The Humble Datil Pepper Solely Thrives in One Place

St. Augustine, the oldest metropolis in the USA, recognized for cobblestone streets and historic forts, has a secret historical past celebrated in farmers markets, eating places, and bars. The datil pepper — a part of the Capsicum chinense household and on the identical Scoville scale with the habanero at 100,000-300,000 warmth models — solely grows nicely on this space and has been cultivated by Minorcan farmers since they came visiting as indentured servants in 1768.

Mike O’Steen, recognized domestically as Minorcan Mike, discovered his household’s handwritten datil sauce recipe 30 years in the past behind one among his grandfather’s cookbooks, St. Augustine Cookery, printed by Flagler Hospital Auxillary in 1965. He grew up watching his grandfather plant and harvest datil peppers and has developed that recipe into one thing present in shops, farmers markets, and eating places round St. Augustine.

“Datils can develop somewhere else, however they solely flourish right here. They love the distinctive mixture of humidity and salt air in St. Augustine,” O’Steen mentioned. “Folks come right here and purchase vegetation or seeds, however they by no means do very nicely exterior a 50-mile radius.”

Solely discovered on this a part of the world, the thriller of the datil pepper’s origin stays unsolved. Native Minorcan lore holds that ancestors made the journey from Menorca, Spain, with seeds sewn into their clothes. Some say the datil descended from a West African pepper household introduced over on slave ships. Nonetheless others declare they got here through the Caribbean islands like Cuba and Jamaica the place the local weather was favorable for Capsicum chinense.

Daniel Cantliffe, professor of Horticultural Sciences on the College of Florida, studied the datil pepper in relation to different pepper households in an try and settle the talk — he discovered “…St. Johns County is the one place on the planet this plant, the Datil, has come from. We have now seemed across the planet; we will’t discover it anyplace else … You may have a novel plant materials that’s solely coming from right here.”

With a fiery taste tempered with candy notes which can be simply manipulated, listed here are Minorcan Mike’s and my favourite locations to pattern datil peppers round St. Augustine.

The Floridian

At The Floridian, a Historic Downtown restaurant, sip a datil-infused cocktail, the St. John’s Son, a refreshing, barely spicy model of a Whiskey Bitter. They infuse native St. Augustine Distillery bourbon with datil peppers to carry the warmth and layer it with muddled peach and rosemary, basil-infused velvet Falernum, Black Strap Bitters, and extra. The meals menu options many datil choices — there’s the Fancy Shrimp fried with mild rice flour and served over a datil jam, datil-dusted tuna bowls, tender meatloaf crusted with housemade datil ketchup, and my favourite: a conventional Minorcan pilau served in a forged iron skillet with sticky datil sauce drizzled on high. The pilau is a mainstay of Minorcan households like Mike’s, serving as a one-pot, budget-stretching dish incorporating recent seafood (or hen or pork) and homegrown datil peppers.

Black Fly

They love Minorcan Mike’s Datil merchandise a lot at Black Fly they’ve their very own merchandise nook the place friends should purchase all of the sauces, mud, salsas, and extra. On the desk, select from plate after plate using datil peppers from Mayport Shrimp with datil remoulade to a pizza that tastes like a love youngster of the barbecue hen pizza and candy spicy datil sauce. Then there may be the Minorcan seafood chowder laced with datils and a Caribbean bangers and mash that includes sausage made onsite with datil peppers. Situated simply over the Bridge of Lions on Anastasia Island, it’s a worthy junket from Historic Downtown.

Bathroom Brewery

Historic West King Avenue has seen a lot of hip eating places, bars, and boutiques popping up and Bathroom Brewery is a must-stop. They focus on seasonally influenced Belgian, German, and American-Farmhouse type ales, together with a scrumptious Smoked Datil Ale. The peppers are mesquite and applewood smoked lending a smoky, sluggish warmth to an in any other case light-bodied beer.

Brisky’s BBQ

A favourite of O’Steen, Brisky’s BBQ serves a datil brisket bowl full of Spanish rice, smoked sausage, black beans, corn, and extra. It’s topped with slow-smoked brisket and datil sauce. As he says, “It’s good, actual good.” 

Catch 27

Tucked right into a aspect avenue, Catch 27, evokes the sensation of being in a secluded enclave surrounded by tropical foliage away from vacationer site visitors. The shrimp cocktail brings me again to childhood when it was a luxurious merchandise reserved for once-a-year dinners out, besides served with a aspect of the most effective cocktail sauce I’ve ever tasted, infused with datil peppers. For dinner, I go for the nightly particular — seared diver scallops overtop a multitude of cavatelli, crawfish, and calmly fried okra, all introduced collectively in a datil Creole sauce. So, so scrumptious.

Ice Plant Bar

This historic constructing is a cool cease even with out datil dishes, however when you enterprise to the Ice Plant Bar, don’t miss their legendary Blue Crab Beignets with datil remoulade. I wash mine down with a Rhinestone Cowboy, a mix of bourbon, amaro, pomegranate, hibiscus, mint, muddled sage and lemon, and also you guessed it, datil pepper. 

Black Molly

One other favourite of O’Steen, Black Molly Grill makes use of datil peppers in a number of dishes. There’s the hen grilled and topped with goat cheese and datil jelly. There are cheese grits infused with datil peppers. Or you’ll be able to decide to have something “datil-style” and when you avoid wasting room, the darkish chocolate datil pepper cheesecake is divine. Mike’s favourite is grilled fish with a brushing of datil pepper jelly.