Siling haba and siling labuyo (hot chili peppers)

I would never have thought of adding sili (chili pepper) to my list of Filipino vegetables and spices had a reader not sought clarification as to whether I meant siling labuyo when referring to siling haba. I really do not know how many kinds of hot chili peppers there are in the world. In the Philippines, when we say sili, we refer to only two varieties, generally.

Siling haba (finger chilies, the green ones in the photo) is a mild chili pepper commonly used for soups (sinigang) and stews (dinuguan). Siling labuyo (the red ones in the photo but note that they are green before ripening) is the really hot variety commonly used in dipping sauces (tokwa’t baboy) and some stews like kaldereta. Siling labuyo can also be finely chopped, toasted in oil and sprinkled on fried rice or adobo. But that’s for those who enjoy very, very spicy food.