67. Sweet Hot Mister Mustard
Currently made in Passaic New Jersey, Paul Fischer bought the Mister Mustard brand from Durkee three decades ago. Interestingly, the original recipe goes back to Jacob Frank of Frank’s Red Hot sauce fame who dined out with his own mustard pot just like King Louis XI of France. Regional mid-market mustards inspire fierce loyalty in the midwest and east and have managed to hold on to some of the ever shrinking shelf space in the major grocery chains. Keep up the good fight mustard heads!
Pins the fetish meter with a beautifully designed little totem bottle that dispenses its ruby red elixir using a tiny pump. “Taste and Comfort” is the motto of House Foods Corporation of Tokyo which became famous for its solid Indian curry roux back in the sixties. Ramen shops are taking on pho restaurants in an all out noodle war for the heart and soul of American slurpers. Dry cleaners will certainly benefit.
As NYC’s egalitarian nature fades, Chicago keeps the ethnic traditions alive. Il Primo’s Giardiniera is de riguer on Italian Beef sandwiches. Il Primo uses serrano peppers in their hot mix which has not gone unnoticed among Chicago’s growing Mexican community. “Giardiniera” literally translates as “female gardener”. Italian Beef is best eaten by creating a safety drip zone from mouth to countertop. Vive bene!
Herdez sells more salsa than anyone in the States and is a favorite among actual Mexicans. The brand is now owned by Hormel (the company that Spam built), but originally it was the Del Castillo and Pons Hernandez clans that brought mass market quality to Mexican shoppers. Besides the casera, Herdez makes an excellent salsa verde as well as a ranchera that provides a decent mole for chicken or pork. The pop-top cans contain the perfect amount of salsa to accompany a meal; only gabachos buy Herdez in a glass container.
Originally made for Colonial tastes, many Malaysians believed that Lingham’s was a British product. Echoing Norman Nash and his Jamaican Pickapeppa sauce, Mr. Lingham hawked his backyard brewed elixir by going door to door in Penang on his bicycle; he eventually sold the recipe to a local Chinese family. The brand is marketed in the States as Lingham’s Hot Sauce, a needless mistake. “The World’s Finest Multi-Use Condiment”, perhaps it is.
Pretty much started the habanero craze. Both the green and red versions owe their brightness to artificial coloring, the Kutbil-ik version is naturally colored and hot as hell. The Scoville test involves diluting pepper extract into sugar water until five testers can no longer detect the burn. Chiles are fruits, not vegetables. Yucateco has its own pepper fields down in the Yucatan and was quite pleased when a wire service photo showed Barack Obama enjoying their product. Sí, se puede.
Made in Mexico for the gabacho market who gladly pay double for the wooden cap. Could be blamed for the cute marketing of hot sauces along with that certain poster by Jennifer T. Thompson; no surprise that she has since turned her attention to microbrews. Yawn.
From Angola/Mozambique to Portugal to Brazil to Newark’s Ironbound, the African birdseye is one hell of a pepper. Nandos, a South African chicken chain has done much to popularize “peri-peri” but their food is mediocre at best. Most Portuguese and Brazilian restaurants make their own piri-piri, often with an opening that only allows a dribble; feel free to unscrew the cap and let the lava flow.
Made by Tropical Pepper Co. down in Costa Rica for the Caribbean market, look for the Toucan logo for other fine products. The scotch bonnet gets its name from the tam o’ shanter cap which itself was named for the subject and title of Robert Burns’ epic poem. Costa Rica has the highest Latin American ranking on the Life Satisfaction Index and plans to be the first carbon neutral country on Earth. Pura vida indeed.
Barbados is known for its yellow, mustard based hot sauces. The Carribean’s scotch bonnet pepper is related to the habanero and has similar heat. No one knows exactly why the Portuguese named the island “the bearded ones” or why the Brits didn’t change the name later on. Lottie used to sell life insurance before starting the business in 1985. Flying fish with cou-cou is Barbados national dish and recently the island nearly went to war with Trinidad and Tobago over fishing rights… Ryszard Kapuscinski would have grinned.