If you don’t frequent the snob chichi grocery shoppes, you might not be aware that it’s currently Hatch Chile Season, uppercase lettering intended, since Hatch Chile Season Is Apparently A Big Annual Thing Among The Haute Cuisine Aficionados, And Probably Even Among The Middlebrow-Types, Too. Again, for the people who don’t go near the premium-priced sellers of top-shelf foodstuffs, it’s time to let you know that we are now in HATCH CHILE SEASON, all-uppercase intended as a visual aid to denote SHOUTING. SHOUTING!
Maybe in the last 10 yrs. or so, we’ve been conditioned to accept that around this time of August, we should get ready to buy, cook & eat these special Hatch chile peppers, which are to be elevated & prized above every other kind of chile pepper because marketing. Marketing! You know, like ‘got milk?’ and ‘the Other White Meat’ and ‘Hass avocados’ etc. The once-a-year nature of the availability of the Hatch chile pepper only adds to the frenzy.
In the beginning, it was all pretty innocuous, this Hatch Chile Season stuff. They started small, focusing on the peppers themselves, how you might be enticed and delighted to chop them up; for example, to spice-up a salsa or corn salad, with a little bit of that Hatch, N.M., terroir, that city being the only place on Planet Earth that could grow Hatch chile peppers. Back then, roasting or grilling the peppers was also an introductory recommendation, such that you could enjoy them in a taco or accompanying some chicken fajitas or carne asada etc.
But now Hatch Chile Season has become a giant food phenomenon on the verge of becoming part of perhaps every bite you take, every dish you make, every cake you bake — whether or not you opt-in! As you can see from the sign shown in today’s snapshot lede, we’ve reached Peak Hatch Chile. It’s insinuating its way into…sushi! Gouda cheese! What’s next: Hatch cornflakes? Hatch donuts? Hatch-a matcha? AGAIN, IT’S HATCH CHILE SEASON, SO EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE — as long that everything includes a Hatch chile pepper.
If you’re a Hatch fan, godspeed! If things get too hot for your lips, mouth & tongue to handle, you can always take a little sip of creamy, cooling milk or yogurt to lower the temperature. And if you’re not a Hatch fan, just be patient and wait it out a couple more weeks, in which case you’ll be good to go for the next eleven-and-a-half months approximately. We report, you decide!
A couple of post-bedtime highlights from last night’s (Tuesday’s) late action: at St. James-Winnipeg, Man., #1 Piccata Prince (.238 Win Prob / 3.20-1 Fair Odds / 3.92-1 Premium Odds) served-up your Race 7 finale at $10.60; at New Cumberland, W.Va., it was another Race 7, though not the finale, in which #1 Lost Bikini (.381 / 1.62 / 1.99) found the top at $6.60, and your winning $36.40 exacta was completed by #6 Romantic Jewel (.202 / 3.95 / 5.19), with the premium price on that comboa (comboa!) being $24.63.
Now to your today (Wednesday)…
Your Canandaigua, N.Y., opener was won by #3 Seams Like Destiny (.281 / 2.56 / 3.16) at $11.64.
At Shelbyville, Ind., Race 6 was lousy with firsters, and the best of the experienceds was #4 Cash Per Trip (.339 / 1.95 / 2.45), who got the money at a sorry-not-sorry $8-even.
Your Grantville, Penna., Race 7 finale had a late scratch that elevated #3 Bourbon Time (.226 / 3.42 / 4.31) to playable status, and he responded with good legs and a smooth finish to win at $10.20.
Race 4 from Erie, Penna., had a late scratch that propelled #5 Alexander K (.273 / 2.66 / 3.40) into playability, which resulted in a win at $10-even.
In Race 5 from Saratoga Spgs., N.Y., #6 True Legend (.282 / 2.55 / 3.26) mapped-out a win in a field lousy with lousy with firsters at a sorry-not-sorry $10.46.
To end this evening now, two Race 7s ahead from Assiniboia & The Mountain, plus a bonus Race 8 finale from the latter…
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