Photo: nicisme, Flickr.

As delicate a fruit as it appears photographed above, the red chili is a fiery ingredient that adds heaps of heat with just a few potent morsels. Domesticated thousands of years ago in South-of-the-Border cooking, the chili is now starting to make an appearance in sweet dishes and drinks in trendy restaurants and bars across the country.

In some of our favorite examples, Mario Batali's Osteria Mozza serves a tequila cocktail with smoked salt and candied chili; the Food Network created a Habanero Lime Cheesecake; and Ice Cream Ireland has posted a recipe for Candied Chili Peppers. We think the pepper is an exciting ingredient for everything from the infusion of spirits to adding kick to salsas, dressings, desserts, etc. Leave us comments letting us know where -- and in what dishes -- you've encountered them!

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Beloved Anthony Bourdain, in his show "No Reservations", hops back on the tube tonight, with a season premiere that looks pretty darn delicious -- and fattening -- if this preview video is to be believed.

In it, Tony tucks into a 12-inch-long Chilean hot dog covered with sauerkraut, guacamole and an avert-thine-eyes-health-care-professionals incredible slop of mayo. His thoughts? "I don't know whether to eat this thing or conceal it in a brown paper bag."

We can't wait.

[Via Youtube]

Some cooks reach for Sriracha, the ubiquitous Thai hot sauce, in a pinch. Others swear by soy sauce. And then there are those who refuse to reveal (*cough, cough* butter) what made the dish you just demolished delicious. For our part, we've developed a tiny -- OK, midsized -- crush on an infused chili oil, and we need to talk about it.

Sid Wainer & Son's Domaine de Provence pepper-spiked oil is fantastic. A drizzle of the fiery goodness rescues storebought and homemade guacamole alike with a heady, late-blooming heat on the palate. According to owner Henry Wainer, it's also tasty on bruschetta. We plan to carry it on our person all summer -- potentially awkward in the 90-degree swelter -- using guerilla tactics to douse any crustaceans and pork we spy sizzling on the grills of party hosts. (Brooklyn, consider yourself warned.)

Wainer has been equally passionate about the oil since meeting its producer at a dinner in France 18 years ago. Such culinary serendipity, he declares, "enriches the world." Can't argue with that.

As part of a trip to address climate change and promote environmental sustainability, the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall (i.e. Charles and Camilla) stopped in at Vinedos Emiliana, a Chilean winery that produces sustainable, organic and biodynamic wines, for a tasting and tour.

I don't know what Charles thought of the wines, but Americans like them. Emiliana's Natura line is the bestselling imported organic wine in the $12-$14 category.

They make a Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Carmenere, and if you haven't tried them, you should, because they have the coveted trifecta of wines: inexpensive, taste good and good for the environment.

Seeding hot peppers can be time consuming. Make the process less complicated by using a small melon baller scoop. And alleviate the stinging pain of particularly hot chilies by wearing gloves.

April may be the cruelest month, but January is surely the coldest. It's the perfect time to break out big, robust red wines that warm your body and soul. And what better to eat with a big red wine than a big steaming bowl of chili?

This weekend we had about a dozen people over for a blind tasting of six Carmeneres, all from Chile (the country--don't get Chile and chili confused!). Carmenere is Chile's signature grape, brought over from Bordeaux in the late 19th century. The wine is deeply dark and full-bodied, and in Chile can have a somewhat vegetal flavor, though it can also be quite fruity and spicy.

The six we tried ranged in price from $10 to $47. Chile is known around the world for its value wine, and it definitely delivered in our tasting. When the bags were pulled off, it turned out that several of us put the $10 wine in our top favorites. Surprisingly, everyone from the least- to the most-experienced tasters felt that all of the wines were good, and comparable in their quality, even though the prices were not.

More tasting notes and my "Chili for a Crowd" recipe after the jump.

