Crafter by Night

Weekend Warrior: 2007 Hot Sauce Festival, Houston, TX

This last weekend I got a rare treat – I attended the annual Hot Sauce Festival in Houston, Texas with my husband, dad and stepmom (that’s us to the right with all the dust in the air).  There’s also one in Austin, but we missed it – this one, however, was NOT missed and turned out to be a singular experience in the delights of Really Hot Peppers.

This was  real Texas-style event:  it was held at the Farm & Ranch Club where rodeos tend to be held.  There was also cheap beer – that is, cheaply made but not cheaply sold.  And lots of folks with Wranglers and boots, just like you’d expect.

I personally tasted 90% of the hot sauces offered at the event on various chips and crackers.  My taste buds were in heaven.  The vendors at this place really know what they are doing, and I benefited a great deal.  The event wins its way onto a Crafting Blog because I met the majority of the people who actually made/come up with these hot sauces, olives, relishes, salsas and the like.  These are Food Crafters, and they know what they’re doing.  And they’re trying to make a living at it – more power to them!

So here’s what I bought:

1)  The top Prize for me at the event is divided between these two, who coincidentally had just won prizes at the August Hot Sauce Festival in Austin:

1A)  Big Daddy’s sauces (Houston) – Jeff likes the original Ass Burn Hot Sauce (no, I’m not kidding) and I favor the Amplified Heat Mean Smokin’ Green Hot Sauce.  But we also bought the habanero-spiked High on Fire Hot Sauce.  We were lucky enough to get our samples (which burned my face off) from Big Daddy himself, who coincidentally plays in a band called Whorehound.  I’m pleased also that Big Daddy uses St. Arnold Lawnmower beer in his sauce – St. Arnold is a local brewery in Houston.  No wonder it’s so good!

1B)  The Salsa Picante Medium from Rancho Bravo in Peru.  I met the son of the maker, who had a t-shirt out front that proclaimed he was sold out.  I was lucky.  I got a jar anyway, probably because I told him his salsa was heavenly and asked all kinds of questions about it.  It turns out his dad was an oil and gas man – he sold his business and bought a tomato farm in Peru.  And those tomatoes take center stage in this sauce.  It’s sweet and spicy and chunky, with the taste of tomatoes fresh from the garden.  And if you’ve ever had a fresh tomato from the garden, you know what kind of great I’m talking.

2)  The Sausa from Chile Beach Jams in San Antonio.  Jeff also bought a gift pack of their pepper jams to take to his work.  The Sausa is sorta somewhere between Sauce and Salsa, hence its name.  It’s really spicy, but not so far over the edge that it’s not perfectly edible.  I think it’ll be great on grilled chicken, myself.  But the nice lady at the company offered me a Bloody Mary made with it, and that just kicked it (add to it olives stuffed with jalapenos and you’re set).  Yes, definitely, you can’t forget that many libations are also good with hot sauce, in addition to the beer that all proper Texans use to put the fire out when they’ve had too much spicy stuff.

3)   Winston’s Hot Sauce and BJ’s Hi-Tech Habanero Pepper Sauce.  Ultimately I bought Winston’s Jamaican Hot Pepper Sauce (Winston was there) based on taste.  These two were both really hot and of the same style.  I have to say, though, that BJ’s was the hottest sauce I tasted at the show, by far.  The t-shirt below is Winston’s, and the other pic is of the very tall guy that was kindly brokering BJ’s Habanero to the crowds.

4) The Texas Gourmet – he and his whole family were there, and were very persuasive! – had the best jellies I tasted (apart from the ever-favorite Austin Slow Burn).  I bought some of their Mandarin Orange Serrano Jelly, while the parentals opted for Kiwi Jalapeno.  Yum!  They also put out pads of recipes for their jellies and BBQ etc., which I thought was a really nice addition.  I plan to make egg rolls and dip them in my mandarin.  Anyone want to join me?
5) Tony Legner’s CAT-5 Food Polish from Rockport, TX tops off the list.  This powdery spicy stuff kicked butt on the nice sizzling sausage they had.  Also, I’d been craving Cheetos, and they had a bowl full of them sprinkled with their hot powder.  I wanted to run away with the whole bowl, but I restrained myself.  Cheetos are NOT on the health food diet, y’know.  Turns out Tony Legner’s is a restaurant in Rockport…  probably yummy!

In other news, my Dad (hot pepper face below, right), who I believe can eat anything spicy, came up against stiff competition – he munched a raw Tabasco pepper (that innocent plant below) off of some plants that someone had for sale, and discovered that it was just about too much!  The woman selling the plants was highly amused, my dad was sweating and swearing … it was crazy.

Below are additional pictures of the Fun To Be Had By All Pepper Lovers.  This was truly an independent food artists event, and I was pleased to attend.  I think the largest pepper vendor there was Austin Slow Burn, and that’s just because Central Market here in Austin sells them, so they’re a bit better-known.  But not by much.  It was awesome to see so many people there with their handmade stuff.  Oh, and a shout out to Cin Chili & Company, whose chili was featured on Bobby Flay’s Showdown not long ago.  I got to meet Cindy of Cin fame and sample her chili – it is indeed awe-inspiring.

Cheers and happy hot stuff!  What a great weekend!