carrying an extremely noxious smoke that will repel even the most ravenous pachyderm.

“Electric fences are clearly not an option for a small-scale farmer because of the costs, so they have to use other means to keep the elephants out,” said Gibson.

An extremely noxious smoke that will repel even the most ravenous pachyderm Eighty farmers are involved in the Zambezi Valley chilli project and they have an added incentive to grow the hot peppers – they can tap into the growing market of discerning consumers who want to buy “green products” that do not damage the environment.

From Kenya to Namibia, elephants and farmers are coming into closer contact as growing populations put pressure on land.

The animals can wipe out the annual harvests of entire villages with devastating consequences for the rural poor who often live on a knife-edge of survival.

Farmers crack whips, burn fires and beat drums to keep the animals out, but guarding their crops at night is dangerous, saps productivity and can leave them open to diseases like malaria.

Last month, Kenya began a massive operation to move 400 elephants from a crowded reserve on its Indian Ocean coast to protect the environment and reduce conflict with local people.

Elephants from Botswana sometimes thunder across the border into Namibia, trampling crops and sometimes even children.

“Human/wildlife conflicts are becoming more acute in Africa,” said Graeme Patterson of the World Conservation Society, which is based in the United States, one of the project's sponsors.

“Our belief is that unless you can resolve these conflicts, farmers will take things into their own hands. It's negative for people and wildlife,” he said.

The World Conservation Union – a body whose estimates on animal populations are among the most authoritative – said in June that elephant numbers in eastern and southern Africa were rising.

It said surveys showed elephant numbers in the two regions rose to 355 000 from 283 000 in the five years to 2002 – a growth rate of about 4,5 percent per year.

But human populations are also growing rapidly, stoking conflict with big animals and raising the stakes in the game to dangerous levels.

The Elephant Pepper Development Trust says farmers have resettled the Zambezi valley in large numbers in the last 20 years because of pressure on land elsewhere and they have found themselves competing with thousands of elephants.

Its chilli project aims to ease the tension, but the spin-off crops could also prove lucrative.

Three products have been launched under the label “Elephant Pepper” and have hit the shelves in South Africa, where the chillies grown in Zambezi are processed.

“Zambezi Red” is a sauce that claims to be “as hot as the valley from whence it comes”. A chilli jam and a chilli relish are also produced under the label. To drive the point home the labels proudly proclaim that “Elephants hate chilli”.

Turnover since March has only been around R250 000 but it is a start.

First tested in northern Zimbabwe, chilli deterrents are also used in Kenya, Sri Lanka, Laos and Thailand.

“We see a whole range of wildlife friendly products based on the concept that certain crops may be useful as barriers between humans and wildlife,” Patterson said.

Conservationists say the project is an innovative way to help subsistence farmers find markets for their cash crops while bringing some lasting peace between man and beast.

This article was originally published on page 7 of The Pretoria News on September 07, 2005

CHILLI...One spice, Many usages

2008-11-25T15:48:00.000-08:00

CHILLIES...Spice, magic, supernatural powers, Myths and so on

Bolivian Lady...We thank Bolivia for gifting chili pepper to the world

Chili Pepper Traditions:

The Indians of the Cuna Islands off Panama tow chili peppers behind their boats to ward off sharks.

The Tarahumara Indians of Sonora, Mexico use the tiny chiltepins in curing ceremonies--not to rid someone of a current affliction, but to prevent maladies as a result of future witchcraft. Such witchcraft is caused by a sukurame sorcerer who uses a special bird called a disagiki as a pathogenic agent to transmit illness.

The sorcerer is the only one who can see the bird, which is no bigger than a finger tip but lives on meat and tortillas. It flies into houses crying ‘Sht! Sht!’ and then eats your food or defecates on you.

The only way to prevent its coming is to throw some Chiltepins into the air and eat some yourself. because the disagiki bird cannot stand chiles. This is where the common name of Bird Pepper comes from.

In Mexico the people are very fond of hot peppers. Their bodies get so thoroughly saturated with it, that if one of them happens to die on the prairie the vultures will not touch the body on account of its being so impregnated with the capsicum.

In the Ozarks and deep South of the United States, an African-American legend holds that in order for peppers to grow out and be hot, you have to be very angry when you plant them. The best peppers are said to be planted by a lunatic.

Chillies are one of the ingredients in the arrow poison of indigenous Bajak tribesmen of Borneo.

One of the commonest household uses of chile peppers in cultures all over the world is burning them as a fumigant for vermin ranging from bedbugs to rats. Since fumigation in ancient times was also believed to be protection against vampires and werewolves, we have a good introduction to the concept of the magical powers of peppers.

Chili Pepper Magic: To keep your mate faithful, buy two large, dried chili peppers, and tie them together with a red (passion) or pink (affection) ribbon. Place this beneath your pillow. It may also be added to love powders for lust.

Scattered around house, the acrid chili pepper is used to break spells. Because of its “bite,” chili pepper is also used to ‘curse’ others.

Naga Jolokia Addict

The story and Bolivian lady photograph taken with thanks from the net.

NO HORSE SENSE...THIS

2008-11-21T07:30:00.000-08:00

CHILI PEPPERS AND HORSES DON'T GO TOGETHER

Equestrians suspended for chili pepper misuse

In a story that's straight out of this Monty Python skit, four equestrians have been suspended from Olympic show jumping for treating their horses with a banned derivative of chili pepper.

Combinations of horses and riders from Brazil, Germany, Ireland and Norway were all suspended after initial tests showed the presence of capsaicin, which is widely used in topical ointments for the treatment of minor horse injuries. The substance is banned at the Olympics because it can also serve as a mild stimulant.

The banned rider Tony Andre Hansen and his horse, Camiro, were part of the Norwegian show jumping team that captured a bronze medal on Monday. The Fédération Equestre International, the sport’s international governing body, deferred a decision on whether to revoke the bronze medal until after final test results were confirmed.

Naga Jolokia Addict-----

Adapted from Net with thanks. Picture from net with thanks

How Not To Eat Bhut Jolokia?

2008-11-19T15:42:00.000-08:00

I know people who regularly eat bhut jolokias - the "ghost chili" now rated as the world's hottest pepper. They're nice people. I like them. They don't seem crazy.

Appearances are deceiving.

I ate an entire bhut jolokia the other night, sitting at my dining room table with an open beer and - on the advice of the experienced - a bowl of yogurt and a few slices of bread at the ready.

I had the strange fear that nothing would happen, that I had traveled halfway across India in search of a chili that would be no hotter than an apple. I thought I was prepared.

What followed was a gastronomic mugging.

I know, I know. You probably think I'm exaggerating, or maybe just inexperienced in the ways of chilis.

"I like hot peppers," you're saying to yourself, thinking of those times - you were probably in college, maybe your early 20s - when you'd had too much to drink and challenged a friend to a chili-pepper-eating contest. You slopped down one jalapeno after another, enjoying the way it battered your system.

I used to think like that too. But that was before my encounter the other night, when I took the first nibble from the end of a red vegetable barely two inches long and weighing little more than a sheet of paper.

"Not too bad," I said aloud to the empty room. My ignorance lasted about three seconds.

It was hot. Hotter than anything I'd ever eaten. My tongue burned, I began to cough.

I knew I'd have to eat quickly, or I wouldn't be able to finish it. So I took another bite, and chewed. Then another. I ate down to the stem. I swallowed.

It's not how bhut jolokias are normally eaten - most locals use them in sauces, or chew off tiny pieces between bites of their main course - but I figured I should get the full experience (Plus, let me add, one of my editors suggested this exercise in masochism: Thank you, Ken).

The full experience?

