Bello Hot Pepper Sauce from Dominica: Taste of the Caribbean
Remember what I told you about all the wonderful things I found on the menu at the fabulous Rosalie Bay Resort in Dominica? Well, I forgot to mention one very special little home-grown treat that I highly recommend you use to make all those wonderful things (or most anything else you might eat in Dominica or elsewhere) taste even better.
This is Bello Hot Pepper Sauce, as marvelous a balance of heat and flavor as I’ve ever tasted!
I got to know this particular bottle of Bello during breakfast on my second morning at Rosalie Bay. I had opted for the Authentic Local Breakfast, a robust plate consisting of a one egg and one egg white omelet stuffed with veggies and a choice of smoked herring or salt fish. (I went with the salt fish.) Add-ons included mashed green or sweet plantains, with the whole plate topped with sautéed onions.
(Fry bake and cheese is also usually part of this breakfast bounty, but they were out of ’em that day.)
Needless to say, there are a lot of different flavors competing for your affections in the Authentic Local Breakfast. Bello pulled them all together nicely for me, creating a symphony of a meal out of what most might be inclined to enjoy as a series of solo acts.
The secret to Bello’s success with my taste buds is the fact that it’s not too hot; at least not to me. It simply provides a perfect balance of heat and flavor, the harmony in the sauce extending to the plate to elevate your meal.
As your tastes and heat tolerance may differ from mine, though, you’ll want to bear in mind that Bello hot sauces are generally judged to be pretty hot.
Check that, they’ve literally been judged to be very hot, with Bello’s Special Pepper Sauce earning first prize in the 2000 Scovie Awards honoring the world’s hottest foods.
The version I enjoyed is a chunkier take on Bello Special, giving you more of the natural flavors of the ingredients, though I imagine it’s just as hot, so watch out!
Bello’s primary heat source is the legendary scotch bonnet pepper, which we profiled a bit here. Balancing the heat is vinegar, which I found to shine through quite a bit in the flavor. There’s also papaya, onion, salt and “spices,” a nebulous catch-all category under which Bello no doubt hides its closest secrets.
What isn’t a surprise, though, is that this stuff works wonders on everything! Eggs, meat, chicken, fish – you name it! There’s hardly a better or easier way to add a true taste of Dominica to your breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Look for it next time you sit down for a meal at Rosalie Bay, or anywhere else on Dominica.
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