Flavor and Spice and Everything Nice

Local chefs bring the heat to the table using a variety of chile peppers and techniques.

Fermented chiles, kimchi and carrots on display at Chancho King are used in most of the menu options at this Ecuadorian restaurant in Murray Hill. Photography by Amanda Rosenblatt.

Food enthusiasts are clamoring for global cuisines infused with bold and unusual flavors. At the same time, innovative chefs are incorporating a wide variety of spicy ingredientsto pique diners’ palates. Whether it’s the smoky, earthy flavor that pequin peppers bring to Latin cuisines, the zesty birdseye chile used in Thai dishes or locally grown datilpeppers adding a touch of sweet and heat, there are exciting culinary experiences to be found at local restaurants.

Spicy stir-fried shrimp in red curry sauce with herbs, peppercorns, Krachai, bird’s eye chiles, kaffir lime leaves and basil leaves. Photography by Sindy Gonzalez.

For intensely flavorful and spicy dishes, Thai cuisine is the place to start. Thai restaurants even offer diners the option to select how spicy a dish will be. At Simply Tasty Thai in Mayport, chiles feature prominently in just about everything on their menu and include bird's eye, serrano and sweet pepper. Whether they're fresh or dried, green or red, stirfried or dry roasted, this place uses them all. A highlight is their house-made nam prik pao, a time-honored sweet and spicy chile paste that features prominently in tom yum (hotand sour soup), kai pad med ma muang himmapan (Thai cashew chicken) and kung pad cha (spicy shrimp stir fry).

For something truly spicy at Chancho King, ask for a cup of their "hot hot" ají on the side. Photography by Amanda Rosenblatt.

Chancho King in Murray Hill serves flavor-forward fermented vegetables in their Ecuadorian cuisine. One look at their wall of fermenting chiles, kimchi and carrots and you'llknow they're serious about adding flavor bombs to each dish. While Ecuadorian dishes are not as spicy as other South American foods, Chancho King’s pork sandwich, servedwith both hot pepper ají (Peruvian chile pepper) and mild tomato ají (a spicy sauce containing ají peppers), is praiseworthy. For something truly spicy, ask for a cup of their "hothot" ají on the side.

Barbacoa enmoladas at Oaxaca Club in Jacksonville Beach features a mole made with 10 different varieties of peppers. Photography by Cole LoCurto.

Jacksonville Beach’s Oaxaca Club keeps an impressive assortment of chiles on hand, infusing layers of spice into everything they make. Their mole is made with 10 differentkinds of peppers, including guajillo, pasilla, serrano, pequin and chilcosle, along with 21 other ingredients. It’s the foundation for many of the restaurant’s dishes, most notablybarbacoa enmoladas. For a little extra kick, try a spicy margarita made with pepper-infused tequila rimmed with house-made Tajín: a combination of guajillo, morita and pequinpeppers and salt.

Key West shrimp cocktail at Cordova Coastal Chophouse features datil peppers, a regional chile that's popular in St. Augustine. Photography by Melissa Marcarelli.

Northeast Florida is the epicenter for datil peppers. Closely associated with the Minorcan community who came to Florida in the 1760s, datils have become a proud part of St. Augustine's agricultural and culinary heritage. At the Cordova Coastal Chophouse and Bar

in the Casa Monica Hotel, locally grown datil peppers are embraced for theirbright, vibrant color, distinctive flavor, spicy zest and sweetness. These little peppers appear in the restaurant's Key West shrimp cocktail as well as charred broccolini.