It was awful. My eyes watered uncontrollably and my nose ran. I felt like I was gargling with acid. My hands quivered. As the minutes passed, the pain grew worse.

I shoveled in yogurt: No relief. I chewed bread: Nothing. My head felt like it was expanding. My ears felt as if hot liquid was draining from them.

The experts say beer and water do no good at such times. Maybe that's true, but gulps of very cold beer were the only things that helped me - washing away the pain for a few blessed seconds.

Twenty minutes later, I had recovered enough to speak clearly. So I called my wife in New York, where she is on vacation with our children. She laughed at me.

A day later, my tongue felt as if it had been scrubbed with a wire brush. And a day after that, a friend made me a lunch flavored with bhut jolokias.

It was a traditional meal from Nagaland, the northeastern state along the Myanmar border where my friend was born, and where super-hot chilis are a part of life. There was diced chicken and hunks of pork and a cold stew of fermented tofu beans, all spiced with the chilis.

The food was simple, delicious. It was mild by the standards of Nagaland, just one bhut jolokia or so for each dish. I loved it.

I just hope she couldn't see that my eyes were again watering.

By Tim Sullivan,Associated Press

Published: Wednesday, August 1, 2007

World's Youngest Chilli Head at the age of 19 months

2008-11-17T13:07:00.001-08:00

Chilli Boy Feels No Heat

By Ayanjit Sen BBC correspondent in Delhi

Bantainum acquired his taste aged 19 months

Little Bantainam Sunn, a boy of under three from the north-eastern Indian city of Shillong, has developed an unusual adult habit.

While his playmates hanker after chocolates, Bantainam prefers something a little more fiery - chilli peppers.

We often find him rummaging in shopping bags in the kitchen looking for chillis Jessica Sunn,mother For more than a year now he has snacked his way through 10 chillies a day with his meals without batting an eyelid, or shedding a tear.

Shillong's local variety of chilli, the Naga Jolokia, is thought to be the hottest in the world, and many adults are unable to stand the heat.

Bantainam, however, eats them by the handful.

His grandmother, Mrs Lilee Sunn, told the BBC that he acquired his unusual taste when his parents took him to a local restaurant.

"Bantainam just took three chillies from the table and munched them watched by his disbelieving parents,'' said Mrs Sunn.

She said despite all efforts to keep chillies away from him, he asks for them daily.

"Now, we have to keep a container full of chillies only for him."

Record-breaker?

Last year Japanese scientists said the Naga Jolokia was the world's fieriest chilli.

I don't like chillis at all, unlike my brother Manisha,sister They found it measured 855 Scoville units - nearly 50% hotter than its nearest rival, Mexico's Red Savina Habanero.

(actually this figure is wrong.. it is almost a million scoville Units which is 3 times hotter than Red Savina which is 570,000 SU.....NJ.ADDICT)

Bantainam's father, Augustine, said his son eats more chillies than chocolates or sweets, and still does not shed tears or show signs of any burning sensation inside his mouth.

He said he had taken his child to a local doctor who found him to be normal and healthy.

Bantainam's two older sisters have no interest in chillies at all, said Augustine, a caretaker at a Roman Catholic cemetery in Shillong.

Local community leaders are convinced the boy is one of a kind, and plan to ask the Guinness Book of World Records to send representatives to verify his singular habit.

Naga Jolokia Addict

Adapted from BBC News with thanks Tuesday 28th May 2002 UK

World's HOTTEST girls.!!!....Believe it or not.!!!

2008-11-14T09:40:00.000-08:00

Little sisters love to chomp on chillies

Wednesday, September 24, 2008 15:46 IST

MONDARMONI (West Bengal): They are just five and seven years old, but it's not chocolates and chips that Joshna and Shanti are after. Both the sisters in this seaside village love to eat three kilos of green chillies each every day!

Shanti and Joshna, the daughters of fisherman Jatin Sadhu, are considered "miracle children" in their village, about 200 km from Kolkata.

"Shanti started having chillies when she was two years old and Joshna had her first chilli at the age of four. They never complain that the chillies are hot, nor do they ever develop a sore mouth. Every day they need 2-3 kg of chillies each," Jatin said.

"They chew on chillies as if they are having toffees and juicy fruits."

There's never a dearth of chillies, as Jatin's brother-in-law Arun Mondal is a chilli farmer.

"Often Arun takes my daughters to his chilli farm. One day he saw Shanti plucking chillies one after another and eating them. He thought the child would soon scream but no such thing happened. After that Shanti got addicted to chillies. Joshna too joined her sister soon," Jatin said.

Neighbours say the sisters are "blessed" and that is why they do not find the chillies hot.

"The Sadhu sisters are blessed. Else how can they do such a miracle every day!" wondered neighbour Laxmi Sadhukhan.

Jatin took the girls to a local doctor for a thorough checkup.

"But the doctor, Swapan Samadder, found them fit," Jatin said.

Samadder said the taste buds of the girls were apparently unable to distinguish anything hot.

"Their taste buds seem not to detect the taste of anything hot. But it's surprising that even their livers and other internal organs are not affected after eating so many chillies every day. It's a very rare case in medical science.

"Nevertheless, I have requested the father to keep his daughters away from chillies because I am sure in the long run it will affect their health," Samadder said.

Jatin said he did try to keep his daughters away from chillies.

"As a result my daughters stopped eating and started vomiting. Only after I gave them chillies did they become normal!"

With thanks from ,
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1192867

Naga Jolokia Addict.........

MARICH SAHASTRA NAMAVALI

2008-10-31T15:13:00.000-07:00

Tribute To Chilli Peppers

Om Ganeshaaya Namah
Om Gurubhyo Namah
Om Anna Devatabhyo Namah

Friends,

For the first time ever in the history , I have composed and compiled one thousand names and attributes of the world's most loved spice which we know as "CHILLI'.

The compilation of the names has been done as in the same fashion as religious sanskrtit names of Gods and Goddesses have been compiled in Sanskrit Religious Literature.

I not only adore and love chilli peppers , I revear the wonderful spice. It is the greatest gift ever given by Latin American continent to India and the rest of the world.

I hope that people will appreciate my love for this wonderful spice.

Naga Jolokia Addict.........

Marich Gayatri Mantra

Om RaktavarNaaya Vidmahe,

TikshNa swadaaya Dhimahi

Tanno Mirchi Prachodayat

MEANING

We devote our thoughts to the blood red coloured chilli

we meditate upon Chilli which is fiery in taste

May the Chilli guide us(for health and taste) to the right path.

Atha: Hemant Trivedi Virachita Marich Sahastranamavali

Om Mariche Namah

Vaishwanaraya Namah

Raktavarnaya Namah

Agnaye Namah

Kshudhakaraye Namah

MEANING

I bow to Chilli pepper

which is igniter of fire in belly (hunger)

which is of blood red colour

which is Fire incarnate

which is Inducer of Hunger

Trisha vardhakaya namah

Raktashodhakaya Namah

Madhuprameha nashakaya Namah

Raktachap shaamakaya Namah

Udara Vrina Nashakaya Namah

MEANING

I bow to,

Increser of thirst

Purifier of blood

Destroyer of Diabetes

Reducer of blood pressure

Destroyer of stomach ulcers.

Basti Vrinaharaya Namah

Meda Nashakaya Namah

Kamapradiptakartre Namah

Tridosh haraye Namah

Ruchi vardhan kartre Namah

Meaning

I bow to,

Destroyer of prostrate cancer

Reducer of obesity

Enhancer of libido

Remover of three defects that are due to Gas, Bileand phlegm.

Enhancer of taste in food.