On Saturdays, when you enter the bright colored 17th-century colonial town of San Angel, a suburb of Mexico City, there is an outdoor crafts market in the Plaza San Jacinto. Not only can you find a large selection of handicrafts, but you will also see vendors selling rich sweet candied fruits and fresh fruits with chili seasonings. The highlight of any culinary trip to San Angel is the enclosed food market just around the corner from the square.

Upon entering this market, you'll notice the aroma of fresh tacos and the smell of salty pork rinds being fried and seasoned with chili pepper. Taquerias and butchers border the market. The middle is full of poultry stands, produce vendors, and incredible vendors of chilies and moles.

I highly suggest checking out Don Felix for all things related to chilies and moles. If you speak and understand Spanish, I encourage you to talk with Felix about his different products. I purchased two different kinds of chili peppers: arbol and ancho. He explained that chilies arboles are hotter while the ancho are more mild. Finally, he explained how to prepare them in making salsas and other Mexican dishes. His mole almendrado was extremely delicious cooked with chicken. Check out the gallery below and see the market for yourself.

While grape growers in the northern hemisphere are just winding down harvest, the southern hemisphere is six months ahead of us. It seems we should still be drinking our 2005's, 06's, and 07,s, but I've just opened a bottle of the 2008 Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc Reserva, a gorgeously fresh and lively wine from Chile's Casablanca Valley.

Ordinarily I think of Sauvignon Blanc as a summer wine because its bone-dry acidity and grapefruit flavors zing through your palate and refresh a thirsty mouth like no other wine can. But dry, unoaked varietal Sauv Blancs are mostly meant to be drunk young in order to stay fresh--so the younger, the better, and when the southern hemisphere 2008s roll out in the fall, it's best to catch them while you can.

Many producers in New Zealand and Chile use a new harvesting method of picking grapes over a longer period of time at different levels of ripeness, which gives the wine a heady combination of raciness and curves. Pick too soon, and Sauvignon Blanc, already a vegetal varietal, is too green, too grassy. Pick to late, and the wine is flabby and flat instead of full and round. The combination picking results in a multi-dimensional wine that has the best of both worlds: flinty minerality and ripe body.

A 33-year-old British man has died after eating a plate of ultra-hot chile sauce, leaving his family to wonder if the chiles did it. Andrew Lee died several hours after eating a plate full of pasta sauce made with chiles grown by his father, in a contest with a friend over who could consume the spiciest food. He reported feeling itchy before going to bed; his girlfriend found him dead the next morning.



But how likely is it that the chiles actually killed him? Last year, the magazine Mental Floss compiled links to several studies about spicy food and death. Apparently, at least eight children have died from chile aspiration - but that means they inhaled ground pepper, not that they ate it. An academic paper about the physiological effects of capsaicin (the compound that makes peppers spicy) suggests that the toxic human dose would be so high it would be almost impossible to consume via regular food. So I'm guessing that Lee died from an allergy to something in the sauce, or from an unrelated cause. But that hardly makes for a grab-you headline, does it.

In New Mexico, where I've been living for the past six months, chiles are an obsession, as beloved and identity-defining for natives as Vegemite is for Australians. Green or red chile sauce smothers everything from burritos to eggs to french fries (I even tried green chile ice cream once. Once was enough); ristras - wreaths made from dried red chiles - hang on every front porch; even the local shoemaker sells bags of dried chile on the shelf next to his boot polish and wax. Homesick New Mexicans will have tubs of chile shipped across the country or the world; more than one native has told me they would "die" without chile.

Right now we're in the heart of chile season, and all across the state vendors hawk local varieties like Big Jim, Sandia and Barker's Extra Hot from the backs of pickup trucks on street corners and in gas station parking lots. You can buy a burlap bag full and have them roasted on location in a huge metal roasting basket that spins like a cage full of lottery balls (see photo). The smokey, ancient smell of chiles hangs in the air for months, as locals stock up and freeze all the chiles they'll need for the coming year.

