Habanero? No problem!
Another stupid food stunt at work. Sacha came in with habanero pepper peppers touting how hot they were trying to get Alan to eat one of them.
The crowd grew as the chatter built. Out of curiosity, I asked to try one and sliced a sliver off of the bottom and started chewing. It was HOT! .
The pot was up to $200. I made sure the money was real and asked for the rules. No water, no swallowing, must be completely chewed and swallowed and off I went.
The pepper was hot. I finished in a few minutes chewing the entire pepper finely before swallowing. How hot was it? It measures 100-300,000 on the Scoville scale, which is about 50-100 times hotter than a jalapeno. Perhaps mine was on the weaker side of the scale.
The damage? My breath stunk of hot as commented by people standing nearby when I was chewing: 'Ugh. I can smell the hot from here!' The heat was bearable. I teared up and was saved by my colleagues who screamed 'NO' to not use my hands to wipe my tears. Good thing they had enough decency to do my that favor.
Unexpected consequences: I started to shake a little and had a mild case for about an hour. My teeth felt really strange. I felt almost like the heat took off a layer of the enamel. Can't really explain these two. A bit frightening to think of it.
It was meant to be. Although the bet was not intended for me initially, it truly was meant for me. That morning, I had an exceptionally large breakfast at home and finished it off with two breakfast burritos from Anitas (a Friday tradition on the desk). I also brought a yogurt into work. I never bring yogurt to work. The large quantities of food along with the yogurt, which I darted for as soon as I finished, made the pepper bearable. The stars were lined for me to eat a lot and bring a yogurt! I did my best keeping some food in my stomach the rest of the day and capped the day off with a steak for dinner.
I know you must be wondering - surprisingly enough, the heat on the other end was not that bad.