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Unexplored Area of India... Andaman and Nicobar Islands

saugapepper

saugapepper

Unfortunately, there is not a lot of information on these islands in the Indian Ocean. Most of the cuisine revolves around fresh fruit and seafood prior to South Indians arriving on the island. The climate seems to be able to support hot peppers but I have yet to find evidence of varieties from this region.

Any thoughts or help?

Conor
 
Try this site for starts. http://www.indianjournals.com/ijor.aspx?target=ijor:ijh&volume=68&issue=4&article=019

Chillies is mentioned in several sources along with many other spices. The islands have had contact with the out side world including Europe for along time.
 
if i were to make a list of countries that i truly would like to visit.....india would be a the top of that list. i was talking with someone last thursday about india, he is from the south and his wife is from the north. he discussed how different the menu is for the regions. that discussion came from me probing about my hot pepper factory, his wife from the north loves heat, he however can not tolerate heat of any form. so, though the southern portion indulges in seafood and veggies, it appears heat is very limited, i could be wrong, and the fact he was a city boy(bombay) and never ventured into the rural country may have played a role in how our discussion rolled out........ perhaps if his wife was there, i could have drawn out more information.

good luck in finding your information.
 
Burning Colon said:
...so, though the southern portion indulges in seafood and veggies, it appears heat is very limited, i could be wrong...
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My wife is from southern India, and I've worked with people from the area and visited several provinces in Southern India. Most people there eat plenty of chilies. There are of course exceptions.

The southern province, Andhra Pradesh, is said (in the south) to have the hottest food in India. Though I'm not sure if that includes the eastern provinces where the Bhut originates...
 
HAJ said:
My wife is from southern India, and I've worked with people from the area and visited several provinces in Southern India. Most people there eat plenty of chilies. There are of course exceptions.

The southern province, Andhra Pradesh, is said (in the south) to have the hottest food in India. Though I'm not sure if that includes the eastern provinces where the Bhut originates...
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How about the Andaman and Nicobar Islands? This has my curiosity going.
 
Sorry I wasn't totally clear... unexplored as in "uexplored" in the world of hot peppers on here. No one has come on and said they grow a variety from these islands. My colleague is from south India (Kerala) and he was the one who suggested I look to Andaman and Nicobar for different, hot varieties.
 
So I may have found someone from these islands. My co-worker from Kerala seems to think a man who attends his temple might have been born and raised in Port Blair (capital of Andaman) though nothing is confirmed. I'd love to hear from people from India or even married to Indians who might give me (us) a lead on finding a pepper from these islands.
 
Maybe the islands just import their market/commercial chiles from the mainland? But you may never know what a family or village may be growing in their kitchen gardens from one generation to the next?
 
From my understanding, a lot of immigration has happened since 1987 but who's to say there isn't a diamond in the rough here? Not necessarily a superhot but perhaps some sort of crossed mutant we on THP haven't seen before.
 
saugapepper said:
From my understanding, a lot of immigration has happened since 1987 but who's to say there isn't a diamond in the rough here? Not necessarily a superhot but perhaps some sort of crossed mutant we on THP haven't seen before.
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I don't necessarily think you would need to go anywhere to far away to find weird mutant Chilli's. More then likely there are genetic variations already happening in everyone's garden every season and for every member here there would be another 1000000 people growing Chilli's who don't use a forum.
Sounds like a cool place for a chilli hunt though. Much like Peru, south america in general and the carribean sound like great spots to hunt. Best of luck
 
The problem with finding a true unknown variety is that most areas have become contaminated with peppers that are produced to grow better in adverse conditions. You would almost have to make the journey there and explore some of the untouched areas were no one has heard of McDonnel's, coca cola, or New age seeds from Monsanto, the later being the scourge of the seed world in my own to cents.
The main draw back is that the more the area is obscure the less likely you would be able to contact and take to via the Internet, so you would either have to travel for a long term visit and scour the Islands and Mountain communities, Or live there and do the same thing or perhaps get lucky and find some one from the region that you want and hire him to do a extensive search for you.
I have met some of the same problems for my search for some unknown peppers found in Vietnam along with regional food recipes.
 
Good point wildseed57. I think the appeal to me and hopefully others on the forum to is discover a pepper from a very obscure place on earth. I did so two years ago with the St. Helena Island George Pepper. For those of you who don't know where St. Helena is, look it up on the map. It is where Napoleon died. The pepper is thought to come from east and has grown on the island for a hundred years. Now thanks to me and my contact there, St. Helena is growing jalapenos, morugas, etc.,

I think if I can find a pepper from there, it will be a birds eye variety that would have been brought from Kerala or another south Indian province ages ago. I don't think having read almost all the information I could on the internet about the islands, that I'm going to uncover a naga or bhut that has grown there for more than 20 years.

In the end, it's a fun side project that doesn't take up much time. If anyone has any contacts in south India which may lead me to someone in Andaman or Nicobar, I'd love to hear from you! Even if I have to get my Indian friends here to write in Hindi or Tamil and post it (godforbid) snail mail! :rofl:
 
I would be more interested in something found in a previously unexplored region of the Amazon, or some hollow of the Andes.
New creations and wild freaks of natures mutants are really nice, but would love to have something untouched by mankinds efforts for thousands of years.



Just so I could freakishly twist it myself. :onfire:
 
TOAW said:
Try this site for starts. http://www.indianjou...e=4&article=019

Chillies is mentioned in several sources along with many other spices. The islands have had contact with the out side world including Europe for along time.
Click to expand...

I just read the article you linked to. Am I reading this article wrong, or does it claim that the pepper IC 553688 has over 4 million Scoville Heat Units???

"Among the varieties, IC 553688 was found to be more pungent with high capsaicinoids content (29,140.63ppmH) and a pungency value at 4, 37,109.52 (SHU) as compared to that of C. Chinense cv. Tezpur Local (10,170.60ppmH and 1, 52,558.99 SHU),...."
 
Tim in Tucson said:
I just read the article you linked to. Am I reading this article wrong, or does it claim that the pepper IC 553688 has over 4 million Scoville Heat Units???

"Among the varieties, IC 553688 was found to be more pungent with high capsaicinoids content (29,140.63ppmH) and a pungency value at 4, 37,109.52 (SHU) as compared to that of C. Chinense cv. Tezpur Local (10,170.60ppmH and 1, 52,558.99 SHU),...."
Click to expand...

Yes you are reading it wrong. Note the point instead of the comma before the final 2 numbers on all those figures. They read in the 10s and hundreds of thousands. No where near 1 million let alone 4. Hope that makes sense
 
Trippa said:
Note the point instead of the comma before the final 2 numbers on all those figures. They read in the 10s and hundreds of thousands.
Click to expand...

Small Indian trick to confuse Westeners ;)

100,000 = 1 Lakh (Indian punctuation: 1,00,000) and 10,000,000 = 1 Cror (Indian punctuation: 1,00,00,000)
 
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