C-Bomb Hot Sauce?! YES!

It's no secret I love local food. The people who  make it and are dedicated to using local produce, the markets who give them a place to sell it, and the locavores who seek it out and buy it! It's important that our isolated little pocket of the world is not reliant on our more heavily populated and well known eastern rellies. We are WA and we can do this all ourselves thank you! Sorry Melbourne, I still love you.

But here is a fun new WA product that I think we can all agree has a pretty awesome name. What else is awesome about it? It's friggin delicious. C-Bomb Hot Sauce is made by Renae Bunster, a WA local who got her inspiration for creating this fruity hot sauce during her travels in South America. I asked her a few questions about her product, which is on sale at Araluen Fremantle Chilli Festival (Saturday and Sunday the 9-10th March). Also included some of the amazing videos from their YouTube channel :D Enjoy!

1) On your website you say that your sauce is a "whole food" hot sauce - can you explain this and tell us what goes into your sauces?

I think the Thermomix revolution has taught many people we need to be eating more whole foods - and whole food basically means real food taken from nature that's had nothing bad done to it - ie been processed to the point of losing its nutrients and being unrecognisable from it's original form. So as I originally made the sauce for myself I made it to be totally healthy, as opposed to how big businesses decide to make a product - cheap ingredients so they can make more profit. C-Bomb is made completely from fresh raw vegetables, chillies and freshly squeezed fruit juices. The only other thing added apart from the raw foods are Himalayan crystal salt as this is the purest salt with the most minerals, raw cane sugar (totally unrefined) and apple cider vinegar. Cider vinegar has many health benefits and as it's not malt vinegar it means my sauce is gluten free. The sauce also has no preservatives or weird unnecessary additives. I don't even add water to it, I use fresh orange juice instead.

2) You've really emphasised the raw aspect - does it stay that way?

No, the sauce is definitely cooked. I just use fresh raw ingredients. I spoke to a contract filler a few weeks ago and they were shocked that I used raw carrots. Why so surprised I asked? and they said: Because we just get dehydrated ones and rehydrate them.

I was shocked!

It is becoming the norm in food processing plants to just buy in franken-foods and mix them together to hoodwink people's taste buds in to thinking they're being fed something nutritious, when it's not. They can also lie on the label and say : carrots, when really they WERE carrots now they're effectively orange dust.
RAAAA don't get me started on those people. They looked my sauce up and down and had never heard or seen anything so preposterous: fresh ingredients? you want to be present for the cook to make sure it tastes right? You think your branding is funny?
So after that little meeting I have continued to make the sauce myself in my own commercial kitchen with my own staff. In the future when things get out of control I will have to look in to contract fillers again but jeez that meeting was a nightmare that I was happy to walk away from.

3) When you were creating your sauces based on your travels in South America, what were the flavours you most wanted to incorporate?

When I was in Mexico I was blown away by the coriander and lime based chilli salsas so definitely knew I wanted lots of them in there. When I got to Belize I discovered Marie Sharp's hot sauces' main ingredient was carrots! So that's when I realised vegetables could be used. Ecuador's Aji was made totally from tomatoes. So I had this as a base in my brain and from there I upped the garlic, used orange juice instead of water, then added ginger for a laugh one day. Then BAM my taste buds screamed BOOM CHICKA WOW WOW.

 

 4) What kind of chillies do you use and what is special about them?

My whole sauce motto is: I don't want to hurt you, I just want to add flavour zest and pizzazz to your meal. We all deserve a little bit of pizzazz at meal times don't we? So I use chillies that add flavour rather than just burn. So therefore I love a nice fresh red birds eye chilli. However there are lots of hard nut chilli fans who need something harder, so in my 'Bloody Hot' sauce I add fresh habaneros. I love the smoky taste of them. And for complete mentalists I now have 'The F-Bomb' sauce which has Ghost and Scorpion chillies (as well). They just burn your face off. But some friends requested this and they go mental for it so good luck to them. Personally I only eat 'Hot' with the fresh Birds eyes.