Suruchaye Namah

Diptaaya Namah

Pradiptaaya Namah

Dukh hartaaye Namah

Shiro vedana Haraye Namah

MEANING

I bow to

Enhancer of hunger

That which is burning

That which is in flames

That which removes pain.

That which removes headaches

Bahu Nama Dharine Namah

Bahuroopinye Namah

Raktamla Hartaye Namah

Jwalaye Namah.

Ayudhaaya Namah................................25

MEANING

I bow to,

That which has many names

That which has many shapes

That Which removes blood acidocys

That Which is like a flame

That Which serves as a weapon

Paataaldeshjaye Namah

Sarvatra priye Namah

Sarva priye Namah

Su Tamase Namah

Sarva Varnapriye Namah

MEANING

I bow to,

Chilli Which is born in American continent

Which is popular everywhere

Which is loved by all

which is HOT but good

which is loved by all classes of people

Sarvabhowma priye Namah

Rasottamaya Namah

Tikshna Rasakartre Namah

Ashrukartre Namah

Raktambaraya Namah

MEANING

I bow to,

One which is loved in any land

Which is best of the six tastes

Which is of hot taste

Which makes one cry

Which is adorned in red covering

Pitambaraya Namah

Garbhini priye Namah

Sukhadukha kartre Namah

Kimshuka priye Namah

Kantha mitraya Namah

MEANING

I bow to,

One which is adorned in orange covering

That Which is loved by pregnant women

That which gives happiness associated with pain

That Which is loved by Parrots

That which is a friend of singer's vocal cords

Keshakrishna kartre Namah

Roga Hartaye Namah

Asthishool shamakaya Namah

Udararoga haraye Namah

Kantha shuddhi kartre Namah

MEANING

I bow to,

One which blackens hair

Which removes diseases

which removes pains associated with bones (arthrities)

Which removes stomach ailments

which clears throat problems

Sukantha Datre Namah

Dirghayush Datre Namah

Sulabha Aushadhe Namah

Paramaushadhe Namah

Sarvakarshana Kartre Namah.......................50

MEANING

I bow to,

Giver of sweet voice

Giver of long life

That Which is cheap medicine

That which is supreme medicine

That Which attracts everyone by taste.

Sphoorti Daayakaya Namah

Aalasya Naashine Namah

Ashrudaayakaaya Namah

Kesha Mitraye Namah

Shramajeevi Mitraye Namah

MEANING

I bow to,

That Which gives alertness

That Which removes lazyness

That Which makes one cry

That Which is a friend of hair

That Which is a friend of Labourers

Shadrasottamaya Namah

Bhootgana Shatru Roopaye Namah

Durdrishti Nashakaya Namah

Dehasoukhya Daayakaya Namah

Divya Aushadh roopaye Namah

MEANING

I bow to,

That Which is best among six tastes

Enemy of evil spirits

Remover of effects due to evil eye

Giver of healthy body

That Which is a Divine medicine

Pushtikaraaya Namaha

Tushti karaaya Namah

Kanti vardhakaaya Namah

Tvacha Mitraya Namah

Capsicumaya Namah

MEANING

I bow to,

That Which fills the body with muscles and flesh

That Which satisfies you

That Which improves complexion of skin

That which is a friend of skin

That Which is known as Capsicum

Brand rissie Namah

Filfil har Namne Namah

fulful harr Namne Namah

Dar feller Namne Namah

Felfelaya Namah

Jolokia Mariche Namah

HuaycaYe Namah

LakaYe Namah

Lanka mariche Namah

Moriche Namah........................................75

Lal mariche Namah

Nga yut theeye Namah

Nil theeYe Namah

La jiao Mariche Namah

Mi jiao Namne Namah

Ye la ziYe Namah

Ye jiao zi Ye Namah

Paprika ljuta Ye Namah

Spanskpebee Namah.

Bird pepperaye Namah

Chili pepperaye Namah

Goat pepper Mariche Namah

Spur pepper Phalaya Namah,

Chilli Ye Namah

Bird's-eye chilliye Namah

Cayenne pepperaya Namah

Chilipippuri Mariche Namah

Piment des oiseauxe Namah

Piment enragé Namah

ZiegenpfefferNamne Namah

Vogelpfefferaye Namah

Roter Pfeffere Namah,

Chili Pfeffere Namah

Kafstiki pipera ye Namah

Marchu we Namah

Mirchiye Namah

Adom Mariche Namah

Pilpel harife Namah

Mirche Namah

Peperone acre Namah

Peperone d'India we Namah

Peperone rabbioso we Namah

Pepe d'ucello we Namah....................................108

To be contd..........................................

The photograph is taken from

http://ayyappatempleludhiana.blogspot.com/2007/12/blog-post.html

with thanks

2008-10-23T07:10:00.000-07:00

Marcha Na Bhajia
aka
Menasinakai Bajji

The flavor that excites me most (and to the most of the foodies and public at large) is Heavenly smell of frying Chili peppers.The wafting aroma tingles the tongue and excites a part of brain that widens the eyes and sends secretion message to the tongue ,which starts salivating. The feeling is almost the same in any person who loves food and lives in any corner of this earth.

When I was searching for the reasons that made chili peppers as the most sought after spice in the whole world, I looked at different reasons like smell, color,taste , cost and shelf life etc.Surprisingly chili peppers came out toppers in spite of their fiery burning taste.Red colour and nose burning, cough inducing fumes.What,then makes Chilies, the most sought after spice?Honestly speaking , I myself could not pinpoint any plausible single reason.But the fact remains that there is no corner of this world where people do not like, love and swear by their chilies.

I have talked to hundreds of people about the reason they like their food most, invariablythey pin pointed to the primary taste maker and taste enhancer as Fiery hot or mildly hot chili peppers.Among the methods of chili pepper consumption, two stood out as most popular ways of consumption.Fried and or Roasted and the second one was Powdered.

This, then calls for posting a very popular recipe from India , which falls in "Fried"catagory.In India, Chili fritters are known as Mirchi Ki Bhajji" or Marcha Na Bhajiya.This nomanclature varies from state to state. But the end product , basically remains the same.I am posting a very fine recipe of Marcha Na Bhajiya as eaten in Karnataka which is one of the southern states in India,

When we think of a fiery evening snack especially on a cold evening,, the first thing that comes to my mind is the "Mirchi Bajji" lovingingly called as "Menasinakai Bajji" in Karnataka..Especially in Bangalore, the vendors on hand-carts made delicious bajjis and it was my favourite indulging snack..My friend got me a bag full of the portugese peppers which are fiery hot fresh from her garden..She warned me about the degree of heat in these chillies..So I decided to make these stuffed bajjis to satisfy my snack craving:)..Here it is..

You need:

5-6 Long portugese peppers/banana peppers/any kind of peppers which can hold stuffing and Clean them, make a vertical slit on one side and remove the vein with the seeds if you do not like it very hot..

For the stuffing:

2 boiled potatoes
1 onion chopped finely
1/2 cup coriender leaves chopped
2tsps chat masala powder
1tsp peanut powder(optional)
juice of a lime
and salt to taste

Mix everything together..

For the batter:
1cup besan/chickpea flour
tbsp of rice flour
A pinch of turmeric
A pinch of red chilli powder
A pinch of Asafoetida
1/4 tsp coriander powder
water (little)
salt
oil to deep fry

mix everything together to a thick batter..

Stuff the vertically slit Chili peppers with potato mixture gently and keep them aside..Heat oil in a wok and deep fry the stuffed peppers dipped in batter till brown and crispy.
If you want to give special effect like what you get on streets, dip once agian into batter and refry the bhajjis in oil. This gives them a thick covering as in street bought Bhajjis.
Serve them with coffee or tea as the choice may be.
Bhajjis are best enjoyed as a rainy day evening snack or with spirits.

