Temperatures are set to reach the single digits this week in Durham, home to the main campus of the University of New Hampshire - but at least one house in town will be plenty hot.
Durham town administrator Todd Selig says he won himself a bottle of Louisiana hot sauce in a friendly wager with Hammond, Louisiana mayor Mayson Foster. The wager was over last weekend's football playoff game between the UNH Wildcats and the Southeastern Louisiana University Lions - a game, it should be noted, that was played in a venue called Strawberry Stadium.
Foster put up a bottle of hot sauce in support of his team, while Selig promised to send a pint of New Hampshire maple syrup if the Wildcats should falter.
But, of course, UNH did not falter - it pulled off a narrow win over SLU, 20-17, to advance to the semifinals of the FCS tournament. In an email Monday afternoon, Selig said Mayor Foster plans to send the hot sauce this week, and that some of the fiery concoction is already earmarked for breakfast. "At this point," Selig said of the sauce, "I am thinking it will taste very good with my eggs!"
Eggs and hot sauce are old friends, of course, though there is a world of hot sauce options beyond eggs, too. Louisiana cooks often marry hot sauce to seafood, from crawfish to barbecued shrimp to broiled oysters. A tablespoon of the sauce can add a fresh kick to classic Southern-style collard greens. Bruce Foods, which makes and sells not only "ORIGINAL" Louisiana hot sauce but a "'Fat Boy' injector" as a hot sauce accessory, emphasizes the versatility of hot sauce on its recipes page, from "Casa Fiesta Chipotle Grits" to "Red Dot Spicy Rum Balls."
Next up for the UNH Wildcats is the North Dakota State Bison, the top seed in the tournament. UNH is unseeded, but that isn't dissuading Todd Selig at all. "I may just reach out to Fargo," he says.
