Something like 12 years ago, they had legit and badazz-looking SBs at the local Pathmark for cheap but, at the time, I was terrified to mess with'm. Tried cooking with one (yes, 1!) once, and i thought it was way too hot to be useful for anything edible. (I was slightly young and very foolish at the time...) Nowadays, they're nowhere to be found in the "white guy" supermarkets, and when I find pods labeled as "Scotch Bonnets" at the mercado, they're almost invariably just Habs. The local "Asian Food Market" (i swear to Gawd, that's the actual name of the store, in big letters on the sign! http://www.asianfoodmarkets.com/ ) has what they call "Jamaica Peppers" from time to time, which are certainly real-deal SBs but they're packaged between shrink wrap and styro, and they always look to be beat up, squished, and far-from-fresh. So, I keep driving to Trenton,NJ to get my fix (but, i don't just go only for the SBs; plenty of good hikes to go on in Central Jersey,plus other fun stuff...I've been trying to plan my Saturday mornings/afternoons around good shit in Central Jersey, but my wife is totally on to me now
.) It would be really convenient to be able to walk into the closest mainstream grocery and walk out with some legit SBs though--- but the mainstream grocery stores around here will sometimes get some generic Habs, often looking beat-up, and they want $6/pound for them. ugh.
