Spice up your summer!

What if eating spicy food was the recipe for happiness? As a key that unlocks endorphin production, chilli peppers are both a challenge and a culinary journey, taking your taste buds on a tour of South America, Africa, the Near East or South Asia.

Because they are not locally produced and through culinary tradition, you won’t find these fruits in traditional Lyonnaise cuisine, but they have managed to make a place for themselves. You can, for example, find a touch of Cayenne pepper in Nantua sauce or vinegar chicken, as confirmed by Olivier Canal, chef at La Meunière and president of the ‘Label des Bouchons Lyonnais’ certification: “It’s perfect to get the taste buds tingling and to have a bit of fun too.” This is demonstrated by his spicy mayo recipe that accompanies the “quenelle fries” he created for Food Traboule: “People in Lyon like these new recipes. They are very curious. It’s like going on a journey.”

Exotic tastes like this can be found at Deb’s Bistro, an Indian restaurant where Deb personally prepares spices that he imports straight from India. Each summer, he produces ten kilograms of ‘achaar’, a famous seasoning made with pickled or marinated fruits and vegetables, vegetable oil, chilli peppers and spices. His mixtures, such as the pot made by his mother four years ago, which is still on the menu, age like fine wine. Six varieties of achaar are on the menu, all rated on the Scoville scale, named after American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville, who invented it in 1912 to measure spiciness. For the bravest among you, Deb has an achaar made with ‘bhut jolokia’, one of the world’s strongest chili peppers. “It’s all a question of balance. A spicy dish must contain the four elements of taste: sweet, salty, spicy and sour. For example, to counterbalance a strong chili pepper, sourness is added with green mango powder,” he explained.

© Susie Waroude

On the spice route

At Messob, an Ethiopian restaurant in Lyon’s 6th district, ‘ayib’, a traditional fresh cheese, is used to calm the spiciness. “Ethiopian cuisine is very spicy, but there is something for all tastes,” told us Samuel, who runs the restaurant with his mother, Sophia. To make authentic food in keeping with tradition, he goes to Ethiopia each year to bring back spices that are “difficult to find in France, as they are less flavoursome.” Some are even unique, like a traditional ‘berbere’ mixture, which is made exclusively for the restaurant.

At Noucadémie, a ravioli and Sichuan noodle restaurant, Meng and Huijun focus on traditional southern Chinese cuisine, which they liven up with their house speciality: an explosive sauce made with dried chili peppers sourced in China. Diners order their dishes while specifying their desired level of spiciness, from 0 to 6. “When we opened a year ago, we put a little bit of chili pepper in each recipe, the equivalent of one dose, as people traditionally do in our region, but it was too spicy for some in Lyon,” explained Huijin. “Paradoxically, others have even asked us for the equivalent of eight doses!” says Meng with a smile. At Piquín, a Mexican restaurant run by Sandra and Hugo, summer marks the return of the famous green sauce ‘Salsa Taquera’, made with fresh green chili peppers and avocado. The rest of the year, five spicy sauces are used to liven up the day-to-day, including one secret sauce, born of a meeting between Mexican and Lyonnaise cuisine and made with ‘grattons’, or pork scratchings. 

Carnet d’adresses

© Piquín

Piquín

Including tacos, ceviche, quesadillas, and ‘enfrijolada’ (pureed black beans), Piquín has been offering a chance to discover Mexican cuisine in Lyon for seven years. To spice up her tacos, chef Sandra Alvarez developed five home-made hot sauces, the strongest of which, Matcha, is made using dried árbol chili peppers.

Deb’s Bistro

© Deb's Bistro

Here, samosas, chicken marinated in garlic and spices, potato balls with lime, cumin and tamarin, Delhi butter chicken, wings and pav bahji are served (as an option) with six achaars (mixtures of pickled vegetables), made using Deb’s family recipes. Their spiciness ranges from 500 to 1.5 million SHU on the Scoville scale, which classifies any chili pepper exceeding 100,000 SHU as “explosive”…

Les Planteurs

© Les Planteurs

For Geoffrey, who runs the West Indian restaurant Les Planteurs, “spicy cuisine shouldn’t be aggressive, but sunny and warm.” On the menu, Sausage Rougail, Creole blood sausages, sautéed Colombo shrimps, and other West Indian, Creole and Caribbean specialities, are served with a West Indian chili sauce that is a closely kept secret.

Messob

© Messob

Here, you will find dishes to share from the cuisine of Ethiopia and well-seasoned recipes, particularly with Mitmita chilis. We love the whole chili peppers stuffed with tomatoes and shallots.

© Noucadémie

Noucadémie

To accompany their hot or cold fresh Sichuan noodles with pork, vegetables or beef, Meng and Huijun offer a spicy sauce ranging from level 1 to 6. Paradise for anyone who loves a spice challenge! 

Masmoudi

© Anastasiia Korshunova

The Oriental cake shop and deli Masmoudi makes its own ‘harissa’, a typically Tunisian condiment made with dried and ground red chili peppers, which is used, without heating, to liven up a couscous or tagine or even sandwiches and slices of meat.