Israelly hot

by M

Today we make 'aliyah’. If you don’t know that word, think ‘hajj’ and if you don’t know ‘hajj’ or ‘aliyah’....then put your gun and New Testament down for a sec and google it. Israel is a hot region with many hot topics. I wrote that sentence to illustrate how ridiculous American usage of the word ‘hot’ is. Paris Hilton did not help this situation either with her catch phrase ‘That’s hot’. When you bite into a piece of food, do you ever say, ‘That’s hot’? Then someone might ask you, ‘Spicy hot or temperature hot... or Paris Hilton hot?’ Why not have different words to describe these different feelings?

Now for a short language lesson. Get your mucous going like you’re ready to hock a loogie and say ‘cham’ and ‘charif’. The Hebrew word cham means temperature hot while charif means spicy hot. In spanish ‘calor’ is temperature hot, ‘picante’ is spicy hot, and ‘caliente’ is Paris Hilton hot. I don’t know what these words are in Italian, but it is probably similar to the Spanish words with some gesticulation. Therefore, I propose a new English word... get your mucous going again and say ‘chot’, which means spicy hot. Welcome to the Chot Sauce Diaries; today we are going to Israel.

Sauce: S’chug Red
Manufacturer: Sabra
Chile Pepper: Red hot peppers (Cayenne?) (capsicum annuum)
Country of Origin: Israel (Medinat Yisrael or State of Israel)
Score: 7/10 

by L

People around the lab have really been heeding our pleas for hot sauce! This time, we are eating an Israeli-style hot sauce brought to you by our soon-to-be-Israeli lab member. This Sabra S’chug Red “hot red pepper mix” is definitely Kosher. (Rabbi Menachem Meir Weissmandl agrees, which the internet tells me is important.) It was an excellent day to have brought hummus for lunch.



Unlike the hot sauces from “around the world”, this had some serious texture. And by texture, I mean lots of pepper seeds. I might be new to the world of hot sauces, but I knew that the seeds are the spiciest part of the pepper. I went into this taste test with some trepidation: Would I burn my mouth? (No.) Would I cry at our office lunch table? (Not quite.) Would I break a sweat? (A little.)

Good news, everyone: Sabra S’chug is delicious. You can really tell that the peppers were roasted well for that fiery, but not burnt, flavor. It has a lot of kick, but that doesn’t mean that all you taste is the kick. Just don’t try to do the cinnamon challenge with this stuff or you’ll find yourself reaching for a glass of milk. In addition to hummus, I think S’chug would make most Mediterranean-style dishes more delicious. Mazel tov, Sabra, this is some good hot sauce.
7/10....a good one to keep in your arsenal