Arizona's Salsa Trail

The only sign of trouble, was the refills on beer hitting the table at an increasing rate. No one wanted to admit defeat but my sinuses were swelling, the endorphins were flowing and the chils were searing. It was still a good burn. My boss said something like, "this is pretty hot" and given his history and iron gul...let this allowed the reast at the table to acknowledge we might have gone too far. Unfortunately, it was too late... we all wanted more to hopefully quell what we hav eeaten... the beer flowed with the tears and finally it was finished. In the after glow of the capsaicin, we realized, we had not heard the last of the chilis and and lce cream would not save us from the second round. A great feast!

Bret Wingert
Souvia TeaRead More

The hottest thing I have eaten was some fish in Beijing. The dish was marked spicy but the group I was with wanted more. In the spirit of Emeril we asked them to kick it up a notch. This fish was excellent and the burn, slow and stealthy. I had eated several bites before it struck... Like most hot food, I ate more... to cool the burn... the peer pressure was immense as everyone was eating away waiting for someone else to whine. As the burn intensified, i noticed these tiny little chilis on the plate... hardly the size of a fingernail.Read More

the next time i went up to the buffet line he asked me how it was and i said it was great! he looked puzzled and said you actually finished it? i said yes and then he told me he made it as a joke and that he never thought anyone could handle it. he asked me if i was a fire eater in my free time and i said no. he was pr...etty impressed. so to make a long story short i had quite a bit of salsa that even a chef from a border town thought was way too hot for anyone to ever consume, i was proud and added it to my list of accomplishments! i cant wait to come back to the salsa trail again!

justin from chandler, azRead More

being a spicy food lover i am always looking for a new thing to try. i was in el paso a few months ago for a vacation and the hotel we were staying at had a breakfast buffet. after sleeping in a little while we got down their fairly late and the chef was begining to prep food for lunch. he happened to hear me saying th...at i loved spicy food and have never found anything that i couldnt handle. fast forward a few minutes later and the chef came over to the table and asked me to try this salsa, he told me that he was making a batch for lunch and wanted to make sure that he had the taste just right. i put some on my omlette and immediatley regreted my decision. being the macho man that i am though i finished all that he brought over and hoped that the feeling would go away sooner or later!Read More