Araluen Chilli Festival

The Araluen Chilli Festival will be on in Fremantle at the Esplanade next weekend!
•    Saturday 13 March 12noon-8pm
•    Sunday 14 March 10am-5pm

(Note: The festival has moved from Araluen to Fremantle)

This event is a celebration of the unique culinary and cultural aspects of chillies. It features a diverse range of stallholders, entertainment, cooking demonstrations and you will be able to buy everything chilli from fresh foods, plants, pickles, chutneys, olives, cheese, chocolate, wine, beers and much, much more.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $8 for children (5-15 years old) and for a family it’s $40.

Why should you go?

+ Eating chillies help to clear congestion (ever noticed the opening of your nasal passages after eating a hot curry if you have a cold!).

+ Eating chillies can help you burn fat because capsaicin increases your metabolism, which aids in the fat burning process.

+ If you suffer from diabetes, consuming chillies reduces the amount of insulin needed to lower the body’s blood sugar levels after eating a meal.

+ Chillies contain more Vitamin C than oranges and more Vitamin A than carrots!

+ Chillies are a natural anti-oxidant and can help prevent cancer.

+ Eating chillies make you feel good because when you eat chillies it ‘burns’ your tongue and leads to your nervous system releasing endorphins (this is why eating a hot chilli dish can be so satisfying!)

+ Chillies are great for pest control as they act as a stomach poison, anti-feedant and repellent to a number of pests.

How do we sleep while our ‘tongues’ are burning?

What makes chillies hot is the compound called capsaicin which produces a sensation of burning in any tissue with which it comes into contact.

What do people do when they have eaten hot chillies and it’s burning their tongue?

Drink lots of water?!

FAIL

Drinking cold water may immediately quell the burning sensation due to the coolness of the water, but the water will distribute the capsaicin all throughout the mouth and throat, causing more pain once the water is swallowed. This is because capsaicin is an alkaloid oil and not water-soluble (it’s like washing away grease with water!).

Have you ever wondered why Mexican’s give you some sour cream with their meals and Indian dishes give you a dollop of yoghurt?

Capsaicin is soluble in fat, acid or alcohol. This means that consuming any dairy products will help like drinking milk, eating yoghurt or ice cream, and drinking juices containing acids such as tomatoes, lime and lemons will also provide relief…..or get your self a scotch on the rocks!

can't touch this, dun dun dun dun, dun dun, dun dun, can't touch this

If you have ever handled chillies than you would be aware that it burns your hands and it continues to burn even after washing repeatedly with soap and water.

It’s important to get rid of this chilli on your hands because failure to do so can result in painful burning of the eyes or skin or any other part of your body that you may touch (ie: guys be careful when going to the toilet!)

Because soap is alkaline, washing with soap and water may not rinse away all the capsaicin.

Try rubbing some olive oil on your hands before chopping chillies peppers (capsaicin is oil-soluble, so rubbing oil loosens the compound). After chopping, rub lemon or lime juice on your hands (the citric acid in lemon and lime juice counteracts the alkaline in the chillies capsaicin) before washing with soap and water to help get rid of capsaicin from the skin.

You can also rub salt onto your hands, this helps to neutralize the effects of capsaicin.

Or you can just wear rubber gloves and look like a surgeon dissecting chilli matter.

Please note:

The hottest part of the chilli is not the seeds, but the white pith that surrounds them and runs in thick veins through the pod.

As a general rule of thumb, the larger the chilli, the milder it is. Smaller chillies tend to be much hotter because they contain proportionally more seeds and veins than the larger varieties.

Warning:

Eating chillies can kill you.

Report - Chef dies after eating 'super hot' chilli http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/chef-dies-after-eating-super-hot-chilli/2008/09/30/1222651028585.html

Eat at your own risk!