I know I have quite a bit of catching up to do! It's coming, I promise.
Today Jacob and I went to the Chili Festival in Brighton with Matt & Esther. I was expecting something like the Malibu Chili Cook-Off, but boy was I wrong!! The chili that this was name after isn't meat chili, but hot chilies. Everything was chili oriented...chili chocolate, chili butter, chili brownies, chili fudge, chilies in general, chili ice cream, and lots of spicy BBQ!!
It was the place to hold the ultimate man challenges, ever stand was filled with hot sauces and chili products, each hotter than the last. We took it easy on our first couple of stands, starting with some mild sauces and some tasty fudge samples. Then Jacob and Matt decided to go to one stand in particular…
They tasted some of the basic sauces that had some heat and good flavor. Then the stand owner pulled them aside (never a good sign) and offered for them to try the "20 Minute Burn" sauce. This was quite hot...but made hotter when the man at the stand sprayed some "Kiss of the Devil" in their mouths.
Almost immediately Matt and Jacob's eyes started watering, their noses were running and sweat started pouring from their foreheads. In between coughing and wiping their eyes they both pointed to the little gelato stand and asked for some emergency gelato. As they enjoyed their gelato, the heat slowly faded.
Jacob and Matt decided to go back to the stand and buy the "Kiss the Devil" spray so that they could dare the guys at work to a heat/manly competition. In doing so, the stand owner convinced both of them to eat a chili extract/paste that was 4x hotter than what they had just consumed...it ranked a literally breath taking 6.4 million on the scoville scale.
The man took two toothpicks and dabbed the tips in the sauce. As Jacob and Matt wiped it on their tongues, the man said, "Now just remember, no matter how hot it is, just keep breathing." At first there wasn't much heat, then all of a sudden both Jacob and Matt hurried us to the bar where they sold chocolate milk. We bought some and decided to sit down while it passed. In the 30 seconds it took for us to get to some seats, they were already saying that I needed to go get some more chocolate milk. I went back and decided to buy 2 for each of them, just so I wouldn't need to make another trip. Apparently in the 2 minutes that I was gone the heat had really kicked off. Matt at one point honestly had to force himself to breathe and thought he was going to die. Jacob started having irregular heart beats, and neither could sit still. They were already headed to find me because they had finished off their first chocolate milks.
For quite some time Esther and I thought that the boys would be sick. They sat there for about 30 minutes trying to just breath. By this point, the heat in their mouths was gone, but they were now suffering from what we could call "Gallon Challenge" symptoms. In their hurried attempt to extinguish the chili, they drank too much milk, too quickly.
When the boys could finally walk again, we decided to explore the rest of Brighton. We walked along the seaside and down the pier...complete with a mechanical bull. (And no, I didn't try it!)
After a nice stroll it was time to head back for the Chili Eating Competition...I was in pain watching these guys try to eat these chilies. There were 12 rounds, starting with jalapeños and working their way up to moruga chilies which registered a 1.5 million scovilles. The group went from 12 very confident gentlemen to 2 who looked like they were about to burst into tears...until one finally forfeited and a man named Gilly took first place. They sat there shaking as they ate chili after chili for about 45 minutes...we knew that it couldn't last forever.
It was a great day...but hey, gotta go...Downton Abbey Season 4 is starting!!!!!!!
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