Alan Davidson

Pil-Pil

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

  • About

pil-pil also pili-pili and piri-piri, terms belonging originally to Africa, especially Mozambique (see angola and Mozambique), which refer to a small hot chilli pepper or to sauce or other preparation made from such peppers.

In francophone countries the versions with an ‘l’ are usual; the spelling piri-piri seems to belong rather to Portuguese-speaking countries.
Dishes which incorporate in their names any of these terms are likely to be very hot.

© the Estate of Alan Davidson 1999, 2006, 2014 © in the Editor’s contribution to the second and third editions, Oxford University Press 2006, 2014.