Chili Pepper Heat

 

My array of chili sauces and peppers. Please forgive my work desk being a little cluttered.

When I was a small child I was a picky eater and avoided spicy foods at all times. In retrospect, I can see that this was somewhat programmed. Relatives and peers mostly ate middle American cuisine. People like to say it's "bland," but it's really just savory rather than spicy. My uncle Glenn liked spicy food but most everybody else I knew did not eat anything with chili pepper in it.

After I moved to the south where spicy cuisine is more common, I began eating mildly spicy foods. It seems that it always starts easy and then your taste for chili heat increases as the years go by. Now I have a bunch of chili sauces in my fridge, red pepper (Cayenne) powder, and dried Arbol pepper pods in my cabinet.

The other night I decided to crush up a pepper pod into my Top Ramen. I was only going to use half but thought, "Don't be a chicken!" I put the whole pod in. Soon my face was sweating and my mouth and stomach were on fire.

Still worth it though.