Re: [chile-heads] A story about Dave's
Jim Campbell (mwph2hot@indy.net)
Tue, 08 Jul 1997 20:25:36 +0000
Great story! Similar to many of us I think. I got ambushed by Daves' as well
at a little red-neck (I'm one too so I can say it) rib place in southern Indiana.
I was on a pepper selling mission (evangelizing for el Grande) & stopped in
with my wife & another friend at a hole-in-the-wall rib place. I asked if they
had anything hot & if they had ever heard of habaneros. Yes & No were the
replies. Well, I says, they can't really know what hot is then. I'll impress
them & then sell them habaneros. The waiter brought me out a tarter sauce
cup with a tarry looking red paste in it and a toothpick. I looked
incredulously at him- you got to be kidding, a toothpick? Well, he says, it's
pretty hot. Proceeding to impress the locals, I scooped up as much of the
stuff as I could and popped it into my mouth. The waiter started backing up-
"Oh mister, I don't think I'd do that if I were you!" Instant, total AGONY. I'd
been ambushed!! I came to an enlightened new understanding of 'hubris' in
an instant. Struggling for composure, I remarked that 'yeah, it's a little
warm'. He stood there a moment longer and wandered off suitably impressed.
My wife took one look at me and immediatley asked if I was okay. "You're
hurting aren't you?" Her powers of observation never cease to surprise me.
"Hell, I'm DYING here!!" But, overriding this was my sense of
accomplishment at living true to the addage 'you never let 'em see you sweat!'
Such was my introduction to oleoresins and how something could be hotter
than the hottest pepper in the world. I now assure people at the shows that I
do that I'm laughing with them, not at them, even though they're not
laughing!
-Jim Campbell
Mild to Wild Pepper & Herb Co.