Merkén is Mapuche. It is made from cacho de cabra peppers smoked over wood, ground with toasted coriander seed and salt, and it has been made this way in Mapuche communities across the cordillera — on both the Argentine and Chilean sides of Wallmapu — for far longer than either country has existed. It is not a generic South American chili blend and it is not ours to reinterpret. If it goes on our shelf, it comes from Mapuche producers, it carries their name alongside ours, and the price reflects that. If we cannot do that, we do not make it.
Grilled corn — the classic and still the best. Roasted squash and sweet potato, fried eggs, bean stews, lamb, avocado toast, the rim of a beer. Also remarkable in chocolate desserts.
Smoked cacho de cabra chili, toasted coriander, sea salt.
