Description:
I'm currently down with bad flu. Somehow the germs from Jakarta flood got into me. This is a kind of flu that confined me in my bed with a laptop, a really sore throat, headache and fever. I'm trying to alleviate the pain by drinking cups and cups of Bandrek, a ginger tea from Bandung (Courtesy of Andrea Fitrianto). It helped a bit.

Then I decided to try the mexican remedy, the cocoa drink with chili powder. Susu coklat pake cabe bubuk! The thought of mixing chocolate and chili may be nauseating for many of you, but surprisingly, it is a nice combination! And really, the sharp tingling heat of the chili powder and the warm comforting sweetness of chocolate helped alleviate my sore throat. Perhaps a mix of rum and whipped cream (which is always perfect with chocolate) can make it into a very exciting drink too (I didn't try, I ran out of both)! Here's the recipe, derived from Four Weeks. Sorry, no screenshot, I'm too sick to get my camera.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 tablespoon of cocoa powder


• sugar (to taste, for me it's 1 tablespoon)


• chili powder (to taste, for me it's half teaspoon, which is a lot)


• vanilla extract (a dash)


• cinnamon (a dash)


• salt (a tiny dash)


• 1 cup of hot milk (1-2 minutes in microwave)


• Whipped cream and/or rum (if you want)

Directions:
Mix the dry ingredients together in a mug. Meanwhile, heat the milk in separate mug / saucepan. When the milk is hot enough, pour it slowly while stirring into the dry ingredients. After it's thoroughly mixed, you can add rum then top it with whipped cream.