I once had a buffet dinner in Cayenne, French Guyana. I thought it would be nice to have some of those berries. you know, red and yellow, looked really succulent.
After scarfing a mouthfull, I discovered, the hard way, it was… Cayenne pepper. I guess the potted plant where I discarded the half-chewed peppers can’t have survived.
Worse was that, while sleeping, I rubbed my eyes. Even after a shower and a thorough washing of the hands, it still hurt like hell.
At least, I was alone. God knows what would’ve happened if I tried some hanky panky with a partner. Or myself, for that matter.
Not lame at all. Yeh, I knew it. I’ve tried the real stuff a few times and it’s pretty heavenly compared to the powdered substitute which one usually gets. It’s way more subtle and complex; hard to find, though. A local sushi bar right next to a big Japanese market here will sometimes have it and will reluctantly give us a bit even though we’re not Japanese businessmen.
Recently one of my good friends invited my wife and I to join him and his wife for his birthday dinner. He wanted to go to a Vietmanese restaurant. So we ordered family style and each took a little off each plate of food. All great food except this one dish that had these pretty little red peppers on it ( similar to these http://www.reimerseeds.com/vietnamese-tear-jerker-hot-peppers.aspx )
So all was fine until I decided to eat one of the peppers and suddenly I felt like I could see through time! I stopped talking and my wife looks over at me and asked me if I was alright. I was gulping water and finally sputtered out that the red peppers were real hot. And that was when she said ‘oh-you ate one? I never eat them, they just flavor the dish!’. A good time to tell me would have been before I ate it dammit!
Now I’m craving sushi, and pho. At least I know where I can get sushi here if I can afford it. And I like what I guess is really substitute wasabi, in smallish amounts. I’m not big on blow-my-head-off spicy, but I always have a bottle of Sriracha in the fridge. It does wonders for stuff like ramen noodles.
Dude, this is not the case at all! ANY decent sushi joint has the nice man behind the counter grating wasabi for ya. And wasabi is always available at the supermarket. Sure, most regular folks use the tube stuff, but it’s not horseradish/food coloring. The grated real stuff is actually more mild than the tube stuff, btw.
Welcome (back?) to Japan, btw! Next time you’re down Tokyo way, let’s go grab a few beers and some sushi!
Wow. Color me corrected. In America are you sure it’s not horseradish? When I worked in a sushi restaurant briefly, I mixed the wasabi powder and I’d be darned if it didn’t say “ingredients: horseradish” on the bag.
Anyway, I’m having a blast. I hope to visit Tokyo in the next 2-3 months. Sooo busy… working じゃね～
じゃね～