Smoken' Joe's Serves Up Guinness Book Record-Hot Chili Pepper Sauce
Submitted by ptemples on Mon, 03/30/2009 - 12:00
March 26, 2009: I'm having lunch at Smoken' Joe's in Brighton Center. The waitress, Linda tells me that they serve up an unbearably hot sauce for their wings and ribs. It's made from the Bhut Jolokia, or "Ghost" chili pepper from India. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Ghost pepper IS the hottest chili pepper in the world, weighing in at 1,041,427 Scoville Units!
Linda proceeds to tell me a story about how she served a man the other evening. "Bring the hottest you got," he bragged. The man ate a couple of wings, and then--according to Linda--started to tear up and cry. "I laughed," she says.
I tell her, "Maybe I'll try some next time." She misunderstands me; the next thing I know, Joe is setting down a little paper cup of the nasty sauce in front of me. I didn't want it to go to waste, so I dipped a little of my pulled pork in the Ghostly mix.
"It doesn't hit you at first," she warns. She's correct. After about 2-3 minutes my lips and tongue begin to light on fire. I know better than to drink water, so I grab a piece of corn bread that accompanies my meal. That helps a little bit. After about ten minutes, my mouth begins to return to normal.
Joe claims that eating hot chili peppers cures colon cancer. I don't know whether to believe him or not. I will say this--if it doesn't kill you, it probably makes you stronger.
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A New Bio-weapon?
Military to weaponize world's hottest chili
<http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_india_chili_grenades>
GAUHATI, India ? The Indian military has a new weapon against terrorism: the world's hottest chili.
After conducting tests, the military has decided to use the thumb-sized "bhut jolokia," or "ghost chili," to make tear gas-like hand grenades to immobilize suspects, defense officials said Tuesday.
The bhut jolokia was accepted by Guinness World Records in 2007 as the world's spiciest chili. It is grown and eaten in India's northeast for its taste, as a cure for stomach troubles and a way to fight the crippling summer heat.
It has more than 1,000,000 Scoville units, the scientific measurement of a chili's spiciness. Classic Tabasco sauce ranges from 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville units, while jalapeno peppers measure anywhere from 2,500 to 8,000.
"The chili grenade has been found fit for use after trials in Indian defense laboratories, a fact confirmed by scientists at the Defense Research and Development Organization," Col. R. Kalia, a defense spokesman in the northeastern state of Assam, told The Associated Press.
"This is definitely going to be an effective nontoxic weapon because its pungent smell can choke terrorists and force them out of their hide-outs," R. B. Srivastava, the director of the Life Sciences Department at the New Delhi headquarters of the DRDO said.
Srivastava, who led a defense research laboratory in Assam, said trials are also on to produce bhut jolokia-based aerosol sprays to be used by women against attackers and for the police to control and disperse mobs.