I just saw this article and accompanying slide show about restaurants that serve such spicy food that they require a signed waiver. Hmmm.
The article about the guy who got a hole in his stomach after ingesting some super spicy item:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/28/spicy-soup-burns-hole-in-stomach_n_2375733.html
The slide show:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/28/spicy-soup-burns-hole-in-stomach_n_2375733.html#slide=1840056
Me, I'm playing with various mexican and new mexican peppers*, very much a learning process, have a thread or two on that. I probably eat garlic and chile pepper in some form fie or six days a week, but on the peppers, I'm still and will likely remain a weakling. To me, heat isn't everything. There's also sweetness, smokiness, crunch on some occasions, and esophageal comfort, and that's just about the chilis. Being able to breathe is primary. Plus the food the chili is added to has character of its own, and obliterating that seems wrong. Well, that's my opinion as an admitted chickenshit.
And you?
recipes welcome, and anecdotes demanded....
* I gather mexican peppers are called chili peppers, and new mexican peppers are called chile peppers. But don't trust me.