5) So do you use local produce in your sauces?
Yes I definitely get local stuff when possible. And the majority of the sauce is locally sourced - always the carrots, tomatoes, onions, coriander, capsicums and then chillies and oranges for most of the year. Limes and ginger I get from Australia - but from over east and the garlic is the only imported ingredient (except for the Himalayan crystal salt but we don't have any comparable mountains in Australia) In winter I will have to use chillies from Asia, but the non chilli period here isn't for that long so I can probably avoid it.
Vinegar and raw sugar also from over east.
So based on percentages I definitely am and always will be a West Australian product.

6) What products are you bringing to the chilli festival, and can you tell us about them?

The products I'm bringing to the Chilli Festival are my 5 sauces:

Piss Weak: This has C-Bomb's fantastic unique flavour without any burn at all if you ask me. But really piss weak people say 'Ohh that's spicy' Pffft.

Medium: Again the same C-Bomb recipe with a few more fresh birds eyes in there, this is the kind of heat your Mum can handle.

Hot: The grande dame in my stable this heat level is perfect for most chilli lovers. I can smash a bottle of this on one meal, and often do. Bunster's own choice!

Bloody Hot: As the name suggests you really have to be 'one of those chilli freak people' to smash through this sauce. Again same fantastic flavour just with more bite. Chilli freaks get addicted to this immediately. Bless them.

The F-Bomb: All the C-Bomb Bloody Hot goodness but with Ghost and Scorpion chillies in there as well to really shut you up. "Got anything hotter than Bloody Hot?", oh yes, yes I do.

7) What is your favourite product and what are your favourite uses for it?

My Favourite heat level is Hot. It's just perfect for me. I can keep eating it and the heat doesn't slow me down. I use it on EVERYTHING. As a salad dressing, in bolognaises, pastas, noodles, casseroles, hummus, guacamole, curries, on eggs, with cheese and crackers, in a sandwich, at BBQs, as a marinade for fish and chicken. I even put it on rockmelon once just to prove a point, and it was fantastic! This sauce adds flavour to whatever you're making so if you're not the best cook or can't be bothered adding garlic, onions, coriander, lime, ginger etc to a dish you're making yourself, just add this and you get that flavour. People will think you are a genius.

8) Dual Action Flavour Curve Technology? Please explain!

Our patented 'Dual-Action-Flavour-Curve Technology' is instantly understood once you taste the sauce. You first get a hit of massive flavour across your tongue, this is the flavour curve, and then after the flavour dissipates in to your tongue, the chilli kicks in. Thus the sauce has dual actions, both moving in different curves. I have a very talented animationist working on a video info-graphic for my site to illustrate the technology. It's all very complicated for people who aren't scientists wearing lab coats and safety goggles to understand so I won't talk too much more about it.

9) So what's your story Renae?
I'm a former television journalist with no formal culinary expertise who just invented this sauce last year after a trip to Latin America. After my friends tried it they started demanding I make it for them. They started knocking on my door at all hours to get it. They started calling me Heisenberg (The Meth Cook from Breaking Bad). So after I got all my friends hooked on my 'product' I realised this might be a business!



You can buy the C-Bomb Hot Sauce at the Chilli Festival this weekend, OR you can buy it off their website www.dropthecbomb.com - FYI, if you buy 4 or more bottles, you get free shipping. YAY!

Stay tuned for a recipe using this fresh, fruity, delicious hot sauce! Did I mention it's totally vegan and gluten free? Well it bloody well is! So get your mouth around it!


In other news... ITS CHILLI FEST WEEKEND!!!! YEEESSSS!!!!!! I'm off to pay people to make me cry and have to lay down under a tree somewhere. I am pumped. I never had a real tolerance to chilli until I started to work on it a couple of years ago. Now I'm hooked!


Disclaimer: I have received no free products at the time of writing this post. I purchased a bottle of the sauce at a market and loved it, loved Renae's approach, and wanted to tell everyone. Cos I love local stuff.

Pizza Bella Roma, Fremantle

One evening after Id been wandering around Fremantle all afternoon, worked up a hunger and then picked up my bf from uni, we wandered the Freo strip for something for dinner. Everytime we walk past Pizza Bella Roma it smells amazing. But we never go there because most of the time I find generic Italian food pretty uninspired and boring - its always the same no matter where you go. But sometimes I get a hankering for some pasta and garlic bread and I cant be arsed making it myself. Im fully aware of how easy it is to make yourself, but sometimes I cant be bothered and a cheap massive serve of pasta is what I want. This craving hits maybe 2 or 3 times a year...


