The Philippines Part 4

Here I am starring down the 5th hottest pepper in the world. It is so small you can hardly see it in my hand, but you can see that little group of them on the table by the plate with the big dead fish. We got some of these peppers on our way out to the camp and I thought it would be a good idea to eat one. The first thing you need to know about me is that I don't go looking for extremely spicy things to eat. In the U.S. I feel I have nothing to prove. If you have hot sauce that you say will burn a hole in my tongue I have no desire to prove you wrong. But when I left for the Philippines I told myself that I would eat whatever people put in front of me (and even a few things they didn't put in front of me, but that is a different story) So when Salvador said that these peppers were the 5th hottest in the world I couldn't help but want to try. David/Goliath sitting next to me had a lot more stomach room to dissipate this piece of burn lava disguised as a harmless vegetable than I did but he was not going to be duped into ulcers on this trip. Oh, the lesson I should have learned.



The interesting thing in this picture is not the joy on David's face at my expenses, but the fact they were able to get the picture taken before my water bottle hit my mouth. I am surprised I did not splash that bottle all over my face with the speed I grabbed that thing and brought it to my scorching tongue.



Will this work?




Nope.



I know I will shove about 15 spoons full of rice in my mouth at once, that should do it. We didn't have bread with the meal but rice seemed to work just fine. The sad part in this shot is my desperate attempt to regain a temperature in my mouth under 210 degrees but David pointing out I only ate half the pepper, and the half I did eat didn't have many of the seeds. I felt nothing pulling me to finish that other half. After all I said I would "try" whatever people put in front of me.

The real story here is that five of us ate fresh seafood right on the coast with cokes dessert and everything for $12. The fish was unbelievable! I know some of you live near the water and say you have good seafood. But you don't have these fish. Salvador had us eating fish that doesn't have an English translation because you won't find them anywhere else. And our lunch was swimming around in the water that morning, you can not get fresher than that. The fish tank at Red Lobster just isn't the same.