Quote:
Originally Posted by Nage Waza
Coworker from Pakistan claimed he could eat the hottest peppers in the world, so we brought him to Studio 82 (RIP) for wings. He ordered the hottest wings they sold, the waiter tried to talk him out of it, but my buddy is stubborn.
The wings arrive and he devoured five or six, didn't break a sweat, didn't drink anything and said they were pretty good. He called us babies and said he has been eating peppers they don't even have names for back home since he was a baby. He finished his plate and politely asked if one of the waters on the table was his, and calmly had a sip. He was pretty much immune to the heat.
How does this work?
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I had a friend with a Persian background do the same thing. We went to Wings (a restaurant in Vancouver that specializes in wings, there are many here) and ordered the Bobby Wings. I had tried them 2 weeks earlier. I got through them, but they wrecked me. After consuming them, I kept drinking beer for that momentary cool feeling you got when the liquid first hit your tongue, and to dull my senses of course. I stood up and felt hammered. I realized that I'd chugged back a pitcher and a half of beer in about 20 minutes.
When my friend tried the wings, he was far more composed. He was sweating though. Despite the fact he wasn't visibly in pain, the chemicals were producing some kind of reaction that was forcing him to sweat. I'm convinced that, over time, your tongue just stops reacting to the chemical (Capsaicin).
Interesting fact, prior to the American/Old World exchange of produce, there was no true spiciness in the old world, as peppers were cultivated by American indigenous people. The closest Europeans could get was to use garlic or pepper. Peppers in general wouldn't have reached places like India until sometime after their European discovery in the 1500s.