The Wall Street Journal-20080202-WEEKEND JOURNAL- Travel- The World-s Hottest Chili

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WEEKEND JOURNAL; Travel: The World's Hottest Chili

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[It's 200 times hotter than the jalapeno. Workers handle it with goggles and face masks. And spicy-food lovers can't wait to get their hands on it.]

Guwahati, India -- The bhut jolokia chili pepper fires up the imagination, as well as the taste buds. The thumb-sized chilies are so potent they could be used in pepper spray, says the director of India's Defense Research Lab, R.B. Srivastava. "I've been told the U.S. and Israel have considered it for antiriot material," he says.

Most admirers prefer eating them. The Indian pepper is the latest discovery by a fraternity of eaters who relish the sweaty, addictive pleasures of hot chilies.

The bhut jolokia pepper, which is farmed in the northeast part of the country, was plucked from obscurity last year when the Guinness Book of World Records declared it the world's hottest. The standard measure for such things is the Scoville Heat Unit, or SHU, named after Wilbur Lincoln Scoville, a chemist who in 1912 developed a method of assessing the heat given off by capsaicin, the active ingredient in chili peppers. Jalapeno peppers measure about 5,000 SHUs. The bhut jolokia tops a million.

"When you eat it, it feels like dying," touts one online retailer. Even packaging the stuff is a pain. "Our workers wear goggles, face masks, head cover and protective clothing," says Ananta Saikia, whose firm is the pepper's sole exporter. "They look like astronauts." He and his wife have started shipping tons of dried bhut jolokia around the world, including Germany, England and the U.S. Annual sales, he says, are expected to jump 500% this year.

Locals here in Assam and the neighboring states of Manipur and Nagaland add fresh chopped chilies to the pot when cooking curries. The hardiest eat them raw as a condiment. Dried pepper powder and flakes are sold online in the U.S. and abroad.

The spread of Mexican, Thai and Sichuan cuisines that use chili peppers is kindling America's interest in hot dishes. There are hundreds of Web sites selling sauces and chili seeds, says Dave DeWitt, of Albuquerque, N.M., who has written 31 books on the topic. Visits to his Web site, fiery-foods.com, have doubled in the past five years to 2.5 million annually, he says.

"There's also the macho, who-can-eat-the-hottest aspect," says Dave Hirschkop, owner of Dave's Gourmet Inc. and the producer of Dave's Insanity Sauce. This spring, he plans to add bhut jolokia to his 2008 Private Reserve hot sauce, priced at $30 for a five-ounce bottle packaged in a small wooden coffin. Mr. Hirschkop says he got in the business after opening a Mexican restaurant in Maryland in the early 1990s. He started serving superhot sauces in his restaurant as a joke. Then he discovered customers liked them.

Hard-core chili addicts incorporate the pursuit of hot food into their travels. Terry and Marty Ward of Virginia Beach, Va., have chased chilies in Jamaica, Venezuela, Aruba, Mexico and New Mexico. India is now on the couple's trip list, says Mr. Ward.

Food scientists speculate that hot chilies have an unexpected side effect that boosts their popularity. A publication of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden in New York described it this way: "When capsaicin comes into contact with the nerve endings in the tongue and mouth, pain messengers, called neurotransmitters, are sent to the brain in a panic. The brain, mistakenly perceiving that the body is in big trouble, responds by turning on the waterworks to douse the flames. The mouth salivates, the nose runs and the upper body breaks into a sweat. The heart beats faster and the natural painkiller endorphin is secreted. In other words, you get a buzz."

It's similar to a runner's high, says Bruce Bryant, a researcher for the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, which specializes in analyzing taste. That may explain why plants shunned by starving animals end up in party bowls next to the chips. "We're about the only species who like hot peppers," he says. "You can't even train a rat to like them."

The chilies are so loved in Assam that locals brighten at just the mention of bhut jolokia. "I've been eating them for 25 years," says Indrajit Karayan Dev, a filmmaker in Guwahati, Assam's capital. "I have two plants near my garage and every morning I pluck one for lunch. We eat them raw, pickled, in vegetable stir-fries and in chicken soup." Hoihnu Hauzel, the New Delhi-based author of a cookbook on northeast Indian cuisine, says her mother keeps her stocked. "I grew up in Manipur," she says. "Now, whenever someone comes here from home, my mother sends me some."

Besides its heat, the bhut jolokia departs from other peppers with its distinct flavor. Raw, it has a strong vegetable smell. Cooked with pork in a curry, it gives the meat a perfume-like sweetness. "It doesn't just make the dish spicy," says Ms. Hauzel. "It enhances the flavor." Bhut jolokia chilies look like jalapeno peppers and redden as they ripen. Some devotees chop a single chili for a pot of curry; others use a half pepper to accompany a meal. "Our whole family can share one chili for an entire week," says Mr. Saikia.

Although it's been eaten in northeast India for centuries, the bhut jolokia pepper would still be undiscovered by the rest of the world if not for scientist R.K.R. Singh. He works at the Indian government's Defense Research Laboratory, which occupies a tree-shaded campus in Assam, outside the city of Tezpur. Seven years ago, Mr. Singh, who loves bhut jolokia, got curious about its heat quotient. "We knew it was hot, but no one knew how hot," he says. He asked for a lab analysis, and the results were submitted to a scientific journal.

Word of the tests reached the Chile Pepper Institute of New Mexico State University, which is widely regarded as the final arbiter of all chili questions. The institute is headed by Paul Bosland, a 54-year- old horticulture professor. "I put all my chilies in one basket," he says of the 22 years he's devoted to studying hot peppers. "It was always a poor sister to tomatoes in terms of research."

