If you’re talking to somebody and you’re discussing how far it is from here to your place, you might say “It’s a long way.” The person you’re talking to can say, “How far is it exactly?” You can tell ‘em, “Three miles,” and they can decide if they regard that as a long way or not.
Here in Acadiana, it’s equally important to have an accurate measure of heat. But when somebody says to you, “How hot is that gumbo?” what do you say? You’re left with reverting to a use of language that is more Asian than English – where the meaning of a word changes with the intonation.
In discussing gumbo, “It’s hot” has a vastly different meaning than “It’s hot.” But, although we might understand each other, you can’t communicate with anywhere near the objective accuracy you had when you were discussing how far it is from here to your place. Which is curious, because there is actually a scientific measure of spiciness. Heat, in this sense, is measured in Scovilles.
A standard bottle of Tabasco sauce is around 5,000 Scovilles. Keep that number in mind. 5,000. Because there’s a guy here in Lafayette who grows his own peppers, and he’s famous in the world of pepper-growers for breeding and growing one of the world’s hottest peppers. It’s called the Primo Pepper. The Primo Pepper is 1.5 million Scovilles. That’s hot.
the hottest guy in Acadiana, Troy “Primo” Primeaux
The Primo Pepper is the creation of Troy Primeaux, but everybody calls him Primo.
If you want to try Pimo’s Peppers but you don’t want to risk blowing the top of your head off, you can try sensibly tempered versions of the Primo taste in various forms – in hot sauces and in The Farmer’s Daughter brand of pepper jellies. You can find these products in a number of stores across the Sate of Louisiana, and you can also find them online at the amazon.com of Cajun food, a website called CajunCrate.com.
If CajunCrate.com doesn’t have every single product with the word “Cajun” in the title, and every single food product made in Acadiana, it’s got to be close. They have everything from Nunu’s Original Cajun Seasoning to Bayhi Cajun Chili Starter, Zydeco Chop Chop, and thousands of other items. You can also get a box of assorted Cajun goodies sent to you each month in an actual Cajun Crate, if you’re a Cajun Crate subscriber.
the queen of Cajun everything, cajuncrate.com’s Tara Guidry
Cajun Crate has been a successful business from its earliest days in 2016. Its creator and owner is Tara Guidry.
Christiaan Mader, back and badder than ever
Photos by Jill Lafleur. And there’s more conversation about Cajun Crate and hot peppers.
