'It smelled like pain and regret': inside the world of competitive hot chilli eaters

guardian ^

[mylife]

The pandemic has driven chilliheads online, where some have built impressive followings for their hot sauce reviews and daring feats of strength

Kate Robertson

Thu 1 Apr 2021 04.00 EDTLast modified on Thu 1 Apr 2021 08.07 EDT Shares 134 Carolina Reaper Hot Chilli Peppers: ‘You can effectively map your GI tract by feeling how it moves.’ Two Carolina Reaper peppers: ‘You can effectively map your GI tract by feeling how it moves.’ Photograph: mrsixinthemix/Getty Images/iStockphoto Behind his calm, methodical approach to every hot chilli eating and super spicy food challenge, Dustin “Atomik Menace” Johnson is enduring a kind of physical pain and mental anguish beyond what most will ever experience in a lifetime.

In one of his most-watched YouTube livestreams, the 31-year-old Las Vegas resident downs 122 super-spicy Carolina Reapers, the Guinness World Record holder for hottest pepper, while fans watch and cheer him on. While there are clues that he’s struggling – his face turns a deep red color and shines with perspiration, and in the latter half in particular, he takes breaks – his low-key demeanor has made the growing chillihead community question whether he’s built like an average human, or if he’s human at all.

“I would say anywhere after 60, every few peppers I would say, ‘I don’t know if I can keep going,’” Johnson recounts via Zoom from the same black-lit, poster-adorned spot he shoots his videos in. “And people were like, ‘Nah, just keep going. You look like you’re fine.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m not ... but I’ll keep trying.’”

Two hours later, he finished the bowl.

[mylife]

These people are insane.

[Larry Lucido]

George likes his kung pao spicy.

[tet68]

Toilet paper shortage hits chili eaters hardest?
I saw on the internet where you can use plastic
grocery bags instead, and by simply turning them
inside out you can use both sides! /s

[mylife]

I love spicy food but this is stupid.

[a fool in paradise]

He who smelt it dealt it

[mylife]

People are strange.

[Empire_of_Liberty]

I have long thought that super spicy food was the poor-man’s way to enjoy a meal twice...

[Yo-Yo]

Many years ago I thought I could handle any hot sauce. The hotter, the better. I can drink Tabasco straight like it's ketchup.

Then one day my Wife found Dave's Insanity Sauce, and just a toothpick-full had me on my knees.

I went back to it and tried it several more times over the next couple of weeks, but just a small toothpick of the sauce had my mouth on fire. It wasn't even remotely fun.

Dave's Insanity sauce is only 180,000 Scoville, and this was the beginning of the "Scoville Wars." Now there are sauces that rate in the millions.

Nowadays, I stick with Frank's Red Hot...

[moovova]

I don’t eat food that hurts me. The occasional brain freeze while drinking a strawberry milkshake is acceptable.

[mylife]

I have long thought that super spicy food was the poor-man’s way to enjoy experience a meal twice...

[Slyfox]

[jdsteel]

I went through a phase where mo’ hotter, mo’ better and that included Dave’s Insanity Sauce (and others).

Then the day came when my body told me “ok, that’s enough of that”.

[CodeJockey]

‘You can effectively map your GI tract by feeling how it moves.’

That’s quite an amazing statement. Also, I would even imagine that the outbound experience is just as frightening as the inbound.

[Qiviut]

I have long thought that super spicy food was the poor-man’s way to enjoy a meal twice...

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I made some “Cowboy Candy” jalapenos. You just slice the jalapenos, put them in a hot brine of vinegar/sugar & then can. An in-law told another relative to tell me “no more Cowboy Candy” .... they were SO hot, that although they were initially delicious going down, the other end was the problem - his comment was he was ‘shooting fire’ & thinks they gave him hemorrhoids.

These were just regular jalapenos I grew in my garden .... I make Jalapeno Pepper Jelly with them when they turn red .... had a bunch of green ones that I picked before the first freeze so I tried the ‘Cowboy Candy’ recipe.

[Red Badger]

“Of pain you could wish only one thing: that it should stop. Nothing in the world was so bad as physical pain. In the face of pain there are no heroes.”
― George Orwell, 1984

[Red Badger]

When I was young I could eat anything hot, even Thai hot.

But not any more...................

[Empire_of_Liberty]

You certainly made me laugh with that, “No more Cowboy Candy!”

I will admit that my epiphany about enjoying the meal twice, occurred to me while sitting on the throne. ;)

[Slyfox]

I was visiting family in San Francisco and they took me to a very nice Chinese restaurant in downtown. My cousin suggested I try the spicy dish with the Sichuan chili peppers. (Sichuan's are 50,000-75,000 SHU, where a Jalapeno is between 3500 and 8000)

I ate the dish and everything burned, my eyes and nose started running and my cousin said, "Don't put your fingers near your eyes!" Okay, I said.

Once I got past the intense feeling of sticking my mouth in hell, ya know, the dish was pretty tasty. And I ate the whole thing. But then of course, as it went thru me it burned like hell.

I won't have to do that ever again, but I can truly say that I tasted hell and lived to tell about it.

[Don W]

This

is my personal favourite.

[Paleo Pete]

I have to contest that.

I got into jalapenos years ago, and had that...experience...I called it afterburners. I quit them because of it.

Then one day I tried cayenne. No affect whatsoever the next day. Nothing, zip, zero, nada. I’ve been growing and eating Cayenne, Habanero and Tabasco ever since, the only time I ever had any problem was when I had the flu and my system was screwed up anyway.

Thai peppers are a variety of Cayenne, I’ve had several different ones including some called Mexican Red Hots. WHich were appropriately named. I never saw anyone eat more than one, except me.

Cayenne in general has a great reputation as an herb. Most herbal books can’t say enough good things about it. I’ve used it for many years, grew, dried and groound my own (using a blender actually) for 30 years or more, and have made my own hot sauce. Still have a batch from 2 or 3 years ago. Do some research, cayenne is one of the best herbs around.

When I start to get the first symptoms of a cold, I go get the bottle of Tabasco in the fridge. Tabasco peppers, a clove or two of garlic, and fill it with vinegar, in a Tabasco sauce bottle. Wait a month, it’s MEAN...but 3 tablespoons will kill a cold every time. It’s not fun, but I haven’t had a cold in 30 years. FLu, yes, but no colds.

For table purposes, I use it all the time but not to excess. An all time favorite for dinner is scrambled eggs with mushrooms and garlic, wrap it in a flour tortilla with sour cream and cheese, and either some ground habanero or salsa type hot sauce. Roll it up and enjoy. You can also add sausage or bacon, shrimp, crawfish, pepperoni, sliced chicken or steak, all sorts of stuff. Just avoid broccoli and asparagus, they both take over the flavor of everything in it.

I make my salsa with peppers, garlic, vinegar and sometimes 1/4 of an onion. Mix in just enough vinegar to make it picante sauce consistency, let it age a month or so before using. Use a plastic jar lid. Works with Cayenne, Habanero, Tabasco, anything but Jalapeno, they have afterburners.

I don’t know why that is. But Jalapeno is the only pepper that ever gave me any trouble the next day. I’ve had tabasco peppers that set me on fire. Habanero too. Never a problem. I won’t touch a Jalapeno.