Receipe adopted with permission with small changes and photograph from
http://brindavanrecipes.blogspot.com/

Marcha Na Bhajiya

2008-10-23T06:43:00.000-07:00

READY TO EAT...DELICIOUS ...BHAJJIS !!

Image taken with thanks from

http://cuminhut.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html

Naga Morich And The Dentist !!

2008-10-21T12:58:00.000-07:00

A visit to the dentist involves more fear than pain

when you are a child.

A visit to the dentist involves no fear and bit of pain

when you are a youth.

A visit to the dentist involves no fear and a lot of pain

when you are old.

-Nagajolokiaaddict

Ist Posting 20th October evening

So what has this to do with Hot Chilli Peppers?

Well, this has given me a chance to try out action of Hot Chili peppers (Naga Jolokia) on pain.

I wanted to prove the point that my old Ayah was right when she used to apply paste of fiery hot chillies on her forehead for her migrain attacks. And this was about 55 years back.!!

My dentist asked me to take pain killers and anti biotics for post dental work pain.

But I had other ideas in my mind. So I will take antibiotics but no pain killers.

What I have done is, that I have applied Naga Morich juice from inner parts to my affected cheek parts to see how the capsaicin works. It is almost 45 minutes since I applied the Lava .

My cheek has turned red. The pain part has diminished and there is no discomfort as of now.

I plan to apply Red Hot Lava juice every three hours to my cheek and also eat my usual dose of Naga Morich pickle to attack the pain generators. I am sure it is going to work like magic.

While I am typing this report, I can literally feel pain slowly subsiding. The throbbing pain has started to become a nagging ache.

I am sure that I will be out of this misery earlier than expected due to Naga Morich .

..Now where is my Pepper fairy? Storm ...are you reading this?

UPDATE AT 10.40 pm 20th October 2008

It is almost 14 hours since my molar was

drilled and filled.

Pain is almost not there. Cheek is still red.

By tomorrow I should be much more at ease.

If I press the filling, the pain is there.This means

I have to continue application of Naga juice tomorrow.

But today, I have applied only once so far.

The hot tingling is still very much there.

But I am happy that I did not take 3 pain killers as prescribed.

UPDATE on 21st October 2008 , 8.40 am

I must say that people have underestimated virtues of Chili peppers .Believe me, I spent my first 24 hours only on strength of Naga Morich applied topically.My 80 percent pain has disappeared. Deep within the tooth , I have neural pain and I will have to take an analgesic now to get relief from that pain.In my opinion, muscular pains and pains associated with topical neuron sensitivity like Arthrities are best treated with capsaicin.I will update you with more info

Image of the Dentist visit taken from www.mickphoto.com/ with thanks.

Death By Chili peppers...Really?

2008-10-16T07:43:00.000-07:00

Here Sleeps A Brave Heart

"He ate many chillies and paid the price
His heart stopped resulting in sad demise.
He tried to look macho and a strong man
He became,instead dead meat packed in can. "

-By Naga Jolokia Addict

A promising young cook died due to overdose of chili peppers that he took to prove a point about being a Macho Man....probably.

Read the whole story as under.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article4842531.ece

From The TimesSeptember 29, 2008

Keen cook died after eating red-hot chilli sauce as a dare

Steve Bird An aspiring chef died after eating a super-hot chilli sauce as part of an endurance competition with a friend.

Andrew Lee, 33, challenged his girlfriend’s brother to a contest to see who could eat the spiciest sauce that he could create.

The fork-lift truck driver, who wanted to cook for a living, prepared a tomato sauce made with red chillies grown on his father’s allotment. After eating it, however, he suffered intense discomfort and itching. The following morning he was found dead, possibly after suffering a heart attack.

Toxicology tests are being conducted to try to establish if he suffered a reaction to the food.

An inquest was told that Mr Lee, from Edlington, West Yorkshire, was in perfect health and had just passed a medical examination at work. He was a keen cook and would often prepare meals for his parents. It is believed that Mr Lee had never prepared a dish as hot as the one he made the night before his death.

Mr Lee’s sister, Claire Chadbourne, 29, said that he took a jar of the sauce to the home of his girlfriend, Samantha Bailey, and challenged her brother Michael, 29, to see who could eat it. “Andrew just ate the chillies with a plate of Dolmio sauce,” she added. “It was not a proper meal because he had already eaten lamb chops and potato mash after work.

“He apparently got into bed at 2.30am and started scratching all over. His girlfriend scratched his back until he fell asleep. She woke up and he had gone. It is incredible. Who would have thought he could have died from eating chilli sauce? We don’t know of anything else that could have caused his death. The postmortem showed no heart problems.

“He loved cooking for his friends. He always said he wanted to be a chef but didn’t want to start at the bottom.”

An inquest was opened and adjourned in Doncaster last week.

End Report...

Was this avoidable?
What led to his death which was so untimely?
Why he died?
Are chili peppers the cause of death?

I want to discuss these questions in my next posting.

RIP Picture taken from www with thanks to the unknown original poster.

Falling In Love With Naga Morich....For Ever

2008-10-09T08:01:00.001-07:00

Falling in love with Naga as I wrote before, is an unique and once in life time experience that lasts your life time.

There is excitement, there is passion, there is longing, there are pangs of separation, There is bliss of meeting again and again and yet the warmth that you feel when you are one with Naga is indescribable.The feel of holding Naga in hand is something electric in nature.It is like holding a glass containing unknown potion. You feel like Socrates holding a glass of Hemlock.But Naga brings you a high after suffering and not death.

Its flaming red color and pointed tip holds you in a trance.Heady scent sends you in an elevated state of mind which I can only equate with Transcendental meditative state. You are on a sublime trip.

Very thought of the potent heat encased in soft pods that resemble hot lips of your beloved sends your blood rushing through veins.It is like holding a smoking volcano in your hands; or an eager,anticipative and quivering mouth of your beloved breathing passion on your chest while in embrace.

Your state of mind is just like the male spider approaching Black widow female.You know that the first bite itself will shoot daylights out of you.Once you take the first morsel it is tentative like kissing for the first time.At first there is tingling and within a matter of seconds, the leaping flames engulf you.You will be like a chicken on a grill except the fact that this "You" is alive,and the grill is within you.

The white heat will hit your mouth, the aroma coupled with unseen heat in vapours will hit your nostrils and eyes. The ears will start smoking, eyes and nose will start running and your throat will burn differently than the mouth.The stomach will send different heat messages than other parts.The breathing is faster, the blood pumped by heart is faster. Nerve ends all over your body are doing a Banshee dance.The whole effect is more exciting and overpowering than a hundred ORGASMS happening with you.

I have been on such trips twice a day after lunch and dinner.I never have enough of this excitement and I want more and more of it. At lunch I look forward to dinner and my lovely Naga Jolokia Chutney pickle or Red Naga Pickle.And at dinner I dream of next day lunch with my beloved Naga.You are in life long love. A love that Shakespeare has described as under.

"Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved."

I am in love with the cruelest beloved and yet, I want to suffer and enjoy my suffering.

"O God, I want to remain so.

So Help Me God!!"

Image taken from EROGLAMOUR.COM with thanks

Falling In Love With Naga Jolokia

2008-10-04T08:43:00.000-07:00

Exactly 36 years back, as a young man, I was looking after our glass bottle business in Madras. One day, I complained to my friend Jayant Kamdar (aka JK) that I was bored to death. He was a pioneer optometrist in Madras who was trained at Canada in fitting contact lenses.

