Essegi 2020: lol!

Devv · Jun 22, 2020

Giancarlo, I see you're covering all the bases

Plants, foods, and views are all great!

Hot pizza story is a good one :dance:

Essegi · Jun 30, 2020

Thanks! I hope to continue that story in late summer! :rofl:

I tried to compare ad red hidalgo with a red tampiqueno... I'm having hard time to get red tampiquenos, some are withering. The one i tasted was nearly not hot... While hidaldo is quite hot. Hidalgo until now is just more consistent. I haven't the best growing conditions, maybe on a perfect grow tampiqueno could be more productive.

...

My dad had to pick up garlic and broke that BTR branch... I tasted the bigger pod but wasn't very hot it was still too early. Very light, i can confirm that it's not thick walled. Quite moruga/brainstrain shaped.

Bhutlah Scorpion showing colors, it's maybe the most round shaped pod of all of that klnd i have.

Now some Rocoto flowers

CaneDog · Jun 30, 2020

Wow. Crazy looking rocoto flowers! Very hairy and they have "the claw" too.

Thanks for sharing your experience with the Hildalgo. It's definitely on my list for next year.

Essegi · Jul 19, 2020

Things are interesting now. I think it's a quite mild July...

Apocalypse Chcolate first, BTR second. They seems to produce a bit more that Bhutalh Scorpions. About Bhutlah Scorpions, Red seems faster but both plants are smaller than Chocolate.

Rocoto! Maybe for october i'll have some!

Some small harvest:

Bhutalh Scorpion. I gave away most so i've yet to realize how it is... Definetly something strong!

Just 1 Apocalyse, but many are waiting. I eat half with a bit of meat and for sure was tough for me... But heat seems realively not much persistent. Taste also seems good. Seems it stings a bit more than Bhutlah Scorpion, wiich, on the other hands, seems slower to build and to pass and maybe burns more.

Just picked those:

Bhutlah Scorpion Chocolate and 2 BTR on left. On right all Bhutlah Scorpion, the one on bottom is from another plant. I'll give away most but i'll try to taste each variety and survive.

Just a nice sight descending from Carega. It was so crowded...

I tried to make a round pizza, i used a quarter of the Apocalypse pod and some garlic, so i call quartpocalypse pizza:

This was the first of three i made and was the worst, i should have waited another hour. Not bad but far from right.

Now some others, not mine:

New pizzeria near home, neapolitan style done right!

This is interesting. It's from a pizzeria that makes some particular pizza.
This is the normal version of El Diablo 666, it has hot salami, spianata calabra, caciotta with hot pepper, the thing in the middle is a parmigiano basket with a flammable sauce. You can barely see from photo, there were indeed flames.
There is also the challenge version: the sauce is marinated with many Naga Vipers (beats me why this variety, but no doubt it does the job) and there's only 15 minutes to eat it. I guess i won't try, the main problem is that the pizza arrives hot (temperature hot i mean), i'm a bit sensitive to high temperature food.

CaneDog said:
Wow. Crazy looking rocoto flowers! Very hairy and they have "the claw" too.

Thanks for sharing your experience with the Hildalgo. It's definitely on my list for next year.

Thanks!

ahayastani · Jul 19, 2020

Add four different Apocalypse peppers and you can make your Quattro cavalieri dell'Apocalisse pizza

I like the colour changes of the Bhutlah Scorpion, and your pizzas make me feel envious :rolleyes:

I have all the ingredients, except for good cheese. Cheese and tropics are a very difficult marriage...

Siv · Jul 19, 2020

Love the pizza! I've been making a few myself - it's a lifelong learning experience.

Essegi · Jul 23, 2020

I've tasted again Bhutlah Scorpion, now i'm not sure that it's hotter than Apocalypse. Still so hot that i can't really tell anything about taste.
I've tried BTR and... That seems brutal! I'm eating half pod with some gnocchi alla romana and it kicks ass! It builds fast, lasts long, and just wreaks havoc!
I don't know if it's me or if i ate some pieces too fast but it impressed me more than other 2 for heat. Tastes a bit more bitter and stronger tho.

ahayastani said:
Add four different Apocalypse peppers and you can make your Quattro cavalieri dell'Apocalisse pizza

I like the colour changes of the Bhutlah Scorpion, and your pizzas make me feel envious I have all the ingredients, except for good cheese. Cheese and tropics are a very difficult marriage...

Ha ha nice one! I'm telling you i'll steal that Quattro Cavalieri name for a pizza!
Yeah, cheese is nice. You should see if you can find some young cheese and it it's fine.
Othewise there are many good combos withouth cheese. For example marinara, wich is the other true pizza and one of the most important has just tomato and garlc.
But i won't deny that mozz pizza is the standard pizza for me.

