Description

Smitten by a love of hot peppers, journalist Richard Schweid traveled to the capital of the U.S. hot sauce industry, New Iberia, Louisiana. This is Cajun country, and capsicum (as hot peppers are known botanically) thrive in the region's salty, oil-rich soil like nowhere else. At once an entertaining exploration of the history and folklore that surround hot peppers and a fascinating look at the industry built around the fiery crop, Schweid's book also offers a sympathetic portrait of a culture and a people in the midst of economic and social change.

This edition of Hot Peppers has been thoroughly updated and includes some twenty-five recipes for such deliciously spicy dishes as crawfish étouffée, jambalaya, and okra shrimp gumbo.

Praise for Hot Peppers

"Schweid is a fine writer, blessed with keen powers of observation... but his true forte is in telling the stories of New Iberia's working-class Cajuns.... with compassion and grace.... A publishing event to celebrate."
—The Southern Register

"My mama, a fine Louisiana Frenchwoman, taught me to cook. She used to say, 'When the Lord made Louisiana, he must have been laughin'.... It's filled with so many wonderful things.' Like the hot peppers that thrive in our rich delta soil, life in Louisiana has a flavor like nowhere else."
—Justin Wilson, a Cajun cook an humorist

"[An] informal, eminently readable book."
—Los Angeles Times Book Review

"This is a very special travel book packed with information and even a few good recipes. There is an ease and charm to Schweid's reporting, rather like that of Calvin Trillin of the New Yorker."
—Newsday

"Like [John] McPhee, Schweid proves that, for those willing to look, behind the smallest of subjects may lurk a complex, far-reaching story."
—Philadelphia Inquirer

"An easy-going, easy-reading history, examination, and celebration of the hot peppers grown in the oily, salty soil around New Iberia, La. This biography of a remarkable spice is salted with plenty of fact and anecdote about the Cajun culture of the pepper belt and recipes to tempt the pepperphile."
—Denver Post

Extended Copyright Information

Copyright 1999 by Richard Schweid. All rights reserved.

Previously published by the University of North Carolina Press.

This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher.

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About the Author

Richard Schweid was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and now lives in Barcelona, Spain, where he is a founder and senior editor of the city magazine Barcelona Metropolitan. His previous books include Consider the Eel and The Cockroach Papers: A Compendium of History and Lore. He served as production manager for the Oscar-nominated film Balseros, a documentary feature about Cuban refugees.

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Opening Lines (Experimental)

Tomorrow I'll tell you all about my stay in New Iberia.
It's a book in itself.
A seeming paradox of the human condition is that pleasure and pain are parts of the same sensory spectrum, and that there is no clear division between them. Physical passion, a plunge into icy water, the heat of a steam ...

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Copyright

Copyright 1999 by Richard Schweid.

All Rights Reserved.

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