lorax

I was wondering how many pages it would take, really... Looks like 17 was the limit. Good for us!

While we're talking about hot stuff, though, I think I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Aji (hot-pepper sauce) made in the Ecuadorean province of Loja. This is made with a small local pepper called Dragon's Teeth or Dragon's Tears, which is an arresting black-purple when it's ripe, and is extremely hot; all this is combination with habaneros and aji peppers. Lojanos have a special test for their hot sauces, which seems to me to be a tad extreme - one takes a drop of the liquid and places it on the web of skin between the thumb and forfinger, on the back of the hand where the skin is thinner. If it leaves a blister, it's considered to be good sauce. I am officially addicted to this type of aji, which is not very hot on contact with the tongue but which burns later once it's passed into the stomach, and find myself testing the comparatively weak sauces in Quito restaurants in the Loja manner.