Monday
Sep012008
If Helen of Troy was reincarnated as a chipotle pepper...
Monday, September 1, 2008 at 07:55AM
...she would be have to be one of these:
My incredibly indulgent friend Sarah recently accompanied me on a daylong jaunt to all the Hispanic groceries I could track down online. We programmed them into my new Garmin GPS (aka My Surrogate Boyfriend) and tooled around looking for ingredients I would need to make some recipes from Diana Kennedy's My Mexico. At that time, I was planning to have a Mexican-themed partay to celebrate my less-job-havin' (although that's since been scrapped due to complications from...um...job-havin').
It was kind of a bust until Sarah spotted Guadalupe Market as we left White Center. The store has a tortilleria and what appeared to me to be a serious bakery section, but what really caught my attention was in the produce section.
Now, I don't really know that much about dried chili peppers - e.g., what to look for, what constitutes good quality, etc. - so I can't say with any authority that what they have there is better than or different from what is found at other stores. But what I can say is that the peppers I found in Guadalupe Market's produce section - which were mainly bagged in simple gallon plastic bags with the variety written on it in sharpie - smelled amazing, with each being obviously distinct and unique from the other. This is not something I would generally be able to say about what I've seen in commercial packaging, even at better grocery stores.
Faced with the slightly overwhelming selection, unsure about my actual menu plans and entering into a midday blood sugar slump, I found myself having a total ADD fit and told Sarah that I was satisfied that we had found the place but I couldn't possibly muster up the mental wherewithal to actually make any purchases that day.
That was until we smelled the chipotle peppers.
I've bought dried chipotle peppers before and they always looked essentially like most other dried chili peppers I was familiar with: dark, slightly glossy. I hadn't ever seen any all cracked, matte and beige. I'd enjoyed the smell of the dried peppers I'd bought before, but the aroma had never previously made me want to fall on the floor in some kind of pepper-huffing binge.
I made Sarah smell them and it was clear we could not leave without buying them. We bought a bag to take home and split, and then made everyone we saw that evening smell them as well. They too all seemed to get a little glassy-eyed at how good the aroma was. Chipotle pepper huffing: it's what all the kids are doing.
I just made my first batch of closed-pot, in-the-oven Russ Parson's beans with them and HOLY MOSES. You might not think that the humble black bean, salt, water and a withered, molted-looking dried up pod thing could result in something transcendent, but I am here to tell you that they can, and they did. Yes, I know, I have a tendency to wax enthusiastic to a degree that makes it hard to take it all seriously, but I guarantee this is the real deal.
If you find yourself in Burien, program this address into your Surrogate Boyfriend and picked up a bag of your own for huffing and/or cooking. They also have fresh epazote there, which, while not as huffable, could also make a nice addition to your pot of black beans.
Guadalupe Market
(206) 901-1529
1111 SW 128th St
Burien, WA 98146
My incredibly indulgent friend Sarah recently accompanied me on a daylong jaunt to all the Hispanic groceries I could track down online. We programmed them into my new Garmin GPS (aka My Surrogate Boyfriend) and tooled around looking for ingredients I would need to make some recipes from Diana Kennedy's My Mexico. At that time, I was planning to have a Mexican-themed partay to celebrate my less-job-havin' (although that's since been scrapped due to complications from...um...job-havin').
It was kind of a bust until Sarah spotted Guadalupe Market as we left White Center. The store has a tortilleria and what appeared to me to be a serious bakery section, but what really caught my attention was in the produce section.
Now, I don't really know that much about dried chili peppers - e.g., what to look for, what constitutes good quality, etc. - so I can't say with any authority that what they have there is better than or different from what is found at other stores. But what I can say is that the peppers I found in Guadalupe Market's produce section - which were mainly bagged in simple gallon plastic bags with the variety written on it in sharpie - smelled amazing, with each being obviously distinct and unique from the other. This is not something I would generally be able to say about what I've seen in commercial packaging, even at better grocery stores.
Faced with the slightly overwhelming selection, unsure about my actual menu plans and entering into a midday blood sugar slump, I found myself having a total ADD fit and told Sarah that I was satisfied that we had found the place but I couldn't possibly muster up the mental wherewithal to actually make any purchases that day.
That was until we smelled the chipotle peppers.
I've bought dried chipotle peppers before and they always looked essentially like most other dried chili peppers I was familiar with: dark, slightly glossy. I hadn't ever seen any all cracked, matte and beige. I'd enjoyed the smell of the dried peppers I'd bought before, but the aroma had never previously made me want to fall on the floor in some kind of pepper-huffing binge.
I made Sarah smell them and it was clear we could not leave without buying them. We bought a bag to take home and split, and then made everyone we saw that evening smell them as well. They too all seemed to get a little glassy-eyed at how good the aroma was. Chipotle pepper huffing: it's what all the kids are doing.
I just made my first batch of closed-pot, in-the-oven Russ Parson's beans with them and HOLY MOSES. You might not think that the humble black bean, salt, water and a withered, molted-looking dried up pod thing could result in something transcendent, but I am here to tell you that they can, and they did. Yes, I know, I have a tendency to wax enthusiastic to a degree that makes it hard to take it all seriously, but I guarantee this is the real deal.
If you find yourself in Burien, program this address into your Surrogate Boyfriend and picked up a bag of your own for huffing and/or cooking. They also have fresh epazote there, which, while not as huffable, could also make a nice addition to your pot of black beans.
Guadalupe Market
(206) 901-1529
1111 SW 128th St
Burien, WA 98146
Reader Comments (2)
Could you post the smell here, please? ;)
Scratch here:
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