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Silly Chile Hot Sauce Shop in Eureka Springs, Arkansas – Great Selection, But……..
While visiting Northwest Arkansas this weekend for my niece’s wedding (congrats Sarah and Josh-we had a blast!!!), I was so looking forward to visiting the Silly Chile Hot Sauce Shop in Eureka Springs. My wife brought me a jar of their candied jalapeno’s on a visit there a few years back, and talked about how great a shop it was, and how nice the man running it was. So we walked in, me full of spicy anticipation at trying new treats, checking out the selection, and maybe scoring some fun new hot, fiery delight! And they did have a great selection! Just check out some of my finds! A little Silverleaf action, some Heartbreaking Dawn’s, Cajohn’s, and lots of Dave’s and Blair’s! And some brands and products I had never seen! I was jazzed! Hyped! Ready to add to a collection already overflowing from my recent jaunts to the Houston and New Orleans shows! Just check out some of the products below!
But alas, I was SO TURNED OFF by the attitude of the ladies running the shop I left in disgust! I was ready to talk sauce! Spice! Heat! Maybe learn something new! But they were so snotty and rude they robbed my hot sauce lovin’ joy! They made me quit taking pictures! “No pictures in the store!!!” I was told like being scolded by my first grade teacher! And when I saw the sample bottle of CaJohn’s Happy Beaver and asked the lady if she sold much of it, she condescendingly replied, “well, it DOES have Ghost Pepper in it so it’s very hot…so we sell a little.” And I started to ask, “how do you like the Silverleaf products? Isn’t the garlic the bomb? Aren’t the Mediterranean Sprinkles a great seasoning? And did you know they’re coming out with a ghost pepper stone ground mustard?” She just looked at me like I was from Mars! So I dared not even go into my love of HBD’s Bad Brains and how they had to have it in the store. My joy was gone….spirit robbed!
Why do I tell you this saga? Ahhhh…….Caveat Emptor! Let the Buyer Beware! The Silly Chile hot sauce shop has good products, but they are charging hugely inflated over the top tourist prices, and the ladies who were running the shop patronizing, condescending, and rude! But that’s not the main reason……
The Chilehead community is a family, folks! It’s the thing that draws me in…the helpful nature of the small batch sauce makers, the way everyone is warm, friendly, and inviting- the enthusiasm of hot sauce shop owners (think James and Amy’s new Houston shop iBurn-where everyone knows your name…..oh wait, that’s Cheer’s, but iBurn will learn your name!), and I could go on and on! So I’m torn with the Yin and Yang of promoting a store selling good products made by good people, and telling people to not support a store run by people who are absolutely counter to who we are as true Chileheads!!!
Okay, I feel better now. Thanks for allowing the rant, and always remember that , yes Virginia, it’s a Fiery World!!!!!
Chile Pepper Extravaganza Schedule Released!!
After you finish your spicy revelry in Houston this weekend, folks, get yourself down to New Orleans for the Chile Pepper Extravaganza! I just got the schedule from the festival organizers and it’s going to be a great show! Click the link directly below to hear the radio spot playing all over New Orleans! And click the second link further down for the complete show schedule!
Click the link below to see show times, schedule, cooking demos, and more!!! Lots of great fun and demos along with some of your favorite spicy vendors! Come see Tracy Carter from Jacs Tailgaters, Johnny McLaughlin of Heartbreaking Dawns, Steve Seabury of High River Sauces and the New York City Hot Sauce Festival, “Cin” Cindy of Cin Cindy Chili fame, CaJohn Hard from CaJohn’s, Michelle Northrup of the Intensity Academy, blogger and renowned Hot Sauce Collector Vic Clinco, just to name a few, along with lots of other local chefs and celebrities sharing their knowledge and passion for food, flavor, heat, and spice! I hope to see you at the Ernest Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, LA September 27-29! Laizzes Les Bon Temp Roulet!
2013 Chile Pepper Extravaganza Schedule
Flicking Your Bic Was Never This Much Fun!!
When I was approached by the Bic Corporation to review their portable grilling gizmo, the FlameDisk®, I tried to visualize a whole bunch of plastic lighters taped to a plate flying through the air at a rock concert! Okay, so I date myself, but I burnt many a finger holding my lighter up proudly at rock concerts, thank you very much! But I digress. This cool and groovy barbecue enhancing, nifty, swifty, pyro based product can take the dirty mess and hassle out of your next tailgate grilling experience. So sit back and enjoy this unique visit with the Bic ™ FlameDisk®!
The FlameDisk lights with the “Flick of your Bic”!
As you can see from the picture, the FlameDisk® is just that – a flat disk with holes that you place in the bottom of your grill and light in place of charcoal! The holes allow the flames of this Bic™ to flick your pre-game load of burgers, dogs, chicken, steak, or whatever it is you decide to grill up on game day, picnic day, or heck, just any old day! I found the instructions simple and the FlameDisk® even simpler than that- downright intuitive!
The instructions say to allow a four minute warm-up to achieve 40 minutes of cooking time, and then a 10 minute cool down after the flame goes out (which you can force by covering the Disk), and I found that to be pretty much true. This baby lives up to the reputation of its much smaller, but iconic older uncle, the Bic™ lighter! It is simple, effective, and disposable. Not having to deal with the mess associated with using charcoal briquettes, and right off the bat, the FlameDisk® gets 5 Fiery Worlds for convenience in lieu of charcoal.
