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In the market in Niš, Serbia yesterday there were the most beautiful capsicums (bell peppers, red peppers) and chiles on display that I've ever seen.

But also on sale were these "ugly" ones that I first thought were some kind of root vegetable due to their characteristic dull finish. Note also the characteristic "etched" concentric rings going around them:

The chiles in a Serbian market.

My Serbian host has little English and after much effort and phone calls was proud to tell me they are called "hot chille peppers", but hopefully the culinary experts here can find a much more specific name or description.

I don't mind if the only names you can find are in Serbian or some other language, but I am interested to know why they look so different to the shiny chiles and how they are put to use in this part of the world, especially uses which differ to the more familiar looking varieties.

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hippietrail
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8 Answers8

15

I've now found them on sale in a posh supermarket in Skopje, Macedonia. This time labelled:

The chiles in a Macedonian supermarket.

потекло скопско

пиперки везени

благи / кг

Which Google Translate massages into:

origin Skopje

peppers embroidered

mild / kg

So an answer is "пиперки везени" or "embroidered peppers", for at least one name used in at least one country. Here is a close-up photo giving a better look at the striations:

Close-up.

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hippietrail
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8

The peppers you have on the picture are called Vezena Peppers. I'm in the USA and I am unable to find seeds for these.

user22453
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This pepper is called "Vezanka". It is a very old, heirloom variety, a favorite around these parts, great fordrying and making hot paprika. There's a long and short version of it. Buy it and save the seeds, they are precious and have become rare!

Ivana
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this is the oldest chili from Serbia (from the year 1300), they are called embroidery chili, they are either very hot or not, when dry, they are chopped and crushed, they are amazing tasting.

hippietrail
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zoran mihajlovic
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I have grown these and know them as Macedonian Grilling Peppers "Vesena". I got the seeds from working at Roughwood Seed Collection in Pennsylvania, USA, and before that they came from Arche Noah in Austria.

Sneftel
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Owen Taylor
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These are Macedonian fringed chillies (Capsicum annuum longum group 'Macedonian fringed'.)

Mien
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carla
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Rezha Macedonian Pepper/Vezeni PiperkiRezha Macedonian Pepper/Vezeni Piperki. Seeds available at www.rareseeds.com. Here's the company's description: 80 days. The name means “engraved;” another local name, Vezeni Piperki, means “embroidered”. Both names refer to the curious lines on the skins of tapering, long, thin peppers. The fruits, which range from mild to sometimes very pungent, are to be seen hanging in great clusters, drying in Macedonian warm late autumn sun. The traditional farmers save seed from the hot fruits which also show the most pronounced striations. Our foundation Seed was donated by schoolchildren from the villages of Kalugeritsa and Zleovo. (I have no connection w/this company.)

Larry G.
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(Almost) all of the peppers and chilies in the US are covered w/ a food grade wax. I, for the life of me, couldn't find any pictures of chili peppers without the paraffin. But that's what I think that is. Hot chilis that have not been treated w/ wax.

Rikon
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