Siv said:
Love the pizza! I've been making a few myself - it's a lifelong learning experience.

Well said, easy to learn, so hard to master.

Essegi · Aug 4, 2020

Calabrese is doing fine.

Some harvest...
I guess you noticed some green superhots... Those are ripe and should have been bhutlah scorpion chocolate. I have no idea if this is a mutation or it was just a wrong seed.
About the true bhutlah scorpion chocolate it's maybe the least hot of supers of this year... I was expecting it to be the strongest one.

Here the coolest shaped mystery pod in detail:

If someone is interested i've saved seeds and i can send them.
I can't say if it's stronger of weaker than this or that, i can say i ate it a quarter piece by piece and it was a super.

So i had second part of hot dinner.

80 serrano, Hidalgo and Tampiqueno mixed. We ate them in 4.

Then i made 2 pizza, both equal, this is one:

Still to get used to new phone i guess... :rofl:

I used a very strong manitoba for that, W410-440 iirc. To be honest i've not had getting better results than using a 0 W330 flour... It was a good on though.

And i learnt the shocking truth: maybe this would have been better without garlic... I've never thought i'd think that, because more the garlic the better. To be honest i am not satisfied with my usage of garlic in pizza, i've yet to figure it (opposite to onion, marinating it with evo, salt and black pepper is excellent).

Next day i took a leftover to a my colleague. He ate the piece and then cursed at me. :rofl:

It was definetly weaker than the one of the other time...

Chamois during a walk...

Essegi · Aug 12, 2020

I went to a 5 days vacation, luckily all went well, just a nice peak was avoided cause weather wasn't so good but i got all my must see.
This time i went to really well known places (maybe except one). To cure that, maybe that weekend i'll go to my favourite hidden peak.

During my absence peppers did good... From left: Serrano (Hidalgo and Tampiqueno), Apocalypse Chocolate, BTR Scorpion, Not Bhutlah Scorpion Chocolate, Bhutlah Scorpion. Bhutlah Scorpion Chocolate, Calabrese.

Now that was a nice place... Museo dello speck...

Some scenery. I start with first and last day, lakes:

Sorapis first, then Braies. Sorapis water color is incredible, is even better than photos (i just sharpened a bit things, but colour is untouched). Braies has a nice easy turistic walk around it.
Sorapis recently has become really overcrowded. It has an easy hiking walk that is sometimes exposed and with slippery soil to reach it. For some people that seems too much.
I went further and did a full circle around it, the trail became a ledge smaller and smaller and at some point i had to un-climb a couple of meters of descending traverse really exposed. :rofl:

I don't know if it was the right way to circle the lake, not for the faint of heart...
It's embraced by mountains. Photos don't do justice. Too bad there's so much people here.

Second day, best day of vacation, one of the best hikes ever. I went solo on ferrata De Luca - Innerkofler on top of mount Paterno, near Tre Cime di Lavaredo.
Those are the symbol of Dolomites and for sure some of the most photographed and photogenic mountains of all the world... Someone says it's some of the most beautiful places of all the world.
I can say they are some of the best of Dolomites and the daily 30€ parking is worth it.
I went early in the morning and while walking in front of them there was no one! That was cool!

From 2 angles:

I think that one is one of my best shots ever... Too bad i didn't spot Tre Cime perfectly centered...

Some random scenery. The first shot is where i went with ferrata... Despite appearance it was an easy one.

You can see works from WW1...

While ascending mount Paterno there were many galleries. the longest one 300m:

Nearly half was of stairs, at some point it was pitch black!
I turned off my light just for fun and for a minute it refused to switch on! :rofl:

Of course i could use my phone, but, still... :rofl:

That crow was more domesticated than my dog.

That ferrata was a terrific combo of scenery and history.

And the other hikes:

Here Lastoni di Formin from Tofane onf first shot (made at day 4). I posted photos at least 2 or 3 times of that big ledge, The highest, pointed, peak left of Lastoni is Cima Ambrizzola.
So i went finally here (day 3)
On second photo there's Croda da Lago group, with Cima Ambrizzola being their highest peak, while walking up to Lastoni.
On third photo the same from Lastoni near the top.
Then just some scenery.
Going up to Lastoni is a nice walk, easy and never too steep. I did a circle descending from the scree on the other side.

Now those has been good vacations indeed!

CaneDog · Aug 13, 2020

Wow! Fantastic images. Thanks for posting those. Looks like it must have been a great vacation.

And to come home to ripe peppers, even better

Downriver · Aug 13, 2020

Beautiful!

ahayastani · Aug 17, 2020

Speck

tsurrie · Aug 17, 2020

Very beautiful mountiain pics Giancarlo. That must have been a nice trip.