He was an extremely intelligent person and he would often tell his friends, "There are only two Gujaratis who are brilliant. “One is myself and another is Hemant." He was the most incorrigible Jain I have ever known. He enjoyed chicken more than chickpeas. Eggs more than eggplants and, in short, prided himself in saying that "I eat all things that walk, fly and crawl.”

He used me as a guinea pig for demonstrating his contact lenses to people, particularly film stars. The late MGR and SHIVAJI GANESHAN were two stars who saw a color movie of me wearing cosmetic lenses which turned the color of my eyes blue, red, orange, and green. Later on both started wearing colored lenses as their movie roles demanded.

Coming back to my complaining to him that "I was bored to death,” he replied "Look Hemant, I had the same question in my mind when I was in Canada and a white Canadian friend gave a suggestion that "If you are bored to death in your life, either start drinking or start loving somebody's wife."The reason being that whenever you are with the wife of someone, there is always a fear and excitement about being discovered with your pants down and mentally you are always trying to figure out ways to escape from the bedroom at the drop of a hat.

I understood his logic and agreed that the second suggestion was most welcome. I told him so and asked "How about my falling in love with your wife? Because charity starts at home."

There is no need to say that he literally fell off his stool laughing and told me that I was more intelligent than him.

But what possible connection does this story have with my love for Naga Jolokia?

Friends, there is a connection.

When you feel lethargic and are in a state of ennui, and when your body and mind slow down, when you no longer feel the bouncy spirits in you, when you feel that hunger has left your stomach, when you do not like to eat proper food, when your blood report says cholesterol at high levels, when the urine report says sugar over the permitted level meaning you are a diabetic, it is time you should go to your vegetable seller or a farmers’ market, and not to your doctor. You will do yourself a big favour by buying Hot chili peppers like Habanero or Thai chili or any Hot variety available. This is just to start with. Remember that you need to flirt with Naga at a later date.

If you are a novice, buy mildly hot chili peppers and start eating at least two per day to start with. If you are gutsy, buy habanero chiles and start with two per day. Continue this therapy for about fifteen days and then select chile peppers with higher heat. Repeat the same process till you are ready to kiss the Naga and suffer for the folly.

But in order to be successful, you will have to think Naga, feel Naga and physically caress Naga. Have about a pound of Habaneras or Red Savina or any other hot pepper always with you in the fridge. Get used to seeing them, feeling them, smelling them and occasionally taking a small bite from them.

Falling in love with Naga Jolokia is like falling in love with someone's wife or a rich man's daughter, or a possessive WWE lady wrestler. Generally it starts and remains a ONE SIDED AFFAIR which is life long. Your first encounter with hot chile peppers leaves you red in face, fire burning in your mouth, crying, and generally at your most uncomfortable state, with your whole being on fire. The effect of your initial encounters leaves a bad taste in your mouth and just as in love, leaves a heartburn followed by stomach burn and a red ass on fire. Faint hearted sissy people run away never to try and look Naga in face (let alone in the mouth).

But for others like me (incorrigible and written-off cases), instead of being a deterrent, it prompts them to "not get defeated" and goads them to try again and again. This is because Naga, once within your system makes you feel hyper or on a high. You feel as if you are driving an SUV in a DUI state. Your tongue longs for that tingling burning sensation. Your lips long for the hot burning kiss of death. It creates a state of challenge in your mind, mouth and stomach. All the three of them want to face the challenge again and again.

You once again reach for the forbidden fruit called Naga Jolokia and once again are floored in agony.

This state of affairs lasts just for an initial period of a couple months. Then, Naga seems to be impressed with your determination. Please remember that at this stage, you are just being tolerated and nothing more. Any layoffs from Naga and you have to start from square one. Naga Jolokia is very possessive in nature. You ignore Naga for a short while and you go one light year backward and away from Naga.

Naga needs to be caressed, smelt, kissed and enjoyed in bits and pieces. You can't just insult Naga by trying to devour whole fruit at a time. It would be like swallowing a red hot pinball. You will neither be able to swallow nor to spit it out. You will be in a catch 22 situation. Naga needs a lot of flirtation. Naga will never get used to you. You will have to get used to Naga.

Flirting with Naga is a long, drawn-out process and it requires determination, perseverance, and a willingness to suffer. For a spicy man like me, it took about 6 months to be accepted by Naga. For a novice like you, you may have to sweat it out for over a year depending on your determination.

You must always remember that you are flirting with the most coveted woman on earth who is beautiful like no other, who is delicate like no other, who is fiery like no other, and who is unforgiving like no other. You must also remember that you will never be able to master her and will always be a devoted servant to her. You will always bear her anger, fire, and kiss of death on a daily basis. You will also understand that being with your mistress Naga is a thing of Bliss or Nirvana.

To be continued……

picture of " LADY ON FIRE" from flickr.com with thanks

Lady With Fire

2008-10-02T08:24:00.000-07:00

Naga looks so quiet just a-hangin' there

But if you try it you better beware

She looks sedate but it's hard to tell

When she's awake she's gonna raise some hell!

She sets tongues on fire and she gives hot shocks

Kindles desire in you like a tinderbox

Her kiss is smokin' and I'm feelin' numb

It's just a token of what's to come

We love your fire, baby, let it flow

We know you have a fire down below

She's an inferno with some steam to let off

But you never know when she's gonna get off

She's a powder keg ready to blow

Well you can beg but she won't let you go

Explodes with a flash leaves you shakin' like mad

She's the best piece of chilli I've ever had

adapted with alteration with thanks from Songwriter - Jesse Lane's song "Volcano Woman" (Copyright 1999 Heart of Music Publishing) withchanges; you can hear the original song here:

Jesse Lane510-575-1500

http://www.heart-of-music.com/Songs/VolcanoWoman/VolcanoWoman.html

ADDICTION OR CRAVING?

2008-09-28T16:15:00.000-07:00

Ears smoke, Mouth burns, Eyes water

Are chile peppers addictive? This question has been the subjects of a great deal of debate in scientific, social, and gourmet circles. Chile peppers, they all agree, are addictive. They produce an intense craving for eating more on a daily basis. Bland food consumption by chile pepper addicts does not produce "that satisfaction." The question is whether this intense craving for hot chile peppers is true addiction or whether it is just a psychological addiction? Some tend to believe that it has more to do with the mind than the body.

Tobacco and chile peppers belong to the same botanical family and have alkaloids that produce almost the same sort of body response, where neurons become "numb" to the dose and develop tolerance, requiring increasing dosages to achieve the same effect. So in order to get the heat response, people eat more and more or hotter chillies.

Surprisingly, there is no withdrawal symptoms if one stops eating chile peppers. But with Tobacco, it is the reverse. Tobacco consumption actually increases the numbers of receptors and aggravates the addiction. Read what a Duke university study reveals:

"A study at Duke University Medical Center revealed that in smaller doses, capsaicin and nicotine create some of the same physiological responses which include irritation, secretion, sneezing, vasodilation, coughing and peptide release. In larger doses, when injected, capsaicin destroys many of the neurons containing its receptors, while nicotine actually increases the number of nicotine acetylcholine receptors. The result is that large doses of capsaicin result in the body becoming less responsive to capsaicin, but that large doses of nicotine cause the body to become more responsive to nicotine." (with thanks from an article by Jane Butel).

Nicotine causes both psychological and physiological dependency, with the mind and body wanting more and more. But capsaicin in chile peppers does not make your body dependent!

Addiction to consuming chile peppers, therefore, is more of a craving than a physiological addiction. Nonetheless, it can be a habit forming food, as any chilephile will tell you!