The Bic FlameDisk Made Quick Work of Burgers and Chicken
It grilled the chicken and burgers without issue, and I had a little heat left for some veggies, had I been in the mood! I quickly learned that if you don’t have it level, the “fuel” they use distributes unevenly, giving you an uneven heat and more pronounced flames on one side of the disk. My tabletop grill isn’t round, and that was an issue for me trying to keep the disk level. I managed to adjust it for the most part, but I did have to shift the food around a couple of times to keep from scorching. The Flavor is not dissimilar to what you’d get with a gas grill, but I might experiment and put some wood chips on the disk the next time to get a better wood-fire, charcoal flavor. The only other real observation is that there isn’t an effective way to extinguish flare-ups without jeopardizing your flame, but if you’re babysitting your grilled gastric gridiron delights, you can manage and adjust! So it gets 3 Fiery Worlds for flavor, but another 5 Fiery Worlds for novelty, portability, and ingenuity! I’ve already rated it a 5 Fiery Worlds in convenience.
According to their website, the FlameDisk® sells for $4.99 list price, which isn’t a bad price for the huge convenience factor, and when I did some web searching, found it on sale at many locations. At time of posting, they also offered a $2.00 off coupon! So before the next big game, don’t battle your grill! Try out Bic’s new FlameDisk® and save those heated battles for the gridiron!!! And remember, Ladies and Gentlemen, It’s A Fiery World!
It’s Hot…No, It’s Sweet…No, It’s Hot….Noooo….It’s Sweeet….Awww Hellfire, Make Up Your Mind!
Devils Gold is a Beautiful, HOT, Flavorful Hot Sauce
Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, here we are again in Lake Wob……oops, I mean Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where once again, Merle and Diana at Hellfire Hot Sauce are concocting lovely little potions designed to entice, entertain, and envelope our senses with heat….I mean sweet……no…..heat…..no……sweet……… hea……….STOP!! Stop the Madness!!! (Insert deep breath and a few yoga ommmms here) Of course I’m making light of the latest sauce they sent me to try – Devils Gold – a sauce that celebrates color, heat, fruit, and flavor! Sporting a label that is both appealing and kinda creepy at the same time, this sauce is unique in it’s ability to provide a great heat punch with the flavor of….ummm……fruit punch!
Devils Gold is a beautiful, yellow gold, medium consistency sauce sporting a label with a winged, blank-eyed she-devil babe with her hands in a cauldron of gold and pineapples! A nice visual combination of a sweet face, and piercing, menacing eyes, and well, you’ll have to see the rest and draw your own conclusion (But the sauce ain’t the only hot thing going here…just saying!) When you look at the ingredients of this yellow gold nectar, it reads like a Who’s Who of heat and sweet: Yellow Brain Strain, Fatalii, Trinidad Yellow 7-Pot, Yellow Bhut Jolokia, Yellow Scorpion, Pineapple, Pears, Oranges, Papaya, Vinegar, Sugar, Salt, and “Spices”. So in one delicious 5 ounce package, you get a killer combination of the hottest of the hot peppers all clad in yellow (my favorite color and pepper “flavor”, by the way), and yellow or gold fruits. Once again, Merle and Diana have rocked it out the box with this wonderfully flavored hot sauce!
We’ll discuss flavor in a minute, but first I want to talk about what this all-star combo of peppers create – HEAT! Lots of Heat! The heat profile in Devils Gold layers masterfully, beginning with a quick sting that hit the middle of my tongue and quickly rolled it’s way back to my throat, where it built and strengthened, filling my mouth and throat, and then decided to just hang around a while! I’m talking lingering to the extent that I had to actually grab the whipped cream can when I was doing an initial taste test and downed several spoonfuls pretty quickly! You can easily discern the distinct flavor of the scorpions and the fatalii, which always make the back of my tongue and throat burn for a while….But lest you think that Devils Gold is nothing but heat, let’s discuss the sweetness that made me fall in love!
Devils Gold Looks as Good and Rich as it Tastes
The sweet fruits used in Devils Gold are perfect matches for the peppers….the nice acidic tang of sweet pineapple and orange combined with the smooth pear and papaya. The result is a fresh, almost tropical blend that balanced the heat without diminishing any of the kick! The splash of vinegar added to the tang, and the “spices” are so well blended, that I couldn’t really discern individual flavors (that’s a good thing, by the way!) A natural as a salad dressing with a little olive oil, cracked black pepper, and red Hawaiian sea salt, it also complimented most everything I used it with – tilapia (pictured), pork, chicken, black beans (awesomeness when I threw in a little of my favorite Bajan style mustardy sauce for balance), and perhaps the best- pizza!!!! It wasn’t the best for steak, turkey, and some veggies, so it may not be as versatile as some sauces given its flavor profile, but that’s not a detractor or a negative at all. Most gourmet quality, artisan sauces aren’t made for general purpose!
So what’s the overall impression, folks? I think this is an excellent, 4 Fiery Worlds rated sauce!! Hot, sweet, playful, and fresh, and a great addition to any Chilehead sauce cabinet!!! I want to thank Merle and Diana for sending me these wonderful sauces to check out and review, and I appreciated their openness to wanting constructive feedback, and not just asking for an empty endorsement, which I don’t give, by the way. The only problem was that there was little, or any “constructive” feedback to share, except for them to keep making these sauces year round! And why should they make all their sauces year round? Because, Ladies and Gentlemen……It’s a Fiery World!
It's a Fiery World 