What to Know
- Several Bristol Farms stores will roast the New Mexico peppers in their parking lots in August and early September
- Rolling Hills and Yorba Linda are up first, on Aug. 13, 2022
- In addition to the freshly roasted chile, there are chile-fun foods for purchase inside the stores, including Hatch Pepper Cornbread and Hatch Chile Poke
A perfectly roasted Hatch chile can go in, alongside, atop, next to, or under just about any other foodstuff imaginable, if you like eats with heat and unusual pairings.
Are we suggesting that you dash out and place two scoops of ice cream on the green 'n fleshy fruit minutes after it exits a hot roaster?
Well, no, but maybe that would be kind of good? Depending upon the flavor of ice cream, and if you like your confections with a little kick.
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So it makes inventive sense, each and every August, when the iconic Southern New Mexico crop begins to crop in all sorts of dishes, from baked goods to savory mains.
Bristol Farms has long been at the forefront of the offbeat food fantasies inspired by the piquant peppers. Not only has the gourmet grocery store been synonymous with parking lot roasting sessions over the last few years, but chileheads have found a host of ready-to-go goodies just inside the markets, seasonal specials created with the caliente pod as the central ingredient.
Those specials, including a Hatch Chile Cornbread, will return in 2022, along with a series of Southern California roasting pop-ups, starting with Rolling Hills and Yorba Linda on Saturday, Aug. 13.
Manhattan Beach, Palm Desert, Woodland Hills, Santa Barbara, Westchester, South Pasadena, and Newport Beach will follow on select Saturdays, with Sept. 3 serving as the season's final date.
You'll choose how much chile you want to take home — maybe ten pounds or twenty, if you've got the freezer space — and your preferred heat level, too.
And as your chile roasts outside your chosen store, going "pop pop pop" and releasing that one-of-a-kind autumnal aroma?
You can step inside and peruse all of the chile-flecked, chile-topped, chile-luscious specialty items, including Hatch Pepper & Cheese Scone, Hatch Chile Poke, Hatch Chile Fiesta Roll, and Hatch Chile Chicken Sausage, in addition to the always popular cornbread mentioned earlier.
"Hatch It While You Can" at your local Bristol Farms, but before the first chile turns inside the first roaster, you'll want to read up on dates, specialty foods, and everything you should know here.