Mr. Bosland grew bhut jolokia from seed in the desert climate of southern New Mexico and discovered, "'Oh my gosh, this is hot,'" he recalls. A panel of tasters used to rank chilies. Now a process called high performance liquid chromatography does all the work, with results given in Scoville Heat Units. The peppers yielded a reading of 1,041,427 SHUs, twice that of the California red savina pepper, the previous record-holder. An SHU is the amount of dilution needed before the chili is undetectable. A drop of bhut jolokia extract needs a million drops of water.

The Saikias expect their company, Frontal Agritech Ltd., to sell 25 tons of dried chilies for the fiscal year ending in March. Mr. Saikia, 45, a horticulture professor at Assam Agricultural University, says the couple started their export business in 2004, knowing "we had a unique thing here." Shipments are certified by the Spices Board of India, a stamp of approval that allows entry into most overseas markets, he says.

Among their customers is Tom Beasley, of Merritt Island, Fla. He started buying powdered bhut jolokia six months ago and sells it at his Web site, burnmegood.com, with the promotion, "It's so hot, you can't even imagine; when you eat it, it's like dying."

The market for bhut jolokia, while growing, may be limited by the very quality that's put it on the map. "I've never even had a bite of bhut jolokia," says Mr. DeWitt, despite his career promoting hot foods. "I've reached the level I really like, and there's no reason to exceed that level." The head of India's defense lab, Mr. Srivastava agrees. "I'm from New Delhi," he says. "It's too hot for me."

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Trip Planner

Guwahati, India

-- Getting there: A jaunt down the bhut jolokia trail can be as daunting as the pepper, with bad weather and civil unrest. Unless you can tolerate the intense Indian heat of April and May, or the monsoon rains of summer, the best time to go is November, when peppers are in peak season. Guwahati, the capital of Assam state, can be reached by air from Kolkata and New Delhi.

-- Where to stay: Guwahati is a dusty, traffic-choked city. The best located hotel is the Brahmaputra Ashok. Rates are $120 a night. A dirt road next to the hotel leads to a colorful market where bhut jolokia chilies are sold. Buy fresh and have the chilies prepared with your meal at the hotel.

-- What to do: Hire a car and driver for a visit to Kaziranga National Park. Take a safari, either by elephant or vehicle, to see one-horned rhinoceroses and other exotic animals. Stay at the Wild Grass Resort, a tranquil lodge at the edge of the park at $50 a night (91-377-626-2085). The hotel can provide tours of hillside villages where the pepper is grown.

-- Where to buy: Bhut jolokia seeds are available through the Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, N.M. (505-646-3028).

-- Stan Sesser

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A Potent Brew

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Feel the Heat With This

Recipe for Texas Beef Chili

This chili recipe from chef Robert Del Grande demonstrates how Southwestern and Mexican cooks work with dried and fresh chilies. Mr. Del Grande is somewhat of an expert in this fiery medium -- he holds a doctorate in biochemistry and co-owns upscale Southwestern Cafe Annie in Houston, Texas, as well as a small chain of taco restaurants, among others.

First, the mild- to medium-intensity dried Guajillo chilies are stemmed and seeded and, along with spicier arbol chilies, lightly toasted. "You toast to bring the flavor up and develop more flavors," Mr. Del Grande says. Then the chilies are soaked, making them pliable, and processed into a smooth paste.

While the trifecta of chilies makes for a potent brew, spicy compounds in chilies bind to protein in the beef, which is why the dish isn't a fireball, explains Mr. Del Grande. For a mild-to- moderately spicy chili, just use the Guajillos. Go bolder by adding five arbol chilies, moving up the ladder of intensity five more at a time. With 20 arbol chilies and the sliced jalapenos, the chili will confer macho bragging rights but still be edible. Anything more than that and all bets are off.

-- Katy McLaughlin

Texas Beef Chili

Yields: 8 servings

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 60 minutes

4 ounces Guajillo chilies, stemmed and seeded

5 to 20 arbol chilies or other small, hot red chilies, to taste

1 bay leaf

4 cups water

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

2 pounds plum tomatoes

1 large white onion, cut into eighths

4 garlic cloves, peeled

4 tablespoons olive oil

3 pounds beef chuck, coarsely ground or finely cubed

4 teaspoons salt

Optional garnishes

Fresh jalapeno chilies, thinly sliced

White onion, chopped

Cheddar cheese or smoked cheddar cheese, grated

Canned kidney beans, rinsed

-- In a dry skillet over medium heat, lightly toast the chilies. Place them in a bowl with the bay leaf and cover with warm water. Soak for about 30 minutes to soften. Drain and discard the water.

-- In a blender, combine the softened chilies and bay leaf, 2 cups of water and cumin. Puree until smooth.

-- Combine the tomatoes, onion and garlic cloves in a roasting pan. Broil the mixture for about 20 minutes, using tongs to rotate the tomatoes every five minutes until lightly charred and cooked through. Transfer the broiled ingredients to a food processor and process into a coarse puree.

-- In a deep skillet or pot, heat the olive oil until hot. Add the beef and saute until lightly browned.

-- Add the chili puree, roasted vegetable puree and 2 more cups of water. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to simmer. Add the salt and simmer for 60 minutes or until the broth lightly thickens.

-- To serve, ladle the chili into bowls and garnish with jalapeno slices, chopped white onion, grated cheese and beans, if desired.