Hot Sauce Fun Fact - Kumache Sauce
Venezuelan Hot Sauce Has a Secret Ingredient: Ants & Termites
Most people go all over the world to try as many different kinds of hot sauce they can get their hands on. Whether it's spicy, tangy, sweet, or savory, half the fun is in trying a completely new flavor. So how about one made from ants and termites?
According to National Geographic, there's a hot sauce made in a remote Venezuelan visage that features just that.
In Kumarakapay, villagers make a special hot sauce they call kumache. While the base of kumache is made from yucca and hot peppers, what makes it special is the finishing ingredient of red ants and termites.
Before finishing the sauce, natives go out and break up ant hills to harvest the insects by hand so that they're as fresh as possible.
The villagers have been making the special hot sauce for years, selling it to tourists looking to try something new and bold. However, the production of kumache is very limited, because yucca too expensive to harvest.