Wirri-wirri peppers? Guyana

[thamnophis]

A friend whose family is from Guyana is sending some of what he calls wirri wirri peppers. Described as small, round and hot. I can't find info on them. Anyone heard of them?

Joe

[tamarillo]

wirri-wirri is wild c.chinense according to swedish author Philippe Plöninge. 0,5 centmeters round fruits. About one meter and compact bush. should be full of fruits with fruity aroma. 300000SHU! I have one picture but could not send it,nice looking and very decorative also!

[JohnF]

Wiri Wiri is another of those pepper names which is apparently used for more than one pepper. In Guyana it is an export crop and I think a C. annuum. If you do a search of various sites you will also find Wiri Wiri listed as a C. chinense from Jamaica, and a C. frutescens.

[Aji Inferno]

Possibly a name variation of African Piri-Piri..?

[JohnF]

Or another of those local names that just means pepper like Aji or some others

[bassino]

Or another of those local names that just means pepper like Aji or some others

Piri Piri, Peri Peri, Pili Pili, they all mean pungent chilepepper in certain locations. As you said John, I also believe that Wirri Wirri is just another name to that list.

[Aji Inferno]

Or another of those local names that just means pepper like Aji or some others

Piri Piri, Peri Peri, Pili Pili, they all mean pungent chilepepper in certain locations. As you said John, I also believe that Wirri Wirri is just another name to that list.

...Which all brings up an important question: why the heck do those guys need these "double" words for describing things?! Piri Piri = "Chili Chili"... Or does it mean something like: "Hot Hot" (= Very Hot?)

Anyone knows the logic behind these kinds of words..?

Asks Tommi-Tommi from Inferno-Inferno.

[bassino]

Tommi, I think Jaakko Rahola (Finnish specialist of gastronomy) has an answer to your question. He says that Pili pili, Piri Piri or whatever is  African translation from arabic word felfel which means the same (pungent pungent) in Arabian language.

And please, do not ask why felfel and not just fel :lol:

Straight copy from Jaakko  Rahola's web-page. Sorry, only in Finnish:

"Pili-pili (piri-piri; myös peri-peri)

Afrikkalainen nimitys, tarkoittaa "väkevä-väkevä". Käytetään sekä hyvin voimakkaasta chilihedelmästä yksinään että chilipulverisekoituksesta, jossa on muitakin mausteita, kuten oreganoa, roomankuminaa ja sipulia. Sana on väännös arabian kielen samaa tarkoittavasta sanasta felfel. Swahilin kielen slangissa pili-pili tarkoittaa myös penistä, joten on epäilty, että hedelmä olisikin saanut afrikkalaisen nimensä erään pienen, sukkulamaisen, kellanvihreän ja hyvin voimakkaan lajikkeen muodon ansiosta. Tämä lajike tunnetaan myös nimellä Angolan pepper. - Portugalilaiset, joiden ansiosta chili levisi Afrikkaan ja Aasiaan, ovat ottaneet chilin melkeinpä kansallismausteekseen ja syövät sitä runsaasti nimellä piri-piri. Sana ei tarkoita mitään erityistä lajiketta, vaikka monella taholla selitetäänkin, että kyseessä on pieni, sukkulamainen vihreä hedelmä. Graeme Caseltonin sivuilla on valokuva, jonka mukaan pili-pili olisi päärynän muotoinen ja väriltään punainen. Termiä käytetään myös muista tulisista lajikkeista, kuten eräästä tumman punaisesta, joka on hyvin saman muotoinen kuin habanero tai sen sisar Scotch bonnet. Sitä kuvaa ehkä parhaiten osittain tyhjäksi päästetty jalkapallo. Portugalissa termiä piri-piri käytetään useimmiten tulisesta chilikastikkeesta, jota tarjotaan mm. paistetun kanan kanssa (Frango piri-piri). - Myös Australiassa tunnetaan piri-piri, joka siellä on kirkkaan punainen, pienikokoinen hedelmä, Internetissä käydyn keskustelun perusteella ei yhtä voimakas kuin portugalilainen kaimansa."

http://www.kolumbus.fi/rahola/sanastot/capsicum.html#pili

[luca]

If I can add my 2 cents, I know that some asian languages (at least indonesian, if I remember correctly) use the same word twice when they mean something in plural.  So, we have 1 pepper, 2 pepper pepper, 3 pepper pepper, and so on... Maybe these double words are somehow related to that...

