Along with the best plate of rice I’ve ever been served, was an amaz­ing dol­lop of chili paste on the side. Talk­ing to the young woman who ran the restau­rant (she couldn’t have been more than 25, and was at least 6 inches shorter than I was), she proudly boasted that it was her father’s famous recipe, known through­out town.

She pro­ceeded to edu­cate me that this type of chili paste– clearly speck­led with the fer­mented black beans that the Diplo­Man and I love so much– is spe­cial to this area. Two small jars and a few large ones were all that remained from the Fall har­vest. Fall Har­vest? All that is left? I asked what she meant. She went on to describe that her fam­ily only makes the chili paste once a year, in the fall, when pep­pers are at their best. In the fall, pep­pers are their dri­est, which makes them most suit­able for crush­ing into a thick chili paste. Like can­ning and pre­serv­ing, this old-school method of mak­ing chili paste once a year proves that home­made is always bet­ter than store-bought.

We took the small jar home with us– and even among our 8 or so bot­tles of var­i­ous chili pastes and sauces that are accru­ing in our fridge, I am start­ing to regret not hav­ing bought the large one.

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