A Lesson Learned... Again

This past Sunday I relearned a lesson I learned a little more than two year ago, when I first moved to Austin. Back then, I had a bad experience while innocently eating a salad. It was laced with a certain fruit I've grown to love.

During the past two years I've grown to love jalapeno peppers. You can probably find some evidence of this in past entries of mine. They seem to go great with everything. I especially like them in popper form or sliced on hamburgers. What I forgot about my experience several years ago is that there is a big difference between pickled jalapenos and fresh jalapenos. Sunday they were serving burgers and had sliced tomato, onion, and fresh sliced jalapenos readily available to pile on. Without a second thought I helped myself to all three. The Scoville scale may rate jalapenos as a mild pepper in comparison to others, but from personal experience I can tell you that fresh jalapenos are several orders of magnitude worse than the pickled variety most of us are used to. After several minutes of torture, I was able to say "I think I need medical attention." I was watering at the eyes and nose, but I knew I would recover. People near me thought I might be serious, though, and I had to reassure them I was only saying so in jest.

One interesting thing to note is that Capsaicin, the chemical compound responsible for the heat, only fools your neurons into thinking something is hot, instead of being an actual chemical burn. Therefore, the sweating and watering is due to your brain being fooled, not directly from the pepper. Also interesting to note is that the sensation is similar to "runner's high," (read the Capsaicin entry) something else I've experienced and enjoyed.