My coworker was kind enough to offer me her tupperware of food for lunch yesterday because she had a craving for some greasy American food and wanted to go out and buy something instead. She had cooked fettuccine and chicken together in some Guyanese spices, and on the side was a single cherry tomato. She and I generally have the same taste, so I knew I would enjoy this.
I ate the pasta and chicken quickly-- and when I was almost near the end, I happily popped the cherry tomato in my mouth. As I bit down, I was horrified to discover that this tomato was unlike any other tomato I've ever tried. It filled my mouth with FIRE.
I spit it out immediately and quickly made eye contact with my generous coworker. "What is this?" I yelled out weakly. She looked at me with horror and realized what was going on. "I forgot!" she said, "I forgot to tell you that I put a pepper in there!" By this time, my eyes were watering like crazy and I felt like I couldn't breathe (partly from panic, partly from the heat). I knew I shouldn't drink water and I had hardly any food left in sight, so I didn't know what to do. She said, "Suck on some sugar! It will cut the heat!" I immediately found a few packets of raw sugar in my drawer and started pouring those crystals into my mouth as fast as I possibly could. Between the packets of sugar, I drank ice water which was a wonderful albeit temporary solution-- but finally, after a little while, the pain slowly began to subside.
I later learned that the cherry tomato in the tupperware was actually a wiri wiri pepper, a pepper widely used in Guyanese cooking that is also called a cherry pepper. That harmless looking little pepper is deceptively hot and actually has about 150,000 Scoville heat units (SHU). SHU indicates the amount of capsaicin (heat) in peppers. I read all about the SHU in different peppers yesterday, and found that the wiri wiri is up there with the best of them. Never again will I assume . . .
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