Based in Manila, Philippines, Dessert Comes First is a chronicle of the food-obsessed food writer, Lori Baltazar. This website is all about desserts, restaurants, coffee, and the pleasures of homebaking. Read more about me Hot Sauce For Your Hottie
Mon, February 26th of 2007
2:31 pm
When I was about five years old, there was this chili plant outside the lobby of our flat. (We were living in Hong Kong at the time, so apartments were called “flats,” not condos.) Thinking back on it now, that plant was a scrawny little thing. Barely reaching three feet, it had just enough leaves to avoid being called ‘bald,’ most of which were a combination of green-brown. What was tantalizing to me however, were the shiny little peppers dangling from the branches. Almost the same length as my little finger was at the time, the peppers were cherry red, little beacons of temptation.
I remember my yaya (nanny) exhorting me to never touch those peppers lest I wanted a fire in my mouth. To my young yet already food-obsessed brain, I couldn’t imagine anything more delightful. But I heeded yaya’s words until one impulsive day when right in front of her, I picked a pepper hanging at eye’s length and I bit into it. Immediately, yaya’s face contorted into an expression of fright and disquiet. With eyes bulging like saucers, she looked like she was deciding whether to faint or shake me silly. As for me, one doesn’t bite into a chili pepper and come away unscathed, no matter how naïve I am. With that one bite, an almost instantaneous inferno raced through my tongue, lighting up my mouth like Mardi Gras. A screamingly unbearable heat surged up my neck and made its way up my face. I felt myself getting redder and redder. Then my tongue was loosened and I started screaming bloody murder. Yaya, who by now had been shaken out of her stupor, started to shake me, urging me to spit out the offensive pepper, for the love of God, Lori! I don’t remember what happened next, but I’m sure it involved a lot of cold water and some admonishments from yaya.
Such trauma (for a five year old, at least) didn’t make me swear off the spice for life. Ironically, as I got older, I began to crave spicy food, appreciating the way it made my eyes water and my nose run, not to mention the boost in excitement and flavor that it gave to my food.
Manila has its own “Spice Girl”, and my apologies to her for any inferences to the pop group with the same name. Unlike the other people that I’ve featured on this website, Jennifer Tan deals not with sugar, but with spice. She’s come up with her own line of hot sauces based on the Philippine siling labuyo, also known as chili bird pepper and bird’s eye chili, so called because the peppers are as tiny and sharp as the eye of a bird.
Siling Labuyo, as seen in the photo above, is usually a green, inch-long pod that turns bright red when ripe. Because it’s incredibly, insatiably hot, it’s mostly used in dipping sauces. The other pepper that you see beside it is what’s known as siling haba or siling pang sigang (sili pang sinigang). Also called finger chilies, these longer peppers are definitely milder and are vital to dishes like Bicol Express. I’ve read these longer chilies are actually jalapeños. Whatever they are, I can eat them straight up.
Anyway, it was Jennifer’s dad, himself a chili – or should I say, “sili” head, who helped her concoct a hot sauce that is pure sili sans preservatives, xanthan gum (for thickening), and artificial color. It’s 100% the real hot mama. Jen says, “I’ve made my sauces ‘chunky’ with a salsa-like consistency and real hit of hot labuyo.” So happy was she with the hot sauce base that she’s used it as the springboard for incorporating other flavors. Her hot sauce is packaged under certain names categorizing it for specific foods such as the El Dorado for steaks and grilled food; Torrero for Spanish cuisine; Tso Choi is meant to complement Asian foods, and the Arriba Mexican spice is ideal for tacos. Oddly enough, Jennifer admits that she’s no sili-head, so she came up with the Mild sauce variant “…for people like me who really can’t take the heat but love the pepper flavor,” she finishes. “Think of it as a green Tabasco.”
I’m slowly working my way through Jennifer’s entire hot sauce line. As you can see, I’ve splashed it onto my sardines and drizzled it onto my homemade lamb burger. The heat is intense but quite tolerable (at least for sili-heads like me): an immediate hotness in the throat and behind the palate, while later on, a lingering heat takes over, simmering on the tongue and mid-palate. Sexy really, unless you, like me, need to make a run for the tissue when the nose begins to run.
I suggest that Jennifer’s sauces be stored in the refrigerator since the heat dissipates once the bottle is opened. It’s obvious from the photo that Jennifer uses no xanthan gum (aka: thickeners) in her sauces. Unless you shake the bottle beforehand, the sauce will appear runny and separated (as seen above).
As an aside, it’s interesting to note that chili heat is expressed in Scoville Heat Units. This scale, which goes back to 1912, refers to the number of times that extracts from chilies dissolved in alcohol can be diluted with sugar water before the capsaicin can no longer be tasted. Bell peppers score 0, jalapeños and cayenne rate 2,500-4,000, while our sili labuyo hovers somewhere up there at 100,000 Scoville Units. How appropriate that I’m also coming out with this post just two weeks after Guinness World Records confirms the world’s hottest pepper: it clocks in at an electrifying 1,001,304 Scoville heat units!
