All my varieties have fruits, and in fact it’s only a couple of the very smallest plants outside in the grow house that don’t have fruits. I’ve had ripe fruits from the Cherry Bombs, Purple Jalapenos and the two early Jalapeno plants I overwintered. Plus one of my Orange Habaneros is ripe.

I had a late addition of some standard Jalapeno’s, which seem to be doing well, although the quality of the seeds weren’t great. I’ve also got a rogue this year. I’m not sure that it is, but it came from the Purple Jalapeno seed packet, but was the fastest growing seedling. The flowers are purple tipped white, as opposed the Purple Jalapeno’s completely purple flowers, and the fruits are long, thin and a chocolaty purple that turn scarlet, as opposed to stumpy fat fruits that go from dark purple to deep red. I’m trying to get it identified because I can’t work it out.

The thing that’s pleased me the most this year is I’ve managed to get fruits on my Tepins this year, which I failed to do last year, even more surprising since I only have 2 successful plants this year and the weather isn’t great again.

Next year I think I’m going to try a different soil (or alternative) system in the propagator. The seedlings don’t seem to take well to being transplanted the way I have to do it, it’s a bit stressful on them. That along with my increasing knowledge and skill, plus hopefully a proper greenhouse, should hopefully result in even more success at growing. In the mean time, I’m just happy that I’ve had more success this year.

• I’ve been working in a new role (same company) that entails much more responsibility
• I’m now married (June, so that also included our honeymoon to Costa Rica)
• We’re moving house (in the same town we’re currently in)

So as you can see I’ve actually been very busy, thus why I haven’t posted here. It’s all good, I’m pretty happy, although very busy.

1. Mestizo (9/10)
2. Taqueria (8/10)
3. Café Pacifica (6.5/10)
4. La Perla, Goodge Street (6/10)
5. La Perla, Covent Garden (5.5/10)
6. Texas Embassy (4/10)
7. Wahaca (3.5/10)
8. Green and Red Bar and Cantina (2.5/10)

These are all on my map.

On arriving the 10 of us were greeted in a friendly way, sat straight down and ordered 2 buckets of beer as part of the happy hour. Seemed like a good start. The décor was OK, although slightly hard to tell as they were overdoing the mood lighting a tad. The menu is very limited – 8 starters and 6 main courses. Still, I thought, its quality not quantity, right? Well unfortunately the quality wasn’t there either. The food wasn’t bad per se, but it wasn’t great either. It didn’t help that it was lukewarm and the portions were relatively small. The side dishes weren’t good either. The pre-made guacamole was poor, the refried beans equally disappointing, and they only gave us 2 small flour tortillas each. When we pointed out that wasn’t enough they brought us 3 more. There were 10 of us. It took them 15 mins to do this by which time the food was cold and they even charged us for the extra tortillas. I was the most cursed that evening, as the waiter got my order wrong and I had to wait 20 mins (was told 5) for it to arrive, but at least they gave me a free beer for that bit of trouble.

One of my companions rates Mexican restaurants on the quality of their Margaritas. Considering this place is a Bar and Cantina, and they do indeed have a very good selection of Tequila, we’d hoped that would at least be good – unfortunately again, it wasn’t a particularly impressive Margarita, and it wasn’t cheap. So overall: the staff are friendly but very slow and unresponsive, the food would have been average if it was hot, the menu is unexciting but mostly tries to be authentic and if you want a good drink you’re going to have to pay for a premium one.

My rating: a very disappointing 2.5 out of 10.

(This review was also posted to London-Eating.co.uk)

Being part of the Cool Chile Company is a bonus for this restaurant. Not only can you buy some of their great ingredients at the restaurant, but of course most of the food is made with them too, meaning the menu is quite colourful and interesting. The food style is very much in the vein of traditional Mexican street food – i.e. tacos. The best way, in my opinion, to eat this kind of food is to order a variety and share between a group. The food was tasty and varied in heat and flavour.

The staff were friendly and helpful, offering to explain the menu choices and advise on a keeping a good variety of dishes to share between our group. The drinks were pretty good – a reasonable set of authentic Mexican beers and the margaritas, while nothing special, were none the less very pleasant. I left with a smile, a slight swagger from the beer, and a goody bag of fresh chile peppers, dried spices and 2 jars of salsa. It’s quite a small restaurant so if there’s a reasonably sized group with you, you are probably best off booking if you can.

A word of warning, if they have roasted stuffed habanero peppers on the specials menu – only the most extreme heat lover should try these. Lovely but: Ouch!

My rating: a very pleased 8 out of 10.

(This review was also posted to London-Eating.co.uk)

I actually went unplanned, so didn’t know what to expect. We were seated promptly, to a small table for two which felt very squeezed in. To be fair though, all the tables in Wahaca are like that. The floor manager took our drinks order and told us our waiter would be with us shortly. He was. He took our starter then did the same for the tables either side of us. He then returned relatively promptly, first serving the starters to the tables either side of us, then us. This seemed a bit odd considering we’d ordered similar things by the looks of it and we’d order first, but we were in no hurry.

Once we’d finished, he then took our main course orders. Up until this point our waiter had been fairly quiet and polite, except this changed when my dining partner asked to have no dressing on her salad because of a food intolerance. Our waiter decided to criticize my friend for being fussy – to which I pointed out that it was a reasonable request and after all we were the customers here, we’re paying for the food and the service.

