ring the alarm

a couple weeks ago, on the radio, they started talking about one of the world's hottest peppers. this pepper, they said was rated 1,000,000 units on the scoville scale of pepper hotness. two of the d.j's ate six hot wings live on air. they were coated in a sauce made with the bhut jolokia or ghost pepper. suffice it to say they were quite uncomfortable and one of the dj's had difficulty speaking after he was done.

according to one of the dj's while working with this pepper you need to wear gloves and eye protection! at first i really couldn't understand the appeal of eating something that was so dangerous. at first!

my father came home with some peppers that he got from his friend. lo' and behold among them was the famed ghost pepper. i'd like to tell you that i recoiled in horror and ran screaming from the room but that was not the case. i managed to ignore the gleaming bottle of hot peppers on the kitchen countertop for a day or two. i was kind of holding out for a hot sauce made with the lone uncut pepper that my father.

it was a monday afternoon when i gave in and cracked the seal on the bottle. i dug out a pepper and added it to my lunch. the bottle holds a mixture of the jamaican scotch bonnet pepper and the bhut jolokia. the scotch bonnet it is worth noting comes in at paltry 350,000 units on the scoville scale. so needless to say, my meal was hot but it was still no big deal. i guess i picked added another scotch bonnet pepper to my dinner that night and in hindsight i supposed that allowed me to get somewhat cocky.

when i prepared my lunch for work on tuesday i grabbed a larger pepper slice out of the bottle. the pepper had been cut in half along its length. i did remember noting that it looked a bit different than the pepper slices i'd chosen previously but otherwise i thought nothing of it.

my first indication that i may have miscalculated came when i noticed that i could smell pepper while i was still a good 3 feet away from the microwave. the first bite of my meal taught me in no uncertain terms that this was not my mother's hot pepper.

i think i got about half of my meal down before i started hitting the water bottle. i remember sitting there in the midst of an intense stare down with the ghost pepper. you see, you can't let the pepper see you sweat. you can't let it beat you.

like the trooper i am i did eat the whole thing but i did have to wait until the plate got down to about room temperature before i could finish. it is kind of funny thing but as i waited for my meal to cool down i noticed that one by one my work mates started sneezing. oops... my bad!

because i generally try to keep my blog classy, i won't tell you about the ghost pepper's revenge that occurred later that evening. i will only say this about that... it was rough!!!