There is, however, a big difference. To get nicotine you need to ingest tobacco, which can be carcinogenic and leads to very many diseases that your body cannot fight against after some time. Eating chile peppers, on the other hand, is a healthy habit. Capsaicin helps remove arthritic pain, toothache, and muscular spasmodic pains when used topically. The pupular Lakota analgesics, despite their fanciful marketing featuring images of dramatic American Indians and bird calls, contain nothing more than capsaicin!

When taken internally, capsaicin is antibacterial. It benefits the whole alimentary canal and purifies the blood through increased blood flow and sweating. It also helps in the digestion of food by stimulating the production of digestive juices. It can kill cells responsible for diabetes. It reduces and removes cholesterol problems. It also can remove sinus congestion.

Chile peppers, like many other vegetables, leave an alkaline residue in the body upon digestion. An alkaline body is most desirable, because it does not let cancer cells or colds, viruses, flus, etc. survive in the body. No wonder cayenne finds its place next to honey, lemon (a strong alkalizing food, despite its acidic taste), and ginger in some peoples' regimens of natural cold remedies.

Capsaicin has been found to induce mass suicide of prostate cancer cells and cancers of many other types. The research of capsaicin as a medicine is sustaining momentum and almost all the countries are doing research in benefits of consuming chile peppers.

...all that aside, I will be posting the true way to fall in love with chile peppers tomorrow or so...

(Image taken from Clip art with thanks)

Thanks to a Canadian friend for his editing inputs.

VICTIM OF "EVIL EYE"?

2008-09-27T13:47:00.000-07:00

North India is 180 degrees opposite of South India in every aspect including political views.

But one thing that is common is the use of Chile peppers to ward off Evil Eye effects.

In India, chile peppers are used in many different ways to ward off evil eye. Most popular among the methods is to hang five or seven chile peppers strung with a lemon at the bottom or in between.

This contraption is hung plumb at the entrance of any home or shop.

Young children and pretty girls often suffer due to the "EVIL EYE" effect. Their anxious and worried mothers and grandmothers remove the bad effects by throwing salt and dry chile pepper pods in a fire after performing simple rituals like circling salt and chile pods or mustard seeds and chile pods over the victim's heads and body and then throwing them in the fire. The resultant smoke removes the evil eye effects!!

Try it out....You've got nothing to lose (except seven chile peppers and a lime).

Note: The image was taken from the net with thanks to the original poster.

HILLARY'S HEALTH PLAN

2008-09-26T11:20:00.000-07:00

Hot Peppers

Picking peppers for perfect health? (Alicia Wagner Calzada/Associated Press)

During a recent “60 Minutes” interview, Senator Hillary Clinton unveiled a surprising weapon in her fight to become the Democratic presidential nominee: hot peppers.
“I eat a lot of hot peppers,” she told CBS News anchor Katie Couric, who had asked her how she maintains her stamina on the campaign trail. “I for some reason started doing that in 1992, and I swear by it. I think it keeps my metabolism revved up and keeps me healthy.”
Nutritionists say Mrs. Clinton may be on to something. Although the scientific study of hot peppers is limited, there are some suggestions that capsaicin, the active ingredient in peppers, has numerous health benefits.
For starters, peppers contain several important nutrients, including beta-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin and vitamin C, said Jonny Bowden, a board-certified nutritionist and author of “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth.” In fact, peppers contain about twice the amount of vitamin C found in citrus fruits, which may help explain why they have emerged as a popular home remedy for fighting colds
Much of the research on capsaicin involves pain relief, and capsaicin is a common ingredient in over-the-counter pain creams. The analgesic effect of the capsaicin found in peppers may help explain why Mrs. Clinton believes it makes her feel better.
“People on those kinds of schedules, they are wearing their body down and not sleeping much,” Dr. Bowden said. “Possibly it could be like taking a couple of aspirins.”
Hot peppers also may slightly boost the metabolism, which could give Mrs. Clinton a sense of having more stamina and energy. “If you ate a big hot pepper, it would be hard to go right to sleep,” Dr. Bowden said.

RECIPE FOR LONG & HEALTHY LIFE

2008-09-26T10:35:00.000-07:00

When I hear of people who are relatively young , complaining of Sugar, blood pressure and such and when I hear even middle aged people complaining of prostrate
Problem in addition to the above, I suspect that there is something wrong with their diet.
And in actuality, THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THEIR DIET.

I am fortunate enough to have spent my childhood in a remote village in Gujarat India, where we had people who lived long.
They were people who lived off the land and had simple lifestyles.
The only fruits they had were what grew locally which were Berries, Palm Date fruits, and Bananas. Oranges were used only when someone was bed ridden. Apples were a luxury meant only for rich and were simply never available.

Their diet was simple fare of Wheat bread (Rotis), Millet bread, Lentils, fresh vegetables and thin buttermilk.

So what made them healthy and long living? Why did they not suffer from Blood pressure or Diabetes or prostrate problems?
Why they did not have heart problems or Cholesterol?

On the face of it, many factors can be said to be responsible for their happiness.
But at the bottom, I found that these people were lovers of Green/Red peppers or what we called as Mirchis or Marchas (Chillies).

My grandfather lived to see 96 summers. He never fell sick and never ever took any injection in his life. He would consume 1 tsp of fiery chilli powder every single day along with his curry or Dal.
In addition, he would take Green chillies stir fried in little oil with a dash of salt or a couple of stuffed chillies.

My sister's father in law lived to see 100 summers and he too had a habit of eating at least three to four stir fried green peppers as mentioned above with his lunch.

My wife's grandmother from father's side and her grand mother from mother's side lived to see 98 and 104 summers respectively.
They too used to consume fair amount of green peppers and red chilli powder in their daily simple meal.

I attributed their long lives to simple living without any stress all along.
But after becoming an avid or say rabid addict to Naga Jolokia aka Naga Morich, I discovered a lot of scientific proofs of Capsaicin acting as an elixir by destroying many forms of cancers, diabetes, prostrate problems, cholesterol and what not.

I don't say that green chillies or red pepper powders etc are cure all remedy. But I do believe in the fact that this small wonder called chilli has been responsible for many a good things that have happened to us because we loved to eat fiery little chillies.

There is a way in which this little wonder has to be used to derive the best out of it.
We will post the method next.

GLOBAL WARMING OF CHILLI KIND

2008-09-25T04:40:00.000-07:00

Summer Journey
Chili Peppers:

