Neville A. Edwards' A1 Appetiser

Our grand favourite hot sauce is that made by Neville A. Edwards, of Long Gap, Spooner's Hill, St Michael.

It is "made from the finest selected Peppers, Onions and Radishes. Also Salt, Mustard and 5 per cent Alcohol." I think it is the combination of mustard and alcohol that gives Bajan hot sauce its incomparably flavourful piquancy.

We have a long list of hot-sauce dependents. People from as far away as Singapore, Arizona, New York and Unionville, Ontario, depend on us for their hot sauce supply. My mum likes to have it with her Bak Kut Teh. So I guess this means we are duty-bound to return to Barbados every year for as long as we live.

We had a bit of a scare this year when we went along to our usual supermarket in Holetown and couldn't find a single bottle of Neville A. Edwards on the shelves. It was definitely a face-blanching moment. Luckily, we found the next day that Jordan's of Speightstown was well stocked in the stuff, so we came away with eight bottles.

A few days later, we went to the Holetown supermarket again, just to have a look. Sure enough, the A1 Appetiser had been restored to its rightful place on the shelves, so all was well in the universe again.

It must have been a hiccup in their supply chain. Either that or someone very like myself had just hit the place ahead of me.