HEAT…SWEET, SWEET HEAT!

Have you seen the new Food Network show Heat Seekers with Chefs Aarón Sanchez and Roger Mooking? The website descriptor reads: “Heat Seekers is a tongue-testing odyssey to discover the most deliciously spicy food across the country — and to figure out why these dishes are so fun to eat.”

Wow…that could be my dream job right now. You see heat/spice is one of the THREE things I actually experience when eating these days. I always enjoyed spicy food…a good curry (extra spicy), jalapeno peppers, cayenne…but I not only enjoy spicy foods now, I crave them and seek them out. Sriracha has become my condiment of choice for just about everything. Tabasco just doesn’t cut it anymore. Today my mantra is CALIENTE! The hotter, the better!!!

My mother constantly warns me about this new found love of all things HOT! She reminds me that I can’t taste because I can’t smell (you know, the two go hand in hand), but that my taste buds still work and if I continue down this road I’m going to burn them out. And when my senses come back, I will not enjoy food nearly as much with “scorched” taste buds. She may have a point, but when you love food as I do but can’t smell or taste it, you desperately crave some sensory connection. For me…it is heat! So I’m thinking that I might just send a note to Chefs Sanchez and Mooking to see if I can tag along on a future Heat Seekers quest. The Food Network site goes on to say that “Roger and Aarón put their taste buds to the test, and the results are either tears of laughter or tears of pain — usually both.” There’s a fine line between the two and I’m enjoying a bit of both these days!

Heat…sweet, sweet heat!

I am The Tasteless Gourmand!