Global Warming

By SIMON ROBINSON/TEZPUR, INDIA

In 1492, when Christopher Columbus set off from Spain to find a westward route to Asia, he was looking to secure Europe's kitchen, not change it. Europeans had used black pepper as a medicinal aid and to spice up their cooking since Greek and Roman times. The ingredient, imported from the Spice Islands of Asia, had fueled the economies of trading ports like Alexandria, Genoa and Venice. But by the Middle Ages, black pepper had become a luxury item, so expensive that it was sold by the corn and used to pay rent and taxes. When the traditional land and sea routes to Asia were cut off by the rise of the Ottoman Empire, European traders looked for new ways to India and the lands beyond — not just for pepper but for other lucrative spices, and for silks and opium. Columbus headed west, certain he would find a new route to the East Indies. He never got there, of course, but in the islands of the New World the Italian navigator found a fiery pod that would, within years, not only infuse southern European cooking with bold new flavors but also revolutionize cooking in India, China and Thailand, the very places he'd set out to reach.
The remarkable spread of the chili (or chilli, or chile, or chile pepper, to use just a few of its myriad names and spellings) is a piquant chapter in the story of globalization. Few other foods have been taken up by so many people in so many places so quickly. Ask a Chinese chili lover or an Indian or a Thai and most will swear that chilies are native to their homeland, so integral is the spice to their cooking, so deeply embedded is it in their culture. European and American chili addicts, though less numerous, are just as passionate about the spice.
In terms of keeping billions of people fed, the chili can hardly compare to rice or corn or even potatoes, of course. But by adding spice to such staples, by making even the poorest food rich in flavor, the chili has become one of the most important ingredients in the world. For hundreds of millions of poor, chilies are the one luxury they can afford every day, a small burst of flavor in the slums of Asia or the parched grazing land of West Africa. The secret to the chili's success lies in the fantastically colorful pods themselves: the chemicals that make them so hot and addictive. "Once we develop a taste for hot food, which provides a high, there is no going back," says renowned Indian cook Madhur Jaffrey. "It turns into a craving." The chili, she says, is not so much a seed of change "as a conqueror, or, better still, a master seducer."
Chilies are native to South America, where people have been cultivating and trading them for at least 6,000 years. Linda Perry, a postdoctoral fellow in archaeobiology at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, has identified microfossils of the starch grains found in chilies on grinding stones and cooking pots unearthed in the Caribbean, Venezuela and the Andes. In a paper published in Science last February, she and fellow researchers found that domesticated chilies were being eaten in southern Ecuador some 6,250 years ago. Because there are no wild chilies in southern Ecuador, domesticated plants must have been brought there from elsewhere, perhaps from Peru or Bolivia where, according to Perry and other scientists, chilies were probably first grown by humans. "For whatever reason, a lot of people really liked them," Perry says. "Once they were domesticated, they spread very quickly around South America and into Central America."
Chilies belong to the genus Capsicum, a member of the nightshade family that includes tomatoes, potatoes and eggplants. Only five of Capsicum's 25 species have been cultivated, and in South America, where most of the world's wild chilies are still found, chilies' shapes and colors are far more varied than the classic curved red or green ones of Mexican cooking or the small bullet-shaped "bird's-eye" chilies used in Thai cooking, or the sweet green and orange bell peppers or capsicums found in a million salads. There are pea-shaped chilies, heart-shaped chilies, chilies with the bumps and nodes of a surrealist brain, and chilies that are flat and long like a bean. They come in purple, rusty red, yellow, black, bright orange and lime green. "There are thousands of types and we're still discovering new ones," says Paul Bosland, director of the Chile Pepper Institute at the New Mexico State University in Santa Fe. "The variations are incredible."
By the time Columbus sailed into the Caribbean in the late 15th century, chilies were a long-established part of most diets across the Americas. But as British author Lizzie Collingham relates in her excellent history Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors, which tells the story of India and its rulers through their food, Europeans initially weren't that enamored with the new spice that Columbus brought back from the New World. "On the Iberian peninsula," writes Collingham, "chilies were grown more as curious ornamental plants than as sources of a fiery flavoring." But if Europeans didn't immediately fall for the chili, they did become its greatest propagator. Portuguese traders carried it to settlements and nascent colonies in West Africa, in India and around East Asia. Within 30 years of Columbus' first journey, at least three different types of chili plants were growing in the Portuguese enclave of Goa, on India's west coast. The chilies, which probably came from Brazil via Lisbon, quickly spread through the subcontinent, where they were used instead of black pepper.
In Thailand, a short-lived Portuguese presence failed to convert the locals to Christianity but succeeded in revolutionizing the Thai kitchen. European traders introduced the spice to Japan. As chilies were added to the cooking pots of Asia, they also entered existing local trade routes and were taken to Indonesia, Tibet and China. The speed of their spread was phenomenal. Within a half-century of chilies arriving in Spain, they were being used across much of Asia, along the coast of West Africa, through the Maghreb countries of North Africa, in the Middle East, in Italy, in the Balkans and through Eastern Europe as far as present-day Georgia. Chilies spread so quickly in part because they are easy to grow in a wide range of climates and conditions, and therefore cheap and always available. "It was something spicy that now anybody could afford," says Bosland. "It was probably the very first plant that was globalized."
It wasn't the only new plant on the market, of course. Columbus returned from his journeys with baskets of strange vegetables and fruits including tomatoes, potatoes and corn. But nothing spread as fast as chilies. Bosland believes it was because people thought the red pods were a new type of black pepper. "People are very conservative when it comes to food," he says. "But here was something that they thought they knew, only it was spicier and easier to grow and get hold of." Tomatoes and potatoes took much longer to spread through Europe and Asia.
In recent years, chilies have returned to Europe from Asia on the menus of Indian and Thai restaurants. Indian food is now the most popular cuisine in Britain. In 2001 then Foreign Minister Robin Cook called chicken tikka masala — a British invention that mixes chicken, cream and tomato puree with chili and other spices — the country's national dish. In the U.S. — where, of course, the chili had arrived thousands of years ago from further south — Mexican food is ever more popular; salsas and chili sauces have outsold tomato-based ketchup since the early 1990s.

