Aruba

In Aruba, hot peppers are grown mainly in small plots and home gardens, with the signature chile being the Madame Jeanette (locally “Madame Janette”), a Surinamese-origin Capsicum chinense widely adopted on the island.

Madame Jeanette, roughly comparable in heat to habanero or Scotch bonnet, is the backbone of pica and pica di papaya, Aruban hot sauces made with green papaya, vinegar, and spices and found on almost every table. These sauces and fresh diced chiles season pisca hasa crioyo (fried fish with tomato–onion–pepper sauce), keri-keri (shredded fish sautéed with peppers and herbs), and meat stews known as stobas. Siboyo tempera—marinated onions with sliced Madame Jeanette—is another essential condiment for grilled meats and snacks.

Aside from local use, small producers bottle pica and papaya-chili sauces as tourist souvenirs, representing a modest but visible pepper-based cottage industry.