Monday, September 15

The Gut-Wrenching Science Behind the World’s Hottest Peppers

Kannu

I've eaten this ghost chilly. One bite. One chomp. Once. Spat it out. And cried for 2 hours. Involuntarily. It was pain like I've never experienced and I thought that the knee ligament break was bad. Terrifying. I wanted to die but even that wasn't possible. Seriously bad. And then there's the lady who's on YouTube who rubs bhoot jolakia on her eyes. Mad. 

Nagaland is also beautiful son. Go there is you get a chance. You also get dog curry :) it's an acquired taste heh. 

Love

Baba

The Gut-Wrenching Science Behind the World’s Hottest Peppers | Science & Nature | Smithsonian Magazine
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/The-Gut-Wrenching-Science-Behind-the-Worlds-Hottest-Peppers-208350211.html?c=y&story=fullstory#Burning-Desire-peppers-1.jpg


Chiliheads crave the heat that hurts so good, but nothing compares to the legendary superhot that spices life in remote India

  • By Mary Roach
  • Smithsonian magazine, June 2013, Subscribe

Chilis being transported to the Nagaland’s chili competition. Gloves need to be worn because the chili oils can harm the skin. (Aaron Joel Santos / Novus Select)

The 17 tribes of Nagaland are united, historically, by an enthusiasm for heads. The Nagas: Hill Peoples of Northeast India—my reading matter on the two-hour drive from Dimapur to Kohima, in the state of Nagaland —contains dozens of references to head-taking but only one mention of the item that has brought me here: the Naga King Chili (a.k.a. Bhut Jolokia), often ranked the world’s hottest. “In the Chang village of Hakchang,” the anthropologist J. H. Hutton is quoted as saying in 1922, “…women whose blood relations on the male side have taken a head may cook the head, with chilies, to get the flesh off.” Hutton’s use of “cook” would seem to be a reference to Chang culinary practice. Only on rereading did I realize the Chang weren’t eating the chilies—or the flesh, for that matter—but using them to clean the skull.

No comments: