Yes, I've had the ghost pepper, but only dried, though they were whole not powdered. I think they taste like habanero, which isn't a bad thing. I think they're about as hot as a habanero too. It would be hard for me to say that they're hotter, though admittedly I haven't had them fresh. It may be that the hottest ghost pepper is hotter than the hottest habanero, or that the ghost pepper is on average hotter than the habanero, but they're certainly in the same ballpark.
In a hundred years (or maybe a lot less) I fear though that the ghost pepper will be no more spicy than the bell pepper. I've watched this curious phenomenon before in horror, where a food becomes trendy and then is re-engineered so that it loses the properties that made it good in the first place. Presumably so that it can appeal to more people, because the properties that people initially liked in it are only appreciated by a relatively small number of people. It also gives the people who eat that food a feeling that they're eating something that reflects well upon them, but what they're appreciating has been dumbed down to make it more accessible to them. The process is like a machine designed to make cash by reducing a pepper's heat while keeping it's name. Eventually the name is all that's left. I wonder how many dollars there are in a scoville unit. Well, this is hardly earth shattering, and I can't fault anyone for trying to make a dolluh, but it's sad just the same.
I guess the same thing is prone to happen with people when they get famous, what made them notable was something about them that was unique, but when they hit the mainstream they are marketed to appeal to more people. This must be a rather agonizing experience for the person involved, and I never realized until now that Anthony Bourdain, the great crusader against the food network and it's icon of earlier days, Emeril, might have something in common with a Chipotle pepper. When I first had a chipotle, back in the mid 90s it was very hot, very smokey, and just delicious. Now they probably have chipotle lollipops for children. When I once walked into a Chipotle restaurant I expected more than a bottle of Chipotle tabasco sauce to greet me. And this is how those interesting people in society sometimes become the standard bearers of the people. Of course, I'm one of those people (not the interesting ones, the other ones), so I wonder where these sentiments fall within their plan for world domination because it affects me too. I'm certainly not advocating that No Reservations, or even his new show on CNN be cancelled, and I suppose this whole diatribe may be just what they want from me. They're not to be underestimated.
Someone in a bar once asked me if I had to be an herb which herb would I be? I chose Cilantro. I wonder what demographic that puts me in...
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