I have my own chilli con carne recipe… it’s quite different from most other recipes I have seen. I’ve been recreating and refining it since high school, when we made a horrible version in Home Economics class. Pretty much everyone I feed it to likes it, so I like to think it’s a bit of a winner. The secret is that unlike other recipes, I don’t… actually, I’ll save that for a separate post!

Anyway, the main issue I have is finding chillis to put in it. We like it HOT. if I ever get around to explaining my method, one of the issues is that there is very little fat at all in the end product, so there’s nothing for the hot bits to stick to (that’s the highly scientific explanation, anyway). The red and green standard supermarket issue don’t cut it at all. Several times a year I manage to get fresh habaneros, which have awesome heat, and sometimes fresh jalapenos are available, which have great flavour. But fresh chillis need to be roasted and prepared and that’s a nuisance, although the end result is usually worth the effort.

A few months ago we went to the Station Street Markets at Subiaco and found a South American food stall. They have these awesome stuffed soft tortillas called pupusa – an El Salvadorian dish – and also sell some imported food, including canned chipotle chillis in adobo sauce. Chipotles are smoked jalapenos and the flavour is amazing, and there’s quite a bit of heat in these ones too. I put some in my chilli and the feedback from my various guinea pigs was overwhelmingly positive. Going back to dried and powdered chillis was not an option.

So last Friday, a request for chilli was put in, and in gathering ingredients I discovered that we were out of chipotles. Oh noes! Fortunately the Subiaco markets are open on Fridays, and seeing as we were on holidays we meandered off to get some.

Unfortunately our El Salvadorian friends were out of stock, so we had to eat as much pupusa as we could and try other avenues. I put the call out on Twitter and through the combined effort of some of the best minds in Perth, compiled a list of places to try. My Twitter feed goes out through Facebook, and a friend there saw my cry for help and directed me to a local producer of chilli products (including dried and preserved chipotles) – Karrimah Farm. I’m thrilled that there’s a local producer (and I heart the intarwebs, which bring me such knowledge regularly, very much indeed).

Despite all attempts – including driving out to Belmont to check out a shop there – we weren’t able to locate any of the Karrimah chipotles. After speaking on the phone to Heather, owner of Karrimah, I found out that they don’t sell well in a retail setting because most people don’t know what they are. However, all Karrimah products (and a number of other chilli products) are available online from Chilli Freaks, a West Australian site dedicated to all things chilli.

All this talk of chilli had me thinking about the Araluen Chilli Festival, which we’ve been to the last three years. This year it’s on the 8th and 9th of March. We will definitely be there sampling more awesome sauces!

This year the chilli festival was pushed back a few weeks to the second weekend in March – previous years have seen it held in mid-February. I don’t know if it was planned that way to escape the inevitable searing heat but even if that wasn’t an intentional side-effect, I’m grateful. Last year it was far too hot for comfort. This year it was warm but the extreme heat was reserved for the chillis.

I wanted to buy a bottle of my fave from last year, but DeathSauce was not at the Festival. We did get a few jars of various hot condiments, including a jar of chilis in lime and tequila, the red stuff pictured above, which was actually really sweet. I saw the sauce that nearly killed me and Ben last year, and stayed well away.

Overall there were not as many stalls as last year, which was a little disappointing, but on the up side parking was much easier (or maybe that was because we went Saturday and not Sunday).

So, today was my birthday. The big three-oh. I appear to have survived.

Many things happened today. Notably, the first Port80 networking event with “mini talks” at the Velvet Lounge, which went really well. Then, Dave convinced me to leave early so we could go grab some dinner, it being my birthday and all. Then, he let on that he had a reservation at “That Little Mexican Place”, a restaurant we had been meaning to try. When we got there, all our mates were waiting. Sneaky.

I’ll write more about both the meeting and the restaurant later, and I have more photos. But right now I’m really tired so I’ll leave you with this funky chandelier from the Velvet Lounge.

Now, normally jalapinos that we buy around here aren’t particularly hot… and I had taken all of the seeds out before putting them under the grill. But these turned out to be scorchers – so my chili sauce was very tasty. We sat down with some nice hot chili, surf chips, and a nice cold Hoegaarden. Half way through dinner my fingers started to burn – because of course I hadn’t worn gloves while peeling.

Some ice fixed the problem… until after dinner, when I had a glass of Tia Maria. Hmmm… a pattern is forming. More ice. Rather than deadening the pain, the alcohol was thinning my blood and making it hurt more, or something. I don’t know exactly, but I couldn’t type until this morning…

Lesson: wear gloves when working with chilis, even if you don’t think they are hot. Sheesh.

In his post, he says that I “raved in a nonchalant but coolly excited way” which is a nice way of saying I sounded like a complete idiot by making the statement “it’s, like, the best goddamn pasta in like, the entire universe, man”. What can I say. I like it there.

When I give people directions, I say “you know where The Dollhouse is?” and if not, then “you know where the Drum Shop is?” and so far, nearly everyone I know is familiar with at least one of those two locations. That’s just a small insight into most of my friends.

So here’s a hot tip: check out Italy Home Made, Charles Street, North Perth. Tell ‘em Dave and Kay sent ya. It’s a kinda conventional recommendation but their bolognese sauce is just to die for.