So by now we were receiving our food much later than that of the people who were seated at the same time as us, in fact the dishes that made up our main courses came in dribs and drabs, and my side order of rice didn’t come at all until I pointed out it was missing. By the time it arrived I had finished everything else. We would have ordered more drinks during this, except the waiter was being very inattentive – I got the rice by asking the floor manager.

The food itself was OK, not very special. Small fancy looking portions. It’s supposed to be a modern take on Mexican street food using eco-friendly (low air miles) locally sourced alternative ingredients – the result is relatively expensive food that only very just resembles the original dish. It’s nice enough, but its only very vaguely Mexican themed.

Towards the end of the evening, we just wanted to leave. The service as a whole, but particularly our waiter, soured the experience. That aside the rest of the dining experience wasn’t very special, so I don’t intend to revisit Wahaca anytime soon.

My rating: a slightly put-off 3.5 out of 10.

(This review was also posted to London-Eating.co.uk)

Before I go any further I should probably point out that I, unlike most UK phone owners, have to actually buy my own phones. I’m on a sim-only contract with Virgin, which is very good value for money, but with the limitation of not being packaged with a phone. So I have to buy my own, either fully unlocked or Virgin locked from Virgin themselves. It sounds like a bit of a mixed deal - its not. The amount of money I save equates to about £200+ a year, and at the end of it I can get any phone I can lay my hands on, without having to go through all the hassle of threatening to leave my mobile provider to get a half decent phone out of them.

I originally got the Sony Ericsson W800i to use as a music player and phone. I liked the idea of my music being interrupted by an incoming call, something that goes frequently unanswered when I’m walking and listening to my music on a separate MP3 player. Not only that but being able to take the call wearing the same earphones and only having one device to charge sounded great. And it would have been, if the W800i (Sony Ericsson’s first walkman phone admittedly) was as good as it should perhaps have been. The music playback functionality was basic, the audio quality was poor and the cabling was a nightmare. That last one could have been solved by the use of a Bluetooth stereo headset - but that’s more expense, and another thing to charge.

So I soon moved back to having a separate music device. This was originally a Cowon iAudio X5L (best I’ve ever owned, but a little large and dated) which served me very well until it was stolen, and is now a Samsung YP-Z5 (fantastic but with one flaw - there’s no ‘off’ button).

So, what to get next?

Well, the Apple iPhone is out straight away, as I intend to stay with Virgin as a mobile provider, it’s a rather large device (which I don’t like), its technologically a bit behind the times for such a premium priced phone (no 3G, GPS, poor camera - I’m sure those will be fixed in future revisions) and of course it’s really very expensive.

I don’t want another Sony Ericsson. They haven’t fixed the issue with the joystick. A few of their latest models have a new design of joystick - but I’m hearing of people having problems with the new joystick design too, and I’ve seen other alarming build quality issues. So I think I’ll give Sony Ericsson a miss.

The Nokia N series are nice, but bulky and the better phones seem to suffer from battery issues. I like the N95, N81 and N82 for features, but they’re all so very chunky, and everyone I know who owns one of those loves it except for the constant need to charge the phone when you use any of their extended features such as GPS, gaming, camera’s, video playback, etc. Also, they aren’t at all cheap.

I thought I’d decided on the Nokia E51. It’s a tad shy on features, and its business orientated (not really an issue for me), but its slim, has most of the features I want and most reviews are very favourable. Its often called a ‘workhorse’ of a phone - which appeals. The flaws from my perspective are the slightly small screen, lack of GPS (which is a frivolous need on my part) and a poor camera (but I have 2 great digital cameras after all). But hey, I can buy one off the shelf for under £200, which is a reasonable price in my book.

Here’s the thing. I was all set to buy the E51, just waiting for the price to drop as the availability ramped up, and I came across the Nokia E66 - codename ‘Dora’. Although there’s no official information, there are some pre-release details. This is the successor to the E65 (in the same way to the E51 being the successor to the E50). The focus of the E65/66 series over the E50/51 series is that they have a larger screen, are sliders and have slightly better features - i.e they are the premium phone of the two. So the E66 reportedly has GPS, a better camera (although auto-focus is ultimately the issue with the E51) and allows for 3G video calls. Now, I don’t *need* any of these features now, but frankly I’d like them. The phone will probably cost in the region of £250, so for about £50 more it looks to me to be a better investment. Of course it’s not out yet and thus not reviewed either.

So, that’s what I’m now aiming to get - assuming I can hold out long enough with the W800i. If I can’t I’ll get the E51, which will do the job for me, but I’ll always be wishing I’d have held out for the E66. I always seem to make thins so hard for myself.

• Cherry Bomb F1 Hybrid
• Habanero Orange
• Jalapeno Purple
• Tepin

You can see more details on these varieties on my Growing List @ TheChileMan.org. I wanted Cancun Habaneros (AKA Yucatan Sunshine Habenaros - if I understand the varieties correctly) but I couldn’t find them to buy. However as far as I can tell they are similar to, or may well in fact actually be, Orange Habaneros. My Tepins really struggled last year - they were the only variety not to flower, and along with the Tabascos, didn’t bear any fruit.

I’ve also entered TheChileMan.Org’s Jalapeno Growing Competition. I finished about 45th last year in the Big Jim growing competition, which wasn’t too impressive.

So all I need now is a long hot summer, like that of 2003 European Heatwave - that was an awesome summer, unlike 2007’s wettest summer on record.