[CH] Tabasco Sauce (tm)
Jeff Thompson (jeffthompson@mac.com)
Wed, 28 Mar 2001 09:13:34 -0500
I'd bet that just about everyone's first exposure to hot sauces is Tabasco
Sauce. Sure, it's the Budweiser of hot sauces, but it gets people interested
in all things hot and spicy. It's sort of like a gateway drug for
chile-heads.
I think the segment was valid from a historical perspective as well. The
creator of Tabasco Sauce was the innovator that created the market for hot
sauces in general. Whether or not you like the product, you have to at least
acknowledge the pioneer as being a proto chile-head.
<I feel a rant coming on...>
There seems to be a minority on the mailing list that won't eat anything but
habaneros: habanero salsa, habanero sauce, habanero cookies, habanero cheese
cake, habanero egg salad, habanero ice creame, habanero stuffed habanero
with habanero cream cheese and a side order of habanero dipping sauce served
with a chilled glass of habanero cabernet... habanero, habanero, habanero,
habanero. It's like that Monty Python SPAM sketch. While I respect the heat
of the noble hab, I also like other pepper flavors and heat levels too.
I got a huge rash-of-shit when I asked about the heat-less jalapenos. You'd
think I'd walked into a Southern Baptist convention and suggested that Jesus
was an alien (not my metaphor, I borrowed it from a friend). I thought this
was the chile-head board, not the habanero-head board. Isn't the point of
this group to discuss all things chile?
A lot of people say they don't like the taste of jalapenos, or Tabasco, or
that mild peppers are evil, ok fine, that's your opinion, well here's my
next blasphemy: I think habaneros taste like feet, and nasty unclean
fungus-y feet at that. Their only saving grace is their heat. The flavor is
fine when used to augment or contrast other flavors, but by themselves
they're just plain nasty.
<deep breath>
Let the stoning begin. :^)
> From: Cameron Begg <begg.4@osu.edu>
> Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 07:57:35 -0500
> To: chile-heads@globalgarden.com
> Cc: AutumnRhea@aol.com
> Subject: Re: [CH] "Eat the Heat" on FoodTV
>
> Hi C-H's,
>
> Debra wrote (among other things):
> ..I don't do Tobasco much either.......but to get the public picking up that
> bottle of hot sauce that sits at the restaurant table, you have to introduce
> it first........
>
> Anyone who is even mildly curious will have already picked the
> Tabasco bottle up, tried it and compartmentalized "hot sauces" as
> "stuff that tastes like Tabasco." That is the misconception I would
> seek to correct.
>
> Thanks for your comments - and the tape Debra!
> --
> ---
> Regards, Cameron.