A Chile Story

 

I'm sure you're familiar with red pepper flakes, made from dried, crushed red chile pods. Most people know them as the pepper flakes they shake on their pizza slices. There are multiple variations of this product, depending on the chile pod crushed to make the flakes. I found some at our local outdoor market that had exceptional flavor without all the heat. Perfect to add to pizza slices, pasta or any recipe that could use an extra flavor note. And I could get them anytime, just a short walk over to the market on Saturday morning. Except the last time I walked over there, the people who sold them no longer had a booth.

I couldn't recall the name of their brand or the type of chile. Then I remembered that a few years back I sent a bag of the chile to my brother-in-law. I reached out to him and he still had the original bag with Clarabelle and Salomon's contact information. He sent me a photo of the bag with the label. 

 

 

I called Clarabelle. She confirmed they had stopped selling their chile at outdoor markets. but there was still a way to get the Medium Chile Caribe. Occasionally they drive into Albuquerque to do their shopping. They would meet me in a parking lot and bring my chile. Now I just had to wait for a call from them to let me know when they would next come to town.

That call came this morning. Clarabelle said she and Salomon would be shopping at Sam's Club in about 90 minutes. They would meet me in the parking lot and deliver my chile order. We described our vehicles and exchanged cell phone numbers. I met Clarabelle and Salomon at the time and place of their choosing. We conducted our transaction. I thanked them for arranging the delivery. As he got back in his truck Salomon said, "If you need any more, just call."