HOT

In Reunion Island it is traditional to eat what we call “rougail”. It is a mixture of chili, onions, garlic, found in south ginger, salt and pepper. If you want you can add lemon or green mango or tomatoes or even peanut butter depending on the taste. We put a small amount of this mixture on the side of the plate and we eat it with the rice etc.

                                     

          Rougail with mangos                                                                  Rougail with tomatoes

The type of chili that we use is called Bird’s eye chili, green or red this chili is about 3cm long. It is commonly found in south East Asia. Quite hot it is far from being the hottest chili in the world.

Bird's eye chili

To measure how hot a chili pepper the Scoville scale is needed. The scale was created by an American pharmacist in 1912. The bird’s eye is between 100.000 and 225.000 Scoville units on the scale which goes from 0 to 16.000.000.

Chili was first brought in Europe by Christopher Columbus. It is nowadays a staple in tropical countries. It is not only used as a flavor enhancer but also for its vertues. Indeed it brings vitamins but it is an antibacterian and an antiseptic as well. Those vertues may be a reason why chili peppers were used in tropical countries. At the time when it was difficult to conserv food espacially meat using chili peppers was a way to prevent possible deseases or indigestions.