In between long hours working in the fashion industry, Hossain set out to achieve her ambition. At first, she couldn ’ thymine tell unlike varieties of habanero peppers apart.
“ Hot was simply hot, and my taste buds were not accustomed to the differences in flavor and spice, ” she recalls .
After months and months of experiment and inquiry, the budding chef achieved success in 2016 and created three sauces — Habanero ( Super Duper Hot ), Serrano and Chipotle ( Smoky Hot ), and Fresh Mango and Sweet Peppers ( Mild ) — using peppers sourced from farmers in New Jersey. Unlike many other hot sauces on the marketplace, Hossain ’ s creations avoid the traditional market machismo of skulls, flames, and other extreme imagination, alternatively opting for sketch of a fashionable young woman with a chihuahua and the motto “ Be a Silly Chilly. ”
Despite her blithe approach to the hot sauce game, Hossain means clientele : these days, Silly Chilly can be found in more than 50 stores in New York City, including Manhattan ’ s celebrated spice merchant Kalustyan ’ randomness, Brooklyn ’ s hippie butcher shop The Meat Hook, and Natural Frontier in Queens .
end year, Hossain created Silly Chilly Dumplings, taking much the like obsessive approach that led to the development of her sauces : she stayed in her apartment for a week and made 3,000 dumplings until she had perfected five varieties : chicken, crimson cabbage, potato, grasshopper, and black ant .
Sufia Hossain is the creator behind Silly Chilly hot sauces and Silly Chilly Dumplings, which she will present to visitors at the World ’ randomness Fare .
Photo courtesy of Joe DiStefano
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“ I am obsessed with dumplings. I sometimes dream about dumplings, ” she says with a laugh .
The nine spices used to season Hossain ’ sulfur dumplings include those used in her mother ’ south homestyle Bangladeshi cook — turmeric, cumin, and chili — ampere well as such international flavors as turkish sumac and chinese coriander .
As for the insects, Hossain says she was inspired by the fact that, “ Insects are the future of food, ” and a trek in Thailand, where she got lost in the mountains and subsisted on grasshoppers .
“ I was scared, athirst, athirst. Grasshoppers saved my life. ” Hossain ’ s future hot sauce will be named Bangla City, after her 6-year-old nephew ’ sulfur nickname for the Bangladeshi enclave located on 169th Street and Hillside Avenue in Jamaica. She ’ sulfur even traveling to Bangladesh to source the pepper, whose mention will remain a unavowed until she releases the sauce, although she did divulge that it will be a green pepper .
Hossain says she ’ sulfur gallant to participate in an event that showcases “ the best of the best food vendors coming together and celebrating food and their trade with people who appreciate food and art from all over the worldly concern. ”
Joe DiStefano is a Queens-based food writer, culinary tour guide, and author of the bestselling guidebook “111 Places in Queens That You Must Not Miss.”
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Stop by Silly Chilly Dumplings at the World ’ south Fare at Citi Field ( 123-01 Roosevelt Ave. in Queens, hypertext transfer protocol : //theworldsfare.nyc ) on May 18 and 19 from 12 to 8 post meridiem Tickets from $ 19 to $ 199 ( children under 10, $ 5 ) .
The dumpling flavors include chicken, potato, and loss pilfer, vitamin a well as grasshopper and blacken ant .
Photo courtesy of Joe DiStefano
