Being a Norweigan from Minnesota, I didn't see a lot of spicy food while growing up. From time to time, my friends would tell me horor stories of some hot pepper they'd eaten. I was unimpressed. I had eaten even the almighty Jalepeno pepper, so I knew that I could handle anything grown on the earth. (As some of you seem to have heard, the jalepeno is not actually the hotest pepper on earth.)
I was at a Mediteranean restaraunt with a group of friends. The owner/cook/waiter stopped by to take our order. 3 of us ordered spicy curry dishes, and each time he asked us, "Mild, Medium, or Hot?" We each replied that we wanted it hot. He smirked each time, but did not think to warn us.
When the meals arrived, we were not shocked by how hot the curry was. Nothing stunning, but well above the heat level where anyone in his right mind would send it back to get a "boost". It was a trendy little place, and our meals were garnished with a small slice of red bell pepper, a slice of yellow bell pepper, a couple peas, and what appeared to be a minature pumpkin. My American Indian buddy admires his pumpkin, and proclaims that he thinks "it's some sort of pepper."
Greg bites it off at the stem, and begins to chew. Then chew rapidly, and made some convulsive swallowing manuveres. He grasped his water, and downed it as a shot. (I was a bit shocked, as I have seen Greg eating handfuls of Indian peppers without a wince.)
Greg turns to my Mexican friend at the table, and cautions, "Tom, you might want to be careful of that pumpkin looking thing on your plate. It's rather hot." Tom correctly understood that his manhood had been challenged. He stopped eating his meal and, said, "This little thing? Can I eat the stem too?" Greg's advice was simply, "It's a plant Tom, you can eat all of that if you want." Tom plopped it into his face and started to chew. Once again savoring at first, then quickly accelerated to frantic chewing, gulping, and water swallowing.
What had me most concerned was that I knew that both of them understood that water would not stop the burn, and yet the urge for them to do anything to stop the pain, was uncontrolable ...and on my plate lay another "pumpkin".
Well I tried to enjoy the rest of my as best a "dead man walking" could.... I left a bit of pita bread, some cous-cous, got my water glass refilled. I figured I was ready for anything ...and yet, knew I was not ready.
I popped it into my mouth, and began to chew. Upon the first bite, I could feel the pungent burn in my nostrils. I knew that was a bad thing. Peppers burn your mouth, throat, and eventually intestines ...Wasabi burns your nostrils, not peppers.
The burn expanded to my mouth, then to my throat. I decided to try to gulp it down. (More chewing was going to kill me.) Tears were running down my face. Sweat was running down my forehead, which for me is most of my head. I felt somewhat embarassed by all the crying and screaming I was doing, but it was hot enough that I'd actually gone deaf in my right ear!
Such was my initial exposure to a habanero pepper. (One day perhaps I'll write about some Red Savina peppers I had. They're a variety of habenero that run all the way up to 500,000 Scoville heat units.)
