mistermocha

That's a Spicy Meatball!

pixietrash inspired me to write about food that sears holes in your tongue and perhaps your carpet.

Humans are such funny creatures. They say that fruits like Jalapenos and other hot peppers have developed the ability to produce capsicum, which is the oily substance that makes hot foods hotter and mace painful. The idea is that the plant wishes to protect its fruit, thus it bears fruit with substances that sizzle your tongue. That way, any attempts to eat them are thus thwarted. (Poison-dart frogs follow the same principle).

Yet we humans are not so wise. We love to harvest, process, and categorize various peppers as edibles and delicacies. Habaneros, the most insanely flaming hot things in the known world, are sold on the produce racks next to bean sprouts, one of the most benign and subtle vegetables on the market. We dice them up with citrus and mango and other spices to make Jamaican Jerk Chicken. Curry powder is a blend of seven different spices, some of which are merely fragrances and colors, others are more effective than Maalox or bleach clenaers at colon-rupturing. We eat sushi with fiery wasabi horseradish and pickled ginger.

Are we fucking nuts?

Maybe I am, because I love this stuff. I make Thai Basil Chicken with fresh serranos and ginger which guarantees to melt out any nasal congestion. I don't know what it is, maybe it's stupidity blinded by passion, but I dig on the spicy food.

I don't know if there's any other Angelenos here, but if you're truly interested in finding out about the exquisite pain of hot sauce, there's this great little store in the 3rd & Fairfax Farmer's Market that has wall-to-wall unique bottles of hot sauce. One that caught my eye was one called "Pure Cap"... it came inside an eye dropper inside an orange prescription jar. I was thinking to myself this is basically mace in eye-dropper form. How could anyone cook with this? Many other tongue-to-ass-torturing bottles of fun are sold there.