Review: Grapes Chow (Spicy Pickled Grapes) from Caribbeanpot.com

Ratings - Ease: 5/5, Taste: 3.5/5, Price: $

Scale: Ease out of 5, with 5 being easy and 1 difficult. Taste out of 5, 5 being delicious and 1 being disgusting. Price out of 5 dollar ($) signs, $ being cheap and $$$ being expensive.

Link to the video recipe:

Link to the written recipe:


I know. Your first though was probably "is this dude really eating grapes with onions?" My response to that would be yes, I am. Also, don't knock it 'till you try it. I've been watching Chris De La Rosa, the man behind Caribbeanpot.com, for a while now, but this was my first time making something of his. He's a West Indian chef specializing in the Afro-Indian fusion cuisines of Trinidad and Guyana. Compared to some of his other recipes (curry duck, callaloo, etc.), this one is remarkably quick and easy to put together.

Most of the ingredients are stuff that you either have in your kitchen right now or can get at any market, which is a large reason why I chose this recipe. The only thing I changed was that I used an Italian hot pepper instead of a Thai Bird's Eye Chili, but I think it got the job done. From what I can tell, the function of the chili is for heat, not that specific variety's flavor, so maybe even some chili powder/cayenne would work. Just remember to chop the chili as finely as possible (ideally with gloves on), to avoid having to bite into large chunks of raw chili - same goes for the garlic.

Chris recommends to make this very spicy, so I tried to get it as spicy as I could handle without making it unpleasantly hot. That's a good rule for dishes known for their spice, I've found. Refrigerating the chow is also a must, as it's way better when the grapes are cold and the juices feel much more refreshing, standing up to the heat of the chilis and the pungency of the garlic. If the idea of savory grapes combined with chillis, garlic, onions, and cilantro doesn't gross you out, do try this.

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Krishna Sreenivasan

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