Piri Piri: When French Fries Went On An African Safari

When McDonald’s launched its Piri Piri fries, the restaurant’s loyal clientale immediately took to the new taste of their favourite fries. Although they couldn’t believe that the well-known fries could get any better, they hadf to admit that the Piri Piri spice and the McDonald’s french fries made for an irresistible combination.

One could see people waiting patiently in long queues to get their pack of French fries along with a sachet of Piri Piri spice, which they tore open and poured its contents into the pack. Then, you could see them shaking the packs as they walked back to their seats, in a bid to evenly coat the fries with the special spice.

What makes the spice perfect for the French fries is it being used coarsely grounded, allowing it to coat the fries better than a finely ground spice.

McDonald’s French fries themselves are thankfully always bright golden brown, thin, and crisp, made of wholesome potatoes of a very special variety. Their tender exterior and moist interior make these fries a hit with most people. Once they get coated with the Piri Piri spice, they turn a deep brown colour.

Of course, if you’re not sure of how much of the spice you need to lather your fries with, the very first time round, you might pour the spice slowly, taste the fries, and then add more if you want. This is just so the fries don’t get too pungent or spicy by pouring the entire spice sachet into the fries. Especially as the spice in India has large amounts of garlic. You might wish for a dipping sauce to take away the overwhelming taste of garlic.

McDonald’s Piri Piri is a simple mix of spices, not too elaborate, and all the ingredients are natural. There’s tamarind of course, adding a much needed sour flavour to the seasoning. 

The ad for these fries called them “periperilicous”! Undoubtedly, once you tasted these fries, you knew you had to have more. Seeing the popularity of this dish, McDonald’s changed this temporary promotional offer and made it a permanent one.

Just pay Rs 15 extra on your regular McDonald’s french fries to upgrade to the Piri Piri French fries.

So what exactly is this Piri Piri? Let’s find out!

My heart goes Piri Piri

“Piri piri” is a tweak of the African word peri peri, in Swahili language. It literally means, “pepper, pepper”, as if one was exclaiming after finding it too spicy or else, one was going into raptures at the mere taste of it.

Piri Piri is made using a combination of various spices, much like the garam masala in the Indian spice cabinet. It blends many grounded spices such as salt, chilli powder, black pepper, garlic, tamarind, onion, sugar, citric acid and various herbs.

In Africa, they know the spice as “bird's eye chili”. It belongs to the family of capsicum frutescens, one of the sources of chili pepper. On that continent, the chili grows both in the wild as well as grown at home. A member of the capsicum genus, and a native of Angola, Uganda, Malawi, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Sudan and Ethiopia, it was the Portuguese who brought the special spice to India via Goa.

The Oxford Dictionary itself describes piri piri as "a very hot sauce made with red chilli peppers".

The piri piri grows as a bush, its fruits turning from green to bright red or even purple.

Though Piri Piri is African, Piri Piri sauce is Portuguese in origin, made using crushed chillies, citrus peel, onion, pepper, salt, lemon juice, bay leaves, paprika, pimiento, basil, oregano and tarragon.