ever since I can remember I have loved spicy food. In my refrigerator at any given time are at least 4 types of hot sauce and 2 or 3 types of fresh chili peppers. my cupboard usually has a dozen or so dried whole chilis, chili powder, and various mixed dried seasonings based. right now i am enjoying some beef-barley soup with hot sauce.

my favorite hot sauces are mama sita's labuyo (philippines) iguana hot sauce (costa rica), blair's (NJ USA) and tabasco (US). I like tapatio and valentina from mexico but they are so mild i consider them to be more like ketchup than hot sauce.

what are your favorite spicy dishes? i like to add a bunch of dried habaneros to beef chili so that it's really, really spicy. i make spicy chicken wings with a good marinade and some of the blair's ultra hot. and every time i make a stir fry i fry up some serrano peppers and top with some choice hot sauce.

thought i'd share one of my funniest hot sauce stories *don't keep reading if you are eating*: i eat so much spicy stuff that i am accustomed to the-- ahem-- after effects when the chili comes out. however, when i was in xalapa mexico (namesake of of the jalapeno pepper) something changed. it wasn't the spiciness of the hot sauce, i think it was simply the sheer volume. every comida corrida (hole-in-the-wall grandma restaurant) had its own brand of hot sauce and i must have drank at least a litre of the stuff. on day 3 or so i had to take a shit, which ended up being incredibly painful. I took a shower but to no avail. looking around, i noticed my buddy's can of menthol shaving cream. in desperation, i applied some to toilet paper and wiped. sweet, sweet relief. the next day i was right back to eating the hot sauce. flavor was simply to damn good.