Why do we like hot chilies so much? Why eat something that can hurt us? The heat in chilies comes from their capsaicinoids, a series of related compounds concentrated in a chili's internal ribs and seeds. The capsaicinoids turn on the pain receptors in our mouth and on our tongue. It's essentially a defense mechanism designed to stop animals devouring the pod. "The body reacts as if it's a poison," says David Thompson, an Australian cook responsible for some of the most inventive Thai cooking of the past decade and owner of Nahm, London's only Thai restaurant with a Michelin star. "It expects more than just a wallop of heat, but that's all it gets." At a very low level, that wallop is addictive because our body's nervous system releases endorphins, a type of mild natural opiate, to ease the sting. It's that mix of pleasure and pain that makes eating chilies such a wonderful experience. "The reason people get excited about eating more and more of them is you have an adrenaline rush," says Thompson, who lives half the year in Bangkok to immerse himself in Thai cooking traditions. "We want more."
We also seem to want hotter. In the past few years, chili lovers in places such as the U.S. and the U.K. have become obsessed with eating the hottest chili, the hottest sauce, the hottest anything. In an episode of the animated series The Simpsons, Homer Simpson coats his throat with hot wax so he can eat a steaming hot chili "grown deep in the jungle primeval by the inmates of a Guatemalan insane asylum." Colleagues have inundated me with stories of their own encounters with chilies. One said he'd eaten chilies in Thailand that "stripped the enamel off my teeth." Our Southeast Asia bureau chief told me she had grown up having chili-eating competitions with her father. "I'm proud to say I once beat him," she wrote. "But then had to absent myself from school for an afternoon because of the consequences. Mother was not amused."
In September 2000, a military laboratory in the garrison town of Tezpur in northeastern India announced that it had identified the hottest chili in the world. Chili heat is measured in Scoville Heat Units (shus), from the American chemist Wilbur Scoville who invented the scale in 1912. Pure capsaicin, the main capsaicinoid in a chili, measures 16 million shu. A bell pepper typically measures zero. An Italian peperoncino, used to spice up pasta dishes in southern Italy, measures about 500 shu, while the spiciest Thai chilies come in at around 100,000. Most people are reduced to tears by eating anything above 200,000, and until now the hottest chili ever measured was the Red Savina, a type of habanero grown in California by a commercial chili farmer, which measured 577,000 shu.
According to the tests carried out by India's Defence Research Laboratory, pods from the bhut jolokia, or "ghost chili," a plant grown across northeastern India, had measured 855,000 shu. The chili world met the claim with skepticism, but in 2005 the Chile Pepper Institute in New Mexico finally grew enough bhut jolokia from seeds a member had collected in India to be able to test it. The results were stunning: the bhut jolokia, also called the Naga chili after a traditionally fierce local tribe that enjoys eating them, measured just over 1 million shu, the sort of heat you normally find only in the hottest chili sauces made from pure pepper extract.
On a recent visit to Tezpur, I met with the director of the Defence Research Laboratory, R.B. Srivastava, and the scientist in charge of cultivating the bhut jolokia, R.K.R. Singh. The two men explained that the bhut jolokia was so popular in northeastern India that it was known as "the king of chilies" and celebrated in a festival that coincides with the beginning of the chili season in April. The men discussed the possibility of using the bhut jolokia in antiriot weapons such as tear gas. (I wasn't allowed into the laboratories, Srivastava said, because I was a foreign national and clearance could take weeks.) The bhut jolokia might also make a good food for India's troops, he suggested. We joked about soldiers eating bhut jolokias to get in the right mood before going into battle. "A balanced approach has to be there," Srivastava said, half seriously, "or they will be running to the toilet all the time." The laboratory is contemplating applying for Geographical Indication certification, which would mean only bhut jolokias from northeastern India could be sold as such. "The commercial applications are there," said Srivastava, who mentioned using the chili in medicines and even, by smearing it on string encircling villages, to keep elephants away from crops and humans. "Chilies are packed with vitamins and just so good for you."
After some time, a colleague brought in a small saucer containing three bhut jolokia pods. The pods had been picked a few weeks earlier and were beginning to shrivel. They were about 5 cm long and a burnt orange color. They had an extremely pleasant smoky aroma — half the reason people in the region adore them, said Singh, who is from the nearby state of Manipur and found the bhut jolokia "horrible" as a child but now loves it in small doses. With a cup of milky tea on hand in case of an emergency (milk or yoghurt is a much better way to counter the effects of chilies than water or alcohol), I used my fingernails to tear off a tiny shard of bhut jolokia skin. The men warned me not to try the seeds or the ribs. "Just place it on your tongue, don't swallow," Singh said. The heat took a few seconds to register but quickly spread across my tongue and around my mouth. It was hot, but not unpleasant. I tore off a slightly larger piece of chili and placed it between my front teeth. As I bit down I could feel the chemicals burst out and begin to heat my gums and tongue and down into the top of my throat. I took a swig of tea. Singh smiled and suggested I stop there. "You survived," he said.
Chefs such as David Thompson dismiss the fixation on heat alone. "In countries where chilies have been part of the cooking culture for centuries, that rather adolescent approach has been discarded a long time ago. People in those places don't have to prove their manhood by trying to eat the most number of chilies at one go," Thompson says. He pauses and then adds, "although I've certainly been guilty of that." The point of chilies, he says, is not just the heat but the way they enhance the flavors of other ingredients. "Chili is not meant to swamp or overpower but act as a counterpoint to something salty or sour or sweet, or to heighten the sensation of textures," he says. No wonder, then, that in five centuries, the chili has successfully seduced the entire planet.

With thanks from Time CNN

Bullock-Cart drivers and Chillies

2008-09-24T06:08:00.000-07:00

Madras bullock cart drivers are among the cruelest I have ever seen.
I am a witness to the horrifying practice of punishing the bullocks by torture which they unleashed on helpless animals.

Since our house was on the arterial road to all the markets, there was a constant stream of bullock carts laden with goods beyond poor animal's capacity, that was flowing on Audiappa Naicken street. The cart drivers would sometimes load three to four tonnes of goods for two bullocks to pull. They would normally use a short cat o nine tails (whip) and if that failed, rub Guntur Chilli pods (freshly broken by them) in helpless animal's eyes. They used to have a small cloth bag tied to their waist which stored these chillies.The fiery heat would make the animals to panic and pull the goods. As a small boy, I was moved to tears on seeing such a scene.

I shudder today too thinking of those animal's agony.

CHILLI THIEVES

2008-09-22T17:13:00.000-07:00

I have heard of people stealing everything that is valuable but it was only in Madras that I have seen people stealing dry chillies , and that too in broad daylight in the most ingenious manner.

The stolen chilli pods were kept by the chilli thieves in a place where even God would not think that they would conceal.

My house on Audiappa street had a veranda like space which was used by people to take rest and generally served as a rest area for tired coolies and labourers.After my return to Madras from my village in Gujarat, I used to look after our family business conducted from the ground floor and I could see people sitting or resting in the veranda.

Come January and new crop of chilli peppers used to start flowing in the chilli market. The people who carried the huge jute bags full of Chilli pods came in the afternoon to rest. One day, I noticed a labourer walking in the resting place and he looked around if anyone was watching . Suddenly he lifted his Lungi and I noticed a huge bulging "Komanam"(Langot which is an underwear ) .This male modesty saver had another compartment which can fill upto a couple of pounds of chili pods.

This man calmly removed his underwear and emptied Mundu chillies in a paper bag, put back his long Komanam and walked off.!!
He never even flinched when his body contact with these fiery little button chillies would have burned him in loins . I think that working for years together handling fiery chillies had made him immune to any discomfort. I came to know that employees did not do a body check at below the belt level and these labourers who mostly hailed from Ramanathpuram district had fashioned and perfected an ingenious modus operendi to steal chillies.

After this first encounter, I saw similar thefts all through the season year after year till we vacated the place in 1968.

I would be posting some more about these Chilli pepper handling coolies and their usage of chillies for some cruelest animal abuse. But that would be later.

I am a Spicy Man because....."I was born in Chilli market"

2008-09-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

When I sit back and think about the reasons for my being so much attracted to Spices , I used to think that I had taken after my mother who loved all spicy foods but I was still not convinced if love for spices has a common gene.

It struck to me suddenly that the reason lies in the fact "Where I come from".

I was born on a cold day early morning in January first week 58 years ago in the city of Madras.

what is so special about that day?

Nothing.

What is so special about the place?

Well nothing except the fact that My love for Sambar may have something to do with that.
But still it does not justify my first question.

Today morning it came as a flash.
I was born at my home at 27 Audiappa Naicken Street, George town, Madras.
And this house lies 50 feet away from special market which deals only in Chilli peppers or if you want to call it Chillies, I am OK with it. (later on it also became a wholesale market for Garlic.)

My house where I was born was practically plumb at the hubbub of one of the largest chilli market in South India. The market is called "Mozka Kadai Sandhu" meaning Chilli shop street.
Actually this is a narrow street housing hundreds of wholesalers of fiery to slightly milder dry chillies. Chief among the varieties being sannam , Madras Pari and Mundu. Huge godowns of chilli peppers are situated in this street.

From the time I took my first breath in this world, I was thrown open to this spicy atmosphere of chillies. My first visuals of street life would have been huge hand carts and animal driven "Trucks" laden with huge Jute bags filled to bursting with dry chillies.
The same scene is repeated throughout the year, year after year .
I remember my eyes would burn and my little nose would run whenever the trucks and hand carts would pass near our house. And mind you, every day hundreds of them would pass from there. Our house used to literally smell like a chili pepper warehouse.
My little nose became large nose and little boy became an young man in same place.But the non stop passage of fiery red chilli peppers goes on and on unstopped .

This may be the reason why I understand chili peppers better than most people.

I would hasten to add here that it is not only the fiery chillies that were traded here. Varda Muthiappan street, Anna Pillai street, Audiappa Naicken street, Strotten Muthiah Mudali street, Thatha Muthiappan street and Kothaval Chawadi comprised of an area within a city block in US terms and this area housed all wholesale and retail trade in Spices, cereals and Rice. Kotwal chawadi was south India's biggest vegetable wholesale and retail market.So my love of spices can be traced to the atmosphere (literally) prevalent in my house.