Finally, Decent Chili*

Alternate title: Burn your bum off, Mick!

Our former Regina neighbour, long time friend and father of justanothegirl, has a secret chili recipe called “Burn Your Bum Off Chile”. I’ve no idea what goes into it but I think he uses “Screaming Sphincter” hot sauce. Last time I was in Ottawa we went to Chili Chili’s (I think that is the name) and he stocked me up with potent powders. Making chili HOT is easy but getting the flavour right was the hard part for me

I love hot food, especially chili. Maybe not hot by Texas standards (the “Suicide Chili” in an Amarillo café was a tad spicy) but certainly hot by Sichuan or Chinese-Korean standards. Tanya does not like spicy food at all. So when the cook is away, I shall play and today I finally got my chili hot enough AND the right flavour. The first bite almost stopped my breathing (that’s my test for good chili). I ate slowly and savoured every mouthful.

I also opened more cans in one day than Tanya does in a month. Four. Terrible but I can’t find dry kidney beans and just feel thankful there were canned ones at our new store.

Mexican oregano, Cayenne pepper, Ancho powder, Chipotle powder, Cumin powder and two long red fresh hot chili peppers from the market. Everything was eyeballed in as measuring spoons are non-existent in Ukraine. People here can actually cook.

Now if it doesn’t crack the porcelain…