Everyone has that one friend who loves spicy food, but three jalapeños later they are crying and asking for water – “Agua! Agua!”. In my life, that is Jimmy. We met at a house party in our 2^nd year of university and the rest was history. We spent most of our days together, talking about boys, our future and doing what we do best – discovering new places for food. I come from a culture where eating spicy food is non-negotiable. I’ve tried to introduce Jimmy into this world of spicy food, but as a traditional German guy, he can’t get enough of his Schnitzels and Maultaschen.

We usually ended up eating at some run-of-the-mill food chain restaurant, which made me even more homesick. Every day I missed my father’s cooking. As a chef he made delicious food garnished with a dash of salsa, hence, making chilies the main ingredient. He named his salsa, Sánchez. Let’s be honest, what’s food without some PICANTE?!

At first, I thought Jimmy was just pulling my leg when he told me about a mysterious Dirty Sánchez burger at a restaurant called The Smoke Haus. However, he kept going on about how I converted him into a spice lover. Eventually, I caved in and thought I have to meet this mysterious Sánchez in person.

One Tuesday afternoon I walked on down to The Smoke Haus to check out this Dirty Sánchez burger. Let me just tell you that burger was E P I C. I still remember biting into that juicy meat. Perfect swiss cheese combined with fresh guacamole trickling down my hands (I admit licking my hands each time before it touched my sleeves). To my surprise it even had my favourite ingredient, roquito peppers.

Now every time we want some spicy food, we know a fiery little burger awaits us at our new favourite joint.

Do you like spicy food? We want to know it!