Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Ode to Pickapeppa


I love you in a marinade. I love you in beef stew. Splashed on fried bananas? Yes, I like that too.  But I’ll pass on pouring over cream cheese, as I’ve seen others do.

OK, enough of that. 

I was just thinking about Pickapeppa -- one of the absolute best supermarket condiments around. A blend of cane vinegar, sugar, tomatoes, onions, raisins, sea salt, ginger, peppers, garlic, cloves, black pepper, thyme, mangoes and orange peel (whew!), it’s got to be great, right? Such a terrific melange of ingredients, and it’s aged in oak barrels. Quite the bargain at around $3 a bottle.


I was awakened to the glories of this savory sauce from Shooter’s Hill Jamaica at the Balboa Café, waaaay back in the 1980s in San Francisco. There it sat, a small bottle with its classic red and green label with the bird on it, just waiting to be poured on the amazing (and still on the menu!) Balboa Burger. One taste of Pickapeppa mingling with that perfectly medium-rare, totally sexy, juicy burger on a baguette piled high with caramelized onions and I was forever hooked. It was, and remains, one of the best combinations I’ve ever tasted. I’d marry it if I could. 

That’s how much I love Pickapeppa. 


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