If you can't make it down to New Mexico for your own stock, there are several companies that ship fresh, frozen or roasted chiles across the country. Try New Mexico Chili, New Mexican Connection or Hatch Chile Express.

Most trade shows are the stuff of, if not nightmares, then at least a sleepwalk from one charmless kiosk to the next. Not so at the 54th Summer Fancy Food Show, where 20,000+ gourmet retailers, restaurateurs, chefs, media folks and plain ol' food fans spend three days chomping their way through a fever dream of some 180,000 specialty foods. The throwback "Fancy" is a bit of a misnomer by now, as there's a very wide slice of products on offer, ranging from swankity wines, oils, cheeses and caviar to humble chewing gums, ketchups, chili seasonings and snack mixes.

Here are my first day favorites from the more wallet-friendly end of the spectrum. More thorough reviews will follow, but I've gotta recover from hauling around a 21lb* shoulder bag of collected samples and press releases first.

It seems the potato / potahto pronunciation debate is no longer the biggest debacle in the potato world. According to USA Today, Chilean Agriculture Minister Marigen Hornkohl stated that 99% of the world's potatoes derive from spuds native to Chile.

The head of Peru's National Institute for Agricultural Innovation, Juan Risi, retorted by calling Chile's potatoes mere "grandchildren" of Peru's tubers. Ouch!

Risa said that, "Peruvian potatoes that originated near lake Titicaca are the true potatoes, and their children spread throughout the Andes." Peru is said to have around 3000 varieties of potatoes. I can't even really fathom that. It would take trying a different type of potato every day for over eight years to try them all.

I'm not sure I care where the potato originated, but I'm glad that it made its way to my mouth!

Errazuriz Sauvignon Blanc 2005 Late Harvest is made in the Casablanca Valley, Chile. It is 11.5% abv. with a light body and a very pale yellow color. The aroma is that of mild pineapple and honeydew, as well a combination of the typical Sauvignon Blanc range of aromas. This all comes together in a wine smells like a perfume version of a Sauvignon Blanc.

The taste is pleasantly semi-sweet, with good solid acidity. This is my first time tasting a Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc because they are kind of rare and you don't run across them that often. I was surprised that is was definitely recognizable as a Sauvignon Blanc. Like the aroma, the taste has all the unique Sauvignon Blanc characteristics like fresh fruit and a nice crisp quality from the high acidity, that often get lost in dessert wines. The most identifiable fruit flavors were pear, pineapple, hints of honeydew, and some woody notes.

The other day I decided to crack open this can of tuna, which has been in my cupboard for a couple of months. I love spicy food, so I figured I'd give California Delight Chipotle Tuna a try. I think the reason I held off on eating it for so long is the confusing packaging. California Delight is kosher and is made in Thailand. In case you're wondering it's imported by a Los Angeles company.

About the only resemblance it bears to Thai food is its incendiary heat and psychedelic red color. Even though it's called chipotle tuna, it contains none of the smoked peppers. The finely chopped light meat tuna is however hot as hell thanks to the two whole chiles and tons of seeds. At first I tried to eat it straight out of the can, which was not the best idea. But even when it was mixed with microwave rice it still emitted a steady heat and left me with a pleasant flush.

Chipotle chiles are not a unique chile, but are actually dried, smoked jalapeno chiles. They are dark brown and wrinkly, in sharp contrast to the glossy look of fresh chiles, but have a wonderfully rich flavor. Most of the heat of the jalapeno is retained when the chile is dried, so chipotles are fairly spicy, falling in the middle ranges of the heat scale. They have smoky overtones, but the real flavor of the chiles is complex and earthy. Instead of causing a sharp and immediate heat, the heat grows gradually as you eat it and takes time to fade away.

In truth, most kinds of chilies can be smoke-dried and sometimes they are all called "chipotle" no matter what they started out as, but the vast majority of the chipotle chiles on the market were originally jalapenos.