Bird's eye chili, bird eye chili, bird's chili or Thai chili is a chili pepper, a cultivar from the species Capsicum annuum, commonly found in Southeast Asia. It is often confused with a similar-looking chili derived from the species Capsicum frutescens, the cultivar "siling labuyo". Bird's eye chili can also be found in India, particularly in Meghalaya, Assam, and Kerala. It is used in traditional dishes of the Kerala cuisine. This cultivar is also found in rural areas of Sri Lanka, where it is used as a substitute for green chilis. It is also a main ingredient in kochchi sambal, a salad made using freshly scraped coconut ground with bird's eye chilis and seasoned with salt and lime juice. It is used extensively in Thai, Lao, Khmer, Indonesian, and Vietnamese cuisine.

Some English speakers also refer to this cultivar as Thai hot, Thai dragon, and boonie pepper.

Description

The bird's eye chili plant is a perennial with small, tapering fruits, often two or three, at a node. The fruits are very pungent.

Tweed is a rough, woollen fabric, of a soft, open, flexible texture, resembling cheviot or homespun, but more closely woven. It is usually woven with a plain weave, twill or herringbone structure. Colour effects in the yarn may be obtained by mixing dyed wool before it is spun.

Tweeds are an icon of traditional Irish and British country clothing, being desirable for informal outerwear, due to the material being moisture-resistant and durable. Tweeds are made to withstand harsh climate and are commonly worn for outdoor activities such as shooting and hunting, in both Ireland and the United Kingdom. "Lovat" is the name given to the green used in traditional Scottish tweed. In Ireland, tweed manufacturing is most associated with County Donegal.

Etymology

The original name of the cloth was tweel, Scots for twill, it being woven in a twilled rather than a plain pattern. A traditional story has the name coming about almost by chance. About 1830, a London merchant received a letter from a Hawick firm, Wm. Watson & Sons, Dangerfield Mills about some tweels. The London merchant misinterpreted the handwriting, understanding it to be a trade-name taken from the river Tweed that flows through the Scottish Borders textile area. Subsequently the goods were advertised as Tweed, and the name has remained ever since.

Gilia tricolor (bird's-eyes, bird's-eye gilia, tri color gilia) is an annual flowering plant in the Phlox family (Polemonaceae).

Range and habitat

It is native to the Central Valley and foothills of the Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges in California.

Description

Inflorescence and fruit

Flowers have 5 green sepals and 5 bell-shaped fused petals, which are blue-violet at the end, descending to purple spots over yellow throats, hence the three for "tri".

Subspecies

References

External links

Birds Eye is an American international brand of frozen foods owned by Pinnacle Foods in North America and by Iglo Group in Europe.

History and production

The brand and its underlying business is held by different owners in various territories:

Europe

The Birds Eye brand is used extensively throughout Ireland and the UK. In other parts of Europe the Iglo brand is used.

Unilever announced in August 2006 that the business was sold to UK-based private equity group Permira.

The company's staple product, the Fish Finger, was developed in 1955 at its factory in Great Yarmouth, by a Mr H A J Scott. One of the company's main UK pea processing sites is in Gipsyville, Hull; the company formerly operated a large pea processing factory in the same area, opened 1967, closed 2007. Birdseye also operated a factory in Grimsby, founded 1929, closed 2005, with the loss of 650 jobs.

United States

As part of General Foods, it merged with Kraft Foods and Philip Morris USA to form the Altria Group. Birds Eye was sold to Dean Foods in 1993 and was independently owned by Birds Eye Foods of Rochester, New York until it was purchased by Pinnacle Foods in 2009.