Another thing is that I know many people from Southeast Asia (I work with many indian and bangladeshi people) that have problems differentiating f from p.  Or actually they don't have either of these phonems, just something in between, so "a problem" becomes something like "a pfroblem"... This could explain the felfel becoming pfelpfel, pelpel and then pilpil, pilipili, piripiri, wirri-wirri... :shock:

Hmmm... I'm probably starting to over-speculate, so I should stop now! ;-)

[Aji Inferno]

I knew one can always trust this Inferno Forum - even in the weirdest of questions... Thanks, guys!

A part of chili's magic is, I think, in its certain mysteries, its scary reputation (for non-chili-heads), and other psychological elements. I can only wonder what the first guys who tasted the ancestors of some Habanero thought when they first felt the bite, striking like a sledgehammer, and then the bliss of endorphines... People around them must have been scared as hell, after seeing what happened! And then those fools (after recovering) go: "Gotta get more of this stuff!!!" :-)

This is why even the naming of chili is interesting. It may reflect all kinds of non-obvious, very old, beliefs, rituals, cultures, symbolism, whatever.

I once tasted a fine habanero sauce called "Sontava". Very good sauce, indeed. Few people just know the *real* story behind the name...

The official story went something like this: "There was this guy lost in the middle of nowhere, about to starve, when he saw a hacienda/cottage/something. After crawling there, the people there fed him/her and offered some sauce to make the food a bit better. Our guy tried this sauce and immediately shouted "SONTAVA!!!" The hosts asked "what the **** that was about..?". Our hero responded: "No bloody idea! That was the only word I found to describe the magnificent flavour and stuff of this sauce!"

Bullshit, our friends... The truth is out there, elsewhere!

Okay, many of you may know that most of us Finns can't take anything stronger than a mild green pepper. Of course, with one exception: booze... So, here's the TRUE story:

Our guy was a Finn, somehow gotten lost in Mexico or wherever. He was thirsty, not hungry. He was looking for Tequila! Lots of Tequila! When he finally found something he thought as a bar, and he was given a bottle of something, with his food, his natural reaction was to... drink it..! Fast!!! Instincts, as you know...

After a few seconds (Habanero's natural delay before explosion) he must have looked strange... And then yelled: "MITÄ SAATANAN SONTAA TÄMÄ ON???!!!!!"  The hosts were surprised, understanding nothing. "Sontaa, amigo? Sontava?" And, thus, "Sontava" was named.

Why? "Sontava" literally means "shitty" in Finnish. And our guy just yelled: "What kind of shit did you give me to drink?!"  

...
Ok, that was a very bad story (if very true), I have to admit. But sometimes things like chili are all about Stories.

[Makee]

loistotarina

[JohnF]

I have seeds from a pepper brought from Guayana as Little Cherry Pepper which others thought was Wiri Wiri. I have tried to grow it three times and each time it germinates but does not grow past the cotyledon stage. Any ideas?

These seedling emerged 1/21/and 1/22/06

[svalli]

It seems that the part where the first true leaves form is missing (I do not know the scientific term). I had a similar tomato seedling last year. The cotyledon leaves kept growing for three months and got quite large, but there was no first leaves emerging.

If all seeds are doing same there must be a genetic mutation in the seeds. Were all seeds harvested from a single fruit?

[JohnF]

Don't know if all seeds from same fruit but the mutation idea is interesting. Let me see if I can find out about seeds.

John

[riccardino]

Interesting problem,
I got a similar one crossing some lycopersicon: the seeds germinated but none was able to go over the cotyledon stage. Looking with a magnification lens I noted the groving tip was missing. It happened to 20 seeds on 23. The remaining three did not germinated at all.
At the time I thought to some genetic incompatibility between the parents, but since all the seeds were coming from one tomato a local mutation could be happened.

Riccardo