Title: [Ch] Piri Piri Chile?
Categories: Info, Spice, Chilies
Yield: 1 text file
Piri Piri Chile
Piri means chile in Swahili so a translation of piri piri chile is
chile chile chile! Which is the next point. In general in
Africa when a word is repeated it is a form of emphasis. We see
piri piri, pila pila, berebere and for the soccer fans Bafana
Bafana and so on. I guess the repeated word means that it is
thought to be exceptional in some way.
Throughout Africa a small C. frutescens grows. It is spread both by
humans and birds and can be found growing "wild". There has been a
proposal to declare it a weed in South Africa. There may be regional
differences in physical characteristics and there are regional
differences in names. I have seen small samples of those from Malawi
(larger), Mozambique (smaller) and South Africa. I have read the
description on Zimbabwe Bird and some other countries I have
forgotten. Other than minor differences in size, heat and taste
probably due to regional developments, they are all the same.
In this neck of the woods they are called Devil Chiles, further
north others call them Zimbabwe Birds Eye and in Mozambique locals
call them piri piri or peri peri. Probably every town and village
in Africa has a different name for them.
You can ponder why a Swahili word is used by the Portuguese, who
introduced this chile to Africa (West) in the first place.
