Merry Bhut Jalokia

Each year at this time we throw a big dinner and the theme this year (OK, every year) is the chili. Cheryl's collection of chili ornaments is no doubt approaching a world record. We have chili lights, chilies hanging on the front door, chilies growing in my garden and chilies in the appetizers, soup, salad and entrees of the dinner.

We, however, are not excessive about chilies. Some people worship the chili to the point of religious fanaticism and pagan fetishism, blurring the distinction between pleasure and pain, abandoning all common sense for a cheap thrill or to demonstrate some semblance of machismo.

Consider the following man who has just eaten, in one bite, a Bhut Jalokia chili, rated 10 times hotter than the habanero:

I like this one. The girl on the right is (perpetually, I suspect) unable to find what she is looking for.

No. We will not be having the Bhut Jolokia on the menu. I need to find some seeds first. I have a perfect spot for one in my pepper garden. I grew the small guys on the front row from seeds we brought back from Sante Fe. The little white one is called a Fish pepper--very hot. I've got a Thai pepper, a habanero and various others. More later on these.

Also, the CIA got back to me on the Euphorbia. It is a Euphorbia lactea, sometimes called candelabra cactus (although it is not a true cactus). The strange little plant that grows underneath is Kalanchoe beharensis, sometimes called velvet leaf.