Umorok (Bhut/Naga jolokia)

Umorok

Umorok – capsicum frutescens/capsicum chinense - known as king cobra chile in English – is the king of chilies. It is officially the hottest chilli in the world. On the Scoville scale (measure of the hotness of a chilli based on the amount of capsaicin in it), it scores a whopping 855,000–1,050,000 which is about twice that of its nearest competitor.

Umorok – literally ‘tree chilli’ u=tree; morok = chilli – is indeed deadly – i can vouch for that. It is used to spice up eromba and other dishes or mashed with fermented fish or fermented soyabean.Fresh umorok has an aroma that most people love (i used the word ‘most’ because i do know a few who don’t).

i have seen it being sold in the supermarket here but my husband insists they don’t smell like the ones we get back home and they are less potent, maybe because of the climate. The ones we get at the Bangladeshi shop smells and taste like the ‘original’ umorok.

It is so potent that we rarely use the whole of it – just a quarter of of a chilli is enough to make any dish spicy hot. Be warned though – it is hot enough to make your taste buds go into shock and you might have to take them for culinary therapy! And heavens help you if it gets into your eyes. According to wikipedia, just one seed of umorok is enough to cause intense pain sensation in the mouth for 30 minutes. No wonder that Indian scientists plan to use it in hand grenades for mob control.