My first dinner in Toronto happened to be Hungarian. Hungarian cuisine is one of my European favourites so when our friend at whose place we were staying recited a list of 7-10 of his customary hang-outs, all within an easy 5 minutes walk from his apartment at Bloor and Brunswick, and when I barely heard the word Hungarian (it was mostly sushi and Indian and Thai before that - not that I don’t like those, but no surprises there), I jumped at the opportunity.

We were ravenous and it wasn’t bad, but one crucial thing was definitely lacking, and it was the most important one – paprika! Real paprika doesn’t give a pale reddish tinge to classic dishes such as goulash or paprikash (both meat stews, the latter a meat stew in a thick sour cream sauce) – it makes them fiery-red and full of flavour! Can you imagine classic Italian pastas or pizzas served with just a slight stingy hint of cheese? It’s no go!

So to give vent to my foodie frustration, I bought paprika at the first supermarket I saw it – and I was amazingly lucky, because the Superfresh supermarket with the right choice of spices was just a couple of minutes walk away. I liked the Red Club paprika on sight and when I opened it at home, there was the divine aroma that I remembered only paprika from Hungary used to have. Actually, in Hungary they use at least 8 types of paprika and this was the well-recognizable ‘edesnemes’ one.

But apart from Hungarian paprika (and there was famous Spanish paprika there too – complimenti!), I made another purchase. Back in the Old World you can look high and low for Mexican reddish-brown ground chipotle (smoke-dried ripe jalapeno peppers) and still not find it – but here it was, Red Club again, hanging serenely alongside Old World spices! I couldn’t resist and bought some.

And naturally when I started cooking a hearty Hungarian goulash the next really cold and frosty day, I opened the second package and inhaled… and almost coughed my head off. The members of the household followed my silly example. However, the aroma was so enticing that we repeated the procedure – and coughed again! Nevertheless ,we have all agreed that chipotle rocks big time – you should just refrain from sniffing it, or inhaling air when your open your chipotle packet, it’s rather volatile as it happens!

Now I quite see why chipotle seems to be currently all the rage – there are chipotle dips and sauces everywhere, even in Irish pubs. This delicious hot smoky flavour, rich and pungent! So it’s no wonder I had a brilliant idea and put quite a bit of chipotle into my fiery-red paprika goulash, that instantly became triple-fiery. And the result was astounding! Yet another gastronomic marriage made in heaven, goulash with Hungarian paprika and Mexican chipotle. Do try a paprika-chipotle combination some day, you’ll have a perfect foodie moment, and that’s that!