[CH] Hot Sauce/Cuisine Reviews from the Carribean
Imildur@aol.com
Mon, 26 Oct 1998 22:22:11 EST
Greetings Amigos Picantes!
Having just returned to good ol' LA (Lower Alabama) from a 4 day vacation in
Cozumel, I thought I would give every one a review of the Hot sauces I found
while on the Island and the restaurants I went to. Some I have never seen
before, and some have peppers in them I'd love to hear more about if anybody
knows anything.
We spent the first day flying in (started in Atlanta at 4:30am) and got into
Cozumel (Just barely, we had a "student" pilot who had to make 3 passes before
he could finally land the plane. Brought out the fire trucks and everything!
Exciting!) at about 11:00am Thursday, got lunch, took a siesta, and went scuba
diving at about 3pm. This was a long day, and didn't have much energy to go
shopping, so we crashed after dinner at Santiago's. If you go to Cozumel,
don't expect fast service anywhere, but you better not be really hungry if you
go to Santiago's or you'll starve to death before the drinks arrive. Decent
food, but not particularly attentive servers.
Friday, 8:00am boat dive till about 12:30. We ate lunch at the Planet
Hollywood restaurant as we were in the mood for wings. Good wings, not overly
hot, but we didn't ask them for hot. Also, they fix chicken fingers with a
breading made with Capn Crunch cereal. Very Interesting! I think the Capn
Crunch sorta swelled in me cuz I had a bad case of indigestion that afternoon,
and after the night dive at La Cieba, we went to Ernesto's Fajita grill and I
couldn't eat anything but chips and guacamole. Well, we did drink some
Tequila too. :) Ernesto's has the BEST Fajitas and I really hated to miss
them. The guacamole wasn't bad though!
Saturday, another 8:00am boat dive till 11:00, Then we ate at the restaurant
at the Fiesta Inn where we were staying. The have excellent Flautas, with a
very good seasoned beef. Nothing really spicey, but generally not much
mexican food is. Then, we went shopping. I found a Chile shop in downtown
Cozumel, called Puro Chile, and it claimed to be "the hottest shop on the
Island", and I agree. The had a decent selection of sauces, and what they had
was definitely unique. Here is what I bought.
Two versions of El Yucateco that I have never seen. I have seen the red and
the green, which they had also, but they also had a Caribbean recipe and an
XXXTRA hot version. Thats right, 3X's. I've tried the Caribbean version, and
its fruitier than the red and the green(has carrots in it). The XXX version
is very hot, but probably not too much hotter than the red and green, but
better flavor. Both of these sauces are more of a brown color and are labeled
"natural color" on the label.
Vida Salsa Picante - this is a neat label, with Mayan artwork. The sauce is
more of a typical Habanero sauce flavor, with a medium/Hot heat level. No
ingredients listed on the label.
Catarino's Salso Picante - made with Chiles de Arbol and Yahualica peppers.
This is very good, medium heat level sauce, with excellent chile flavor. I've
never heard of Yahualica peppers, but I liked the taste of this one so well, I
bought another sauce called
Yahualica Salsa Muy Picante, and this one is also very good, and maybe a
little hotter than the Catarino's.
Salsita Esilo Chamoy- this one was free cuz I bought at least three sauces. I
had five plus the free one and I wanted to get another, so I could get a
second free one, but my wife said I had to stop, and I wanted to buy one of
their shirts also. I didn't taste this one, but I'm gonna. It has guaillo
chiles in it.
We went to a place called Morgans for dinner, after playing the ring game and
watching Auburn and Alabama play in The Stadium, formerly The Sports Page.
Really good bar for just sitting and watching sports. Food is just ok. They
will spice up the Salsa for ya though. Morgans is great. Really nice
restaurant. with a piano bar. and excellent service. It was our sixth wedding
anniversary and they brought out the flaming coffee table and fixed an
excellent coffee drink with Kahlua, ice cream, Gran Manier and lots of flame!
The Surf and Turf Special was a filet mignon and a lobster tail, and it was
only $17! We bought a bottle of Champagne and every thing was great. I
highly recommend this retaurant to everyone.
On the way back, we had about an hour wait in Cancun, at the airport. I
looked accross the waiting area and there was a shop called HOT HOT HOT Salsa
Picantesimo. I spent the entire time sampling the sauces there, and selling
them for the guy as people walked up and I made suggestions on what I thought
was good. Didn't get a tip though :)
Here is what I bought from this shop.
Salsa picante de chile habanero - labeled as El Diablito. Good hab sauce, but
vinegar based, so Rael, don't try this one.
Pico Picante Chile Serrano - Last trip to Cozumel, I got the Hab version of
this. The Serrano version is very good also. A green sauce, obviously, but
nice Serrano heat. The first ingredient is Nopal, but I don't know what that
is. Serranos is second on the list.
Turysalsa - a non descript labeled habanero salsa, or thin paste really. Very
good flavor, different than most hab sauces. Quite hot.
I also found a 40 gram bottle of Chile Molido La Extra. which is a chile
powder, for $3.00. The man told me it was pure chile powder, and no other
spices, and it does look that way, but other chile powders of this quantity, I
had found to be around $20, so I'm not sure.
So, does anybody who's had the patience and interest to read this far know
anything about Yahualica, Molido, and Guaillo chiles? and what is Nopal?
P.S. If you want to email the folks at Puro Chile, their E address on their
card read like this: purochile@cozumel.czm.com.mx. I've never seen a server
name like that but you can try I guess.
Thanks,
Eric Lewis,
Imildur@aol.com
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