Amigo, I love the noble jalapeño and use it constantly in my Chinese cooking, but give me a single habañero and I can light afire a far-flung glowing universe in a flaming wok.

Don't be too hard on yourself there, Nez. You're among friends. :-D

thanks amigo. i probably am a bit, but only until i get protective and tell myself to chill out and step off.

and i've never grown my own. i'd love to taste your cooking sometime. i bet it's great.

I'm glad you're on the topic of food amigos, Because I have a question that I need to get off my chest. As the official representative of the Gringo community , but not adhering to any of it's racist or imperialist tendencies.
I would like to know, wHY the food channel has NO Latino cooking shows, and in fact ALL of their food show hosts are GRINGOS. There are NO cooking shows period, that teach Mexican, nor Cuban, nor any cooking from south America or central America, NADA. At first glance this may seem trivial, however given the FACT, that this type cooking is VERY popular in the United States and the Food Channel
is the largest show of it's kind on TV, I find it absurd that all shows relating to Latin cooking has to go thru Caucasia or be taught by Lance, who went to the New York Culinary School. Do you think there's any racism involved?

'mano, you said nothing arrogant. What you said was what you were feeling and letting it out is a good thing and not letting it out would have been bad. To tell you the truth, was you are feeling is normal. The fact is, your normal routine has just been disrupted, in a good way. When that happens it is normal to feel stress out, regardless if the stress is good or bad. Like Kai said, you among friends, so don't sweat it.

In my view, Food Network has become a joke to serious foodies. I mean, Bobby Flay (aka The White Prick) pitches Butterball, which is water-added preservative-injected meat-product processed in factories full of non-unionized undocumented workers. Serious foodies taste such things, and it tastes bad. Tony Bourdain and Jamie Oliver are gone because they were too "controversial" (i.e. politically conscious), Mario Battali is on his way out because he's not appealing enough (i.e. he's fat). Ming Tsai, Daisy Martinez, and Jacques Pepin are on PBS. The ascension of Rachael Ray symbolizes the triumph of sappy shallowness and mediocrity and blandness; I just about lost it when she spent an entire show demonstrating a horribly insultingly fake Chinese meal and never once said the word "Chinese" but described the food only as "takeout" (she even served the food in those Chinese takeout boxes with the wire handle), delivering such nuggets as "Don't order takeout, you never know the quality of the meat or what they're putting in there, I'll show you how to make your own takeout meal in 30 minutes! Teehee!"

Please. I'd much rather watch Tony Bourdain eating a beating cobra heart on Travel Channel. Or for that matter, I'd rather watch my own mother working the cleaver and wok.

Not that I have no opinion. ;-)

I just bought four "relleno chile" plants at the hardware store. Couldn't resist. I have no idea what they are. ¿Ancho? ¿Mulato fresco? ¿Pinche Gringo? Could it be this? Photo looks wrong anyway. ¿Quien sabe?

Need to get the jalapeños in, and I think I'ma try germinating some seeds from the storebought chiles cascabel. Always wanted to do that.

So far I just have the thai hot planted.

Chris, well if I had to guess I'd say "relleno chile" is probably the sweet mild poblano, not the tart fiery ancho; which you probably suspect as well; but it's hilarious that it's labeled without direct reference to what the hell you're actually planting, just a possible dish usually consisting mostly of cheese-based stuffing.

As for the thai chiles, all I can say is, harvest some early and gauge the heat level, because depending on your soil, those little suckers will burn your tonsels if you're not careful. I mean, not like habaneros, whose complex sweet-tart flavor justifies the pain-burn, but more like an unjustified attack on the tongue and lips. Also keep in mind that a chile pepper generally gets hotter and hotter as you move from the stem down to the tip, so when you wanna gauge heat, slice a clip from the stem-side. Anyway, that's probably enough food-nerdiness for one thread... ;-)

Cheers. Here's to The Sacred Heat.

Oops, I made a weird mistake in my last comment: a chile pepper gets hotter and hotter as you approach the stem-side. The tip of the pepper, opposite the stem, tends to be the mildest sweetest part. That's what I actually meant. A slip of the keyboard-tongue. Sorry. Cheers.

this thread took a much better turn that i expected.

(and thanks XP)

Nez, hehe you didn't think we'd let you develop a thread flogging yourself, didja? So we went with the ancient Chinese technique: when in doubt, talk about food, a subject even happier than the weather. XP is right, it's good that you expressed yourself, I hope you feel better about it now. ;-)

By the way, I'll be growing a garden expressly for habaneros and jalapeños! Tell me this summer won't kick ass. Prepare for many sunny fotografias.

Oh. Oh. I see. You're gonna post pictures of the sun after teasing us so long ago with pictures of yummy food. And then you talk about planting a garden without mentioning yummy food pictures. Oh. Okay. Uh-huh. I see how it is. *single tear rolls down cheek*

And goddamnit, all this talk about food -- we'd better have some progressive POC blog cook-off event thing so I can eat good food. And yeah...we can do other stuff too, but the food first!

sylvia, that's a great idea. and kai, your Chinese mojo is to be lauded. i feel fine. i just felt bad for a moment as if those who told me what they did might feel treated too lightly with my words. i feel better now because i made myself clear to them, and also because i have kickass blogmigos.

sylvia, i must remember to do a Sunday Skillet Blogging esta fin de semana!

No retraction necessary, in fact I would like to apologize, my former words where meant as a joke but considering that your under a lot stress and work, they seem mighty insensitive.

I'm glad your busy and people are calling out to you. Thats a good sign.

we coo', rafa. ppreciate it, 'mano. things will smooth out before long, i'm sure.

i took no offense, only laughed at your words. i guess it is true that we are usually hardest on ourselves.