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I am a bookseller by calling, so all my previous Enthusiasms have been about books. But it's a new year, and my 2025 reading hasn't really ramped up yet. So, I'm going to break protocol and suggest something else I am highly enthusiastic about: a condiment! Namely, chili crisp, which is an intoxicating, addictive mix of chili, onion, soybean, oil, etc.
I use it on everything: eggs, pork, avocado toast, fish, pasta (we eat chili crisp pasta at least once a week—highly adaptable and delicious). I have even been known to eat it by the spoonful (not recommended... very spicy, choke-inducing.) If any condiment has the power to change one's life, well, this is it.
I like Laoganma's Spicy Chili Crisp, but there are a number of brands out there. I am not alone in this love: there's actually a chili crisp recipe book (can't help myself).
There is one thing I've heard about that I haven't tried yet, but this is the year: vanilla ice cream sprinkled with chili crisp. I will report back.
Carin Pratt is one of the remarkably knowledgeable crew at the Norwich Bookstore—and an ardent recommender of books. Before she landed in these parts, she spent 27 years at CBS News, including two decades as the executive producer of Face the Nation.