As the two previous posts have about grits and hot dogs, I thought I’d continue the food theme by recalling Sean‘s encounter with a rather hot pepper at the Music City Festival & BBQ Championship.
The festival took place at Riverfront Park in Nashville. We’d purchased tickets in advance and had to hand these in at the gate, in exchange for a wristband. Fortunately for Sean the guy in charge of the wristbands wasn’t too clued up on the variety of wristbands and gave us some which were for over 21’s only! For any UK readers, alcohol cannot be served to under 21’s in the states, but with this wristband no-one questioned Sean‘s age!
Anyway, as we were wandering around the various stalls and marquees, we came across a stall selling hot sauces. One of the guys managing the stall offered me a taste of a pepper which he’d just dipped into one of their sauces. I responded by saying I would after he’d tried it first (the voice of experience!), needless to say he didn’t!
Sean, however, rose to the challenge (the innocence of youth!) and proceeded to taste the sauce, which would have been no mean achievement in itself, but not only did he taste the sauce, he also devoured the pepper!
Within seconds his eyes were watering, his nose was running and his face was turning red. He was asking for water, but we suggested ketchup, so there followed a frantic hunt for ketchup. This relieved the immediate pain, as no doubt did the free samples of alcohol he sampled throughout the night.
Later that evening Sean bumped into the guy from the stall, who informed Sean that most people just licked the pepper and that the pepper was a Ghost pepper, which I’m reliably informed are pretty damned hot!
I’d like to say that was the end of the tale of Sean and the Red Hot Chili Pepper, but alas there were repercussions the following day. I’ll leave that to your imagination, but let’s say the song of the day was Johnny Cash‘s Ring of Fire!!!
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