Fiery Food Festival

For the past 25 years I've been a Scovie judge for the FF Festival. A bunch of us meet in the Fall and taste chile-related products entered in the Scovie contest from around the world. Then, on the first weekend of the following March, the FF Festival opens to the public. Scovie Award winners get to display banners, etc., which helps their sales. Luckily, I get in during the trade hours when there's not very many people. But when the clocks ticks to open to the public, it's a tsunami of people.

If you want to see what it looks like, a travel show shot a short video: http://www.scottrobertsweb.com/Travel-Channels-Extreme-Conventions-Video-of-the-Fiery-Foods-Show/

At 1:48 you'll see Simmie J on the right and, I believe, his nephew on the left (named Larry Green, believe it or not). Simmie is from CA and makes some awesome bbq sauce. I wrote about him 20 yrs ago, so he gives me a bottle every year. We had an Australian vendor again this year; they really do come from all over. Dave DeWitt, the organizer, is seen a couple of times. I've written for him in the past, and he gave me a blurb for my book.

[Robin Garr]

What fun, Larry! Envy

[Jenise]

Yikes! Unfortunately, I couldn't sit through the schlocky narration, but it was fun looking at the pictures.

Btw, today we chatted for a few minutes with a doctor who lives up the street. Apparently there's some kind of Thai hot sauce that for years its fans have touted as a miracle sauce for health. A study to find out if that's true apparently turned up an entirely different fact: those same fans have at least 10 times more esophageal cancer than the rest of the population. Be careful!

Uh, oh. Looks like you'll have to give up your green chile and Tabasco sauce....

I'm curious to know what study and what Thai sauce your doctor friend was referring to. Might be another ingredient or the users were smokers or both. Did they already have cancer and were trying to cure it? Hard to tell. There are so many studies on capsaicin showing a range of differing results.

At any rate, I don't gargle Carolina Reapers, Bhut Jolokias, or the other superhot chiles. Huevos Rancheros or a burrito with green chile or a green chile stew (good cure for a hangover) or carne adovado is more my style. Chiles also have more vitamin C than oranges and help get rid of stomach parasites. But my tapeworm loves both red and green chile! That's why I usually eat raw eggs, burnt toast, and cold coffee for breakfast. I figure that's good enough for him.