Get Your Grill On

On a still and baking hot day, we ventured to the rolling hills of Jindivick, out Gippsland way for the 9th annual Hot Sauce & Fiery Foods Festival.  According to Haggis, the organizer, it’s the largest festival of its type in Australia.

There were plenty of stalls catering to those who have a passion for hot sauce and all other related products, from the meek and mild to incendiary hot.

There were plenty of buyers cramming to stock up on products that can otherwise be hard to get.

Last time I was at the festival, a mate asked me to get him the hottest sauce I could find; it was here at this stall that I found it. My tongue went intially cold, my mouth numb, sweat started to trickle down, then everything just exploded with chile heat. He asked me again this year, but I said there was NO WAY I was tasting sauces for him with names like death or mega.

This stall had my favourite hot sauces from the Byron Bay Chilli Company. They had red and green sauces, as well as an interesting coconut hot sauce. Their bean dip and corn chips are the best you will ever find.

Looks like someone got lost! But I can report, the asparagus was lovely and a bit of a reprieve after all the other tastings.

The crowd gathers for the chile eating contest.

Contestants at the ready with habenero chillies in hand, note the guy on the left with the green cap.

“Oh my God, what the hell was that?!!!” Needless to say, his first chile was his last.

The eventual winner, a laid back, laconic Aussie. He was actually trailing all day behind another, who was fairly racing through his chillies, but slow and steady wins the race.

So who you gonna call to put out all that heat?

A couple of happy faces in the chilli cook off competition.

Don’t say you weren’t warned!