Festival Fever in Diamante

Calabria — that’s the southern tip of the Italian boot, and also in chile terms, that’s one of Europe’s hottest spots.

Every year, chileheads gather here at the Peperoncino Festival in Diamante, and in September 2004, we were lucky enough to head south again ourselves, for a week filled with fun and great spicy food.

As we discovered a lot of new stuff, we thought you might be interested in our 2004 Update. Enjoy!

Also, the giant peperoncino, Diamante’s landmark at this time of the year, was erected quickly again. To the right, that’s Renate and me, to the left two fellow chileheads from Germany. — You’d hardly find a shop now that wouldn’t decorate appropriately for the upcoming pepper fest…

Fashion of course also had to follow the fiery theme. Dear show organizers: Next year, we’d like to see a “hot” fashion show with real people – like the two ladies to the right 🙂

A jewelry store had this beautiful peperoncino bouquet in the window. Note to self: a nice table decoration for festive events at home! Also, every self-respecting chilehead should have a christmas tree as shown to the right this year.

Café Nini, one of the most popular spots on Diamante’s beach promenade (Lungomare), surprised pepperhead patrons with spicy cocktails. Nini’s theme was “Capsicum e Alco”. Fine with me! To the left, a sort of cream liquor kicked up with chile powder is getting its taste test. This wasn’t too exciting. We were really thrilled though by Nini’s fiery and colorful “Afro” cocktail: Cedri (special kind of green citrus fruit) liquor mixed with Prosecco (sparkling wine) and sliced HOT peperoncini. Fiery, fruity and delish. “Afro” is short for afrodisia here, by the way.

What’s more, the folks at Nini’s are well known for unusual ice cream creations. So it’s no wonder they’re getting people into Peperoncino Festival mood with cool, uhm, hot creations like the one we discovered in their see-through freezer!

They use those chile-armed fire & ice monsters for their “Tartufo Afrodisia”. The surprise factor when ordering this ice cream cup: sometimes it’s hot, sometimes it’s not!

The Fiery Festival… finally!

Finally it’s Wednesday night, and the Peperoncino Festival is officially started, with all sorts of celebrations.

Even September is still hot in Calabria, that’s why the festival takes place at night and doesn’t start before 8:00 pm. I took this shot at the opening night right before sunset. Then I had to stroll the booths, tasting what’s hot, new and exciting…

We started with a typically southern Italian specialty, one of my favorites. Dried Peperone (mild but tasty peppers), fried in olive oil, then slightly salted. Many local restaurants have this light and crunchy snack on their menu.

At the festival it was served with a glass of red wine,
and I just had to eat it three nights in a row. Simple
but addictive!

The kitchen staff of popular Sabbia d’ Oro beach restaurant could hardly keep up making their delicious Gnocchetti (small Gnocchi, flour-potato dumplings that are cooked like pasta). Of course they were served here in a spicy sauce made from tomato, peperoncini, herbs, arugula and olive oil. Yummy! We’ll have more about this fine restaurant later.

This young fellow grilled salsiccia piccante, a coarse pork sausage, spiced with fennel seed and peperoncini, a typical spice combination in this area. Dressed up with broccoli, they served the sausage in a bun  – kind of Hot Dog a la Calabrese!

That’s not all, folks. Keep on reading, the next page is here!