Festival of Heat 2014
The last Sunday of September saw the London Chilli Festival come to Spitalfields City Farm.
For the second year running this free festival celebrating the art of eating, cooking and growing chillies was attended by thousands of spice fans including myself.
A variety of sauces and samples on offer
Among the world’s most common foods, chillies come second only to salt, and I admit I don’t have a high tolerance level for chillies but the idea of a whole festival celebrating one ingredient intrigued me.
There were what seemed like hundreds of stands offering samples of a chilli sauces, chilli chocolates and even chilli ice cream. In most cases their products ranged from gentle sweet chilli flavours to dangerously spicy level.
In the rare case that I tried anything out of my spice comfort range, a frantic but fun search for anything dry and bread-like to calm the taste buds followed. However this did not stop me for continuing to sample the deadly delicacies on display, as when else was I going to get a chance to sample an array of home-made chilli products from across the world?
Some of my favourite stands included The Grim Reaper Foods for their prominent packaging, Burning Desire Foods and Twisted 7 Sauces whose products are made locally in Kent.
Fist Full of Spice O.M.G Naga Sauce
Chillies from around the world
As well as the food stands there were also chilli growing workshops and live cooking demonstrations from food experts from Mexico, Sri Lanka and the UK. The atmosphere was kept upbeat and lively with the help of live folk music from East End Folk bands.
After sampling as much spice as I could handle we headed towards the calming quarters of the city farm to marvel at the lucky animals that lived in prime central London real estate. Free to enter and maintained by volunteers, Spitalfields City farm was the perfect location for the Festival of Heat and resulted in a thoroughly enjoyable day spent pushing taste boundaries.
Chilli plants on sale
Deshi Roti Street Food Cart
The Festival of heat will definitely be on my list to attend next year and next time I will come prepared with a carton of milk, as apparently it’s the best way to relieve the burning sensation of chillies, as water just spreads the Caspian oil around.
