Chilli Festival

Bank holiday weekend I went to a Chilli Festival in Frosts, a local garden centre. Chilli Fiesta would have been a more fun name that fitted their theme - they had staff in sombreros, a mariachi band, a chilli focused BBQ and a little straw bale pen with micro pigs on display. There were also rows and rows of different chilli plants or seeds available for purchase. I sampled the grilled haloumi and veggies kebabs from the BBQ with a variety of chilli sauces, a chili jelly sweet, chili cheese.

Some fun chilli facts I learnt...

• Christopher Columbus brought the chilli plant to Europe around 1492, he mistook it for black pepper, hence why it is known as chilli 'pepper'.

• Chillies are full of vitamin A and C - twice as much as citrus fruit.

• Hungary is world famous for it's chilli powder, known as paprika. There is a Chilli museum in Szeged.

• Soaking chillies in vinegar with help reduce their strength.

• The best way to relieve the burning sensation from eating chillies is to drink milk, yogurt or ice-cream. Water will only disperse the oil around your mouth and make it worse.

• The hottest part of the chilli is not the seed, it's the white placenta inside the chilli.

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I spent the night before drinking with Hannah and decided last minute to go dancing in Oceana which coincided with A-Level results night. Oh dear, everyone was eighteen and on heat. In the words of Ted Mosby, 'I am too old for this stuff.' Needless to say, I was a little hungover on my actual birthday. 

Spent the day at Wrest Park, a recently renovated English Heritage manor house and gardens that I saw publicised on the BBC. It was so new that the gardens were a little bare, the further we walked from the newly laid paths the gardens became more fun and secret garden like.

In the evening, I got together a group of friends at Turtle Bay for 241 cocktails, still a bit delicate from the night before I was taking it very easy. I am fast becoming a regular in Turtle Bay and when that shuts at midnight where does one go to in Milton Keynes? On this particular night, the easiest place was to Secklow Hundred, cheap drinks and kind of OK music. 


Let's hope it's a good year.