The Punch of a Pepper

I learned this great little tidbit of trivia recently.  Do you know that there is actually a unit for measuring how hot a chile is?  It's called the Scoville heat unit (SHU) and it measures the piquance (spicy heat) of a chili pepper.  It does this by measuring capsaicin (sound familiar?) which stimulates chemoreceptors in the skin.  Capsaicin is used in many topical preparations as a pain reliever (ironic?) for arthritis.  Think about that when you are using your Icy Hot. 

And the hottest pepper??  The Bhut Jolokia, which measures over 1 million SHUs.  Wow.  I can feel the tears now.  It reminds me of the time that Bri and I were in California and we ate at a place called Thai Basil.  I got the red curry with about a 6 on the "hotness" scale.  A 6 at the thai place in Stillwater was totally doable.  Well, you can see where this is going.  I was on my 4th week of sickness and congestion.  I cried through the whole meal, drinking no less than 6 glasses of water and blowing my nose on the extra napkins at least 24 times.  Talk about clearing out the sinuses.  The "hotness" scale is not a constant among restaurants.  Remember that.  It's important if you don't have extra napkins.