There’s no doubt some spicy salsa to be found somewhere in Ottawa, however it can’t be found at any of your normal chain grocery stores. I’m out in the Carp area, and so driving downtown for a $3 jar of salsa is a bit out of the way!
I might pop into Bells Corners this weekend and see what I can find.
(I’m pretty sure that place in the Market has been closed for a few years now.)
I’ve definitely had hot salsa in little plastic tubs. In Michigan, which surprised me, as I tend not to have a high regard for Midwesterners’ tolerance for spicy things.
Who lets salsa last for a week anyway?
You want serious hot sauce without having to interact with actual Hispanic people? Or what?
Anybody else here like Tabasco on popcorn?
Hot salsa is for WIMPS! When I’m craving the taste of authentic heat, I just swish a little gasoline in my mouth and toss in a lighted match. There’s nothing like tasting charred tastebuds with charred tastebuds! Which is pretty much what the experience of eating hot salsa is all about. Make my salsa mild, if you please!
This is a 100% true statement. I’ve tried too. It also did not exist at any of the three or four “Mexican” restaurants I tried in Ottawa.
I don’t get it. Canada, in general, is getting increasingly multi-cultural. Ottawa, in particular, is the capital of the country, with a built in customer base of diplomats, tourists, and so on (and the odd wayward job-hunter) from all over the world, yet it’s impossible to get more adventurous with spice than maybe a little basil in the pasta sauce.
Sure. Tabasco goes with everything.
There are some pretty decent ethnic restaurants here, Frank.
Mexicali Rosa’s and The Lone Star don’t qualify! 
I think I might have tried The Lone Star, if it’s downtown in a hotel. I’m sure I missed some good ones; I didn’t eat out as much as I normally would since I was trying to conserve money.
I live smack dab in the middle of Texas so I have no problem getting my hands on just about any hot sauce or salsa from any point on the Scoville scale at any time. Hell, I can even go to a 7-11 and pick up something that would probably kill your average Canadian. But if I weren’t so blessed, I don’t think I’d use up the inter-tubes whining about it. I think I’d use the inter-tubes to just order some and have it delivered to my house.
Really - just chop some jalepenos, onion, tomatos, maybe some bell pepper…
You can add a touch of vinegar to brighten it if you like or a pinch of sugar to take the edge off a bit - try until you find a combination you like, playing with your food is fun.
That’s hilarious, but basically I know what you mean.
Sometime I like a tiny bit of spice, but very little. I once saw this Scoville Heat Scaleof various peppers, and the most I like is at the pepperoncini level, which is practically at the bottom.
Columbia Heights is one metro stop from me, if that bugs me, imagine how I’d feel about traffic on 66 to go to a grocery store in Manassas 
When I did Barber of Seville in '98, my apartment was around the corner from Celonta, a Sri Lankan restaurant which was fantastic. They understood ‘hot’. It became my mission to try everything on the menu at least once…
What you call pain I call pleasure.
Didn’t Marquise de Salsa say that?
Granted, pepperoncinis are intended to be eaten whole, unlike most peppers. I usually eat the pepperoncini that comes in with the pizza and it burns quite a bit (and I do like spicy foods).
Forget about roadtripping to Buffalo. Even though plenty of Canadians already do that for beer and specialty food items, the selection of salsa on grocery store shelves around here is pathetic, even at Premier Gourmet and Wegmans. Mrs. Renfro’s is about as exotic as you’ll find here. (Buffalo’s Mexican population is minuscule. The Spanish speakers around here are mostly Puerto Rican, and they’re not known for their salsa.)
Grocery store??? Maybe you missed the part where its a ** a mammoth pan-Asian, pan-Latino megamart of goodness**. Dude - it’s 51,000 square feet, approximately the size of an entire small Wal-Mart but filled with FOODZ. No one, and I mean NO ONE loathes Manassas more than I do, and even I say it’s worth the trip.
No kidding. I like my salsa hot and it’s pretty hard to find any salsa labeled hot up here. Time and time again I’ll go into a grocery store and see rows and rows of mild and medium but no hot in most places wouldn’t kill them to put a few hot salsa’s jars on the shelf.
Infact, I don’t find the hot salsa that hot at all.
When it makes me sweat and clears up my sinuses now where talking.