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inespm

Hi everybody. Last month I went to a culinary trip in the Amazon, and eat a hot sauce (Catara) made with big ants and some kind of chili pepper that people there call it "aji tornillo" (screw chili).

Does anybody know the english name? Here some pictures (and one from the ants, I think is really cool how they look in the market)

THANKS!

(Sorry about my english, Is not very good)

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First welcome to the forum from Fort Worth, Texas, USA

I have never seen those type peppers before....but....they look like a tabasco to me...maybe a frutescens species....

any more information on them? Taste? Thick/thin skinned? How hot are they? Did you by any chance see the plant they were growing on?
 
How do the ants fit into all of this? If the sauce is actually made from ants then I think I would pass this one over. :scared:
 
Ants are delicious. Never had em in hot sauce but fried with butter they're awesome. Like eating popcorn. Pound for pound insects have more protein then chicken.
 
UnNatural said:
Ants are delicious. Never had em in hot sauce but fried with butter they're awesome. Like eating popcorn. Pound for pound insects have more protein then chicken.
Click to expand...
:shocked:
 
Thanks you guys very much... Trying to answer some questions:

Is a really, really aromatic pepper, the skin is like a Thai pepper, probably a litter ticker, and is not extremely hot.

Looks similar to the "aji gusanito", but that is from Bolivia, and the weather over there is different, very cold mountains, and here hot tropic. But who knows, it really looks like a frutescen.

And about the ants. They are really big, about 3/4 inch. Local people eat them fried, salted, alive and in the catara sauce. I pick up one in the market and it bit me so hard that 2 weeks after I still had the mark in my finger. The catara sauce is really good, but I don't know if it is because of the pepper or the ants.

Probably I am going back again in about 3 or 4 months to travel the river down to the border with Brazil to take notes and pictures about the different eating habits in the Venezuela Amazonian. Next time I will take a picture of the plant and any other wild pepper that I find.

Thanks again everybody!
 
Was gonna say looks like those ants bite back!@ 3/4"I guess it would hurt!
Our Fire Ants here are miniscule but they can put the Whammy on ya!Nice looking pods!
 
inespm said:
Probably I am going back again in about 3 or 4 months to travel the river down to the border with Brazil to take notes and pictures about the different eating habits in the Venezuela Amazonian. Next time I will take a picture of the plant and any other wild pepper that I find.

Thanks again everybody!
Click to expand...

that sounds like an incredible journey...what river will you be traveling down?...I would like to see the aerial photos of the area you will be traveling...

do you do this for a occuptaion or college research ?
 
Well, nothing is more fun to a database guy then giving him something they've never heard of to research.

Here's a little of what I found on this sauce and the ants:

From: Rio-Orinocco
"For an interesting culinary experience, try catara sauce. Its ingredients include the heads of leaf-cutter ants, peppers and yucca juice."

From: Ciudad Bolivar
"A culinary delight with alleged aphrodisiac power is the Catara sauce, which is a spicy sauce made of cassava juice or yare, species, and the so called big-butt ant."

From: Edible Insects
"Hormigas Culonas"
"Catara I liked the catara sauce in the Venezuelan Amazon region very much. It is prepared of various spices and the bodies of leaf cutter ants of the genus Atta. The spicy sour taste and the crispy sclerotized heads of the soldier ants taste somewhat strange when you try it for the first time - especially when you are watched by dozens of ant heads from your chuleta. I think it should be available in the Amazonian parts of Colombia too."

"There is a podcast about this ants here: Hormigas Culonas
"It was recorded in spanish, but is really a deep analysis about this topic."
 
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