K-5 Hot Sauces
Jennifer Tan
0917-8061001
telefax (632) 922 1496
See hot sauce pricelist
15 Comments
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Thanks for ‘spicing up’ in my day Lori. These hot sauces remind me of this little store in LA’s Farmers Market (near The Grove) which sell nothing but hot sauces. It had funny name like “Colon Cleaner” and “Ass Buster”- the selection was tremendous. I also checked your link RE: world’s hottest chili. Sayang- I though the Philippines held that record…..
Comment by Joey — February 26, 2007 @ 3:36 pm
what if you want to buy one bottle lang? will she accomodate you??? does she have a store ba?
Comment by marj_20 — February 26, 2007 @ 6:18 pm
Congrats to Jen!!
Yehaaaaa!! I think you can find her hot sauce in local supermarkets. I know for certain that it’s available in Cherry Foodarama, Unimart and Cash and Carry. She accepts single orders. Text her nalang.. 
Comment by canDIshhh — February 26, 2007 @ 9:10 pm
oh this are great sauces! my hubby would surely love this!! is this already available on most supermarkets or we just have to text her? thanks for this great find!!
Comment by kaye — February 26, 2007 @ 10:13 pm
at least you tasted the pepper by your own will, lori. when i was about the same age, my kuya convinced me to eat the “baby carrots” from the plant in our garden. water didn’t help me much then. my dad uprooted the plant, and despite several tries after, a chili plant never was able to grow in our garden again. haha!
because of that bad experience with chili, i shied away from spicy foods. it was only recently that i dared to eat spicy foods, and wow, i like chili now!
Comment by bea — February 27, 2007 @ 8:49 am
Thank you Ms. Lori for the review and the wonderful post! Yes, interested parties may order from me directly or you may purchase them at Unimart, Landmark, Cash & Carry and Makati Supermarket. I can supply to restaurants as well =) I’m still starting up so, I’m still working on circulating the productin the market.
Thank you Ms. Lori and to all readers! Hope you trymy sauces.
Thanks Didi for the nice comment ;P
Comment by Jen Tan — February 27, 2007 @ 9:32 am
Hey Jen! Congrats on being a part of Ms. Lori’s blog! I know you’ve been dreamin’ to be a part of it since we started to be a fan of her blogsite!
To you guys who wanna know if Jen’s chilis are any good… Well, they’re excellent!!! I’ve tried it and it doesn’t really matter which chili sauce you’re going to get cause it’s good on anything!
Come get K-5 Hot Sauces and experience a H-O-T time!
Comment by oliboy — February 27, 2007 @ 9:55 am
Wow! I am a BIG fan of spice! Always have to have chilis and chili sauces around me
These look great! I’ll definitely be ordering! 
Comment by joey — February 27, 2007 @ 5:05 pm
I hope you don’t mind a little constructive criticism about your new site. The font you’re using seems to be smaller than the old one you used, making it a bit harder to read. The old background was more soothing to the eye as well. You’ve got a great blog and I hope you keep it up.
Comment by Derrick — February 27, 2007 @ 7:29 pm
your first few posts on your new site were not about dessert! WAAAH!
dba dapat dessert comes first???
Comment by Jill — February 28, 2007 @ 12:24 am
i never knew!
fantastico!
how wonderful for you!
will definitely try it out!
Comment by mama mitzi — February 28, 2007 @ 11:54 am
i never knew!
fantastico!
you are the new hot mama!
will definitely try it out!
Comment by mama mitzi — February 28, 2007 @ 11:55 am
Hi Lori! I’m a long-time lurker and devotee of your blog – I guess now’s the time to come out and be counted as among your vocal minions, hehehe.
Firstly, I’d like to congratulate you on your new site – methinks being upgraded to “dotcom” status is quite overdue in your case, and it is indeed a fabulous gift not only for yourself but also for us your long-time fans.
Secondly, I have to agree though with many of the comments you’ve gotten that this new site lacks a bit of the reader-friendly features of the old one, specifically the background color and font size. Can you incorporate those back in, pretty pretty please?
Thirdly, it is quite amusing to know that we are kindred spirits of sorts – I also have an insatiable sweet tooth, but spicy savoury dishes are always a welcome indulgence for me as well. I’ve long avoided biting into a fiery piece of chili though since I was told by a chef mentor that the repeated assault of such on one’s palate can gradually deaden one’s taste buds.
Lastly, I truly appreciate the variety of your recent features – especially the Binondo food tour articles which gave me another unique “date” idea in store for my wife. But just like some of the others here, I’m also hankering to feast once again on another one of your features on desserts (which have drawn me to your blog and got me hopelessly hooked in the first place). Perhaps your next article will give us that fix?
More power to you and God bless!
Comment by Teddycaps — February 28, 2007 @ 12:31 pm
Dear Ms Jen Tan,
I didn’t know you were making hot sauce! You didn’t tell me! Now where is my free samples? and how bout my 1 year supply of it? hehe… cya on Saturday Jentot!
Better bring me one so Lyn and I can try how hot your sauce is. 
Congrats Hope your sauce spices things up in Manila
Comment by Chinang — February 28, 2007 @ 4:39 pm
hi
LORI
nice to read about spices and chillies
indian are so used to eating spicy food and all the dishes must have a tempering or green chillies or red chilli powder in it.
have you eaten indian food?
i am sure you will like it.
i read your blog regularly and i have no words to show my appreciation for your writing and photographs they are great
mahek
Comment by mahek — March 2, 2007 @ 2:19 pm