So this time we decided to let our noses lead the way, and into Pizza Bella Roma we went. I hadnt been there in AGES, the last time I went I ordered surf and turf and got a MASSIVE portion, with calamari, prawns, 2 peices of steak and salad. It was mad, and pretty good. It used to have a good reputation but I hadnt been there in ages so not sure how it is now...


I ordered canneloni with chicken, bechamel and a tomato based sauce, and S ordered pasta arrabiata, with some garlic bread to start. The waiter seemed to be a backpacker without any real ambition to be a decent waiter, didnt crack a smile the whole time and was generally a bit average. He sat us in the corner, one of the only tables free for 2, bought us some water, took his time bringing the coke S ordered and did it all without a smile. The woman who seemed to be in charge of front of house looked a bit flustered but she was friendly and had a smile on her face.


The garlic bread came out pretty fast, 4 big pieces for about $9, but what I thought was a bit average was that they were only buttered on one side. Cmon, if youre paying nearly $10 for garlic bread at least put the garlic butter on both sides. It tasted fine enough but would have been way better if they'd done it properly...

We got our food fairly quickly, and mine looked fine, the pasta S ordered looked pretty boring...

They didnt bother to even garnish the pasta with anything, no cheese, parsley, nothing. It looked like they had slapped it together... S said it tasted fine but thought I could make much better pasta arribiata - even though Ive never made it.

My canneloni had more effort put into it, with both cheese AND parsley - they really pushed the boat out for my dish! It was ok, there was plenty of sauce and it wasnt a huuuuge bowl full like normal, a managable portion. The filling was a bit lack lustre though, it lacked any real depth of flavour and could have used a generous pinch of salt and pepper at the very least... My meal was better than the S's, but thats not saying much.


The smell of Pizza Bella Roma is still as fab as it ever was but it doesnt reflect the quality of the food at all. Ive heard their pizzas are good, so if I ever go back there Ill stick to them. Everything else seems to have really gone downhill since I last visited... There are alot of better places to eat in Fremantle, and if Im feeling like a bowl of pasta I think I'll stick to Siennas Leederville on $12 pasta night on Mondays...

Fremantle Bakehouse

One sunny day, while S was at uni, I decided to spend the afternoon in Freo. We live about 30mins away so dont get down to Freo as much as we'd like, but we love it down there. It has a great vibe and lots of cool shops that we love to wander around checking out.

After going to Kakulas Sisters and buying blackberry dijon mustard (which I think would be great with duck), some local organic honey, and some fancy pasta (I could have bought SO MUCH more from there... the selection is overwhelmingly cool), I checked out some foodie shops, didnt buy anything even though it was tempting, and managed to work up a hankering for cake!

I wandered up the cafe strip knowing what I wanted but not sure where to get it. Im not a fan of the big coffee shops and chains like Dome and The Merchant, I like places to be a bit more personal. I ended up at the Fremantle Bakehouse, perusing a pretty decent selection of cakes, pastries and pies.

I decided to go for the wildberry log, a small cake with thick icing and topped with berries, and a skinny flat white.

It kinda looked like most of the cakes had just been sitting in the fridge all day so I wasnt too sure the cake was going to be as awesome as I wanted it to be... I also didnt know what kind of cake or icing it was so it was all a bit of a surprise really!

It turned out to be a deliciously moist orange cake, sweet with lemon icing. The berries on top were pretty sharp which helped out the sweetness of the icing, and were nice and juicy. The cake looked small but there was actually quite a bit of it, as it was pretty dense - but not in a bad way, it was full of flavour and moist. I really enjoyed it!

The coffee came out with the cake and the froth looked a bit crap, but it tasted ok in the end. A touch bitter for my liking but with such a sweet cake it washed down pretty well! Ive had better but it was by no means bad enough to warrant much of a complaint.

The staff were friendly, and it was at about 4pm, an hour before they close so it was really quiet - its usually all hustle and bustle n pretty busy. In total it cost me $9.90 with a eftpos surcharge for it being less than $10, I think it was 20c or something small... For a good price I got a piece of cake that was surprisingly nice and a decent coffee, and would go back to try some of their breads, pies and sausage rolls. They also do cooked breakfasts, fresh juices and sandwiches.