"ceviche" news and stories

Back in February I blogged about Anandita Dutta Tamuly, a 25-year-old Indian woman with an uncanny ability to chow down on massive amounts of the world's hottest pepper. She's been known to gobble 60 bhut Jolokia, or ghost peppers, in two minutes, and even plans a bid to smash the Guinness Record for pepper eating.

But what happens when a mild-mannered journalist goes toe to toe with the spicy behemoth? Not by eating 60, but rather by attempting to consume a single ghost chili in one sitting at the behest of his editor. Said journalist was not me; it was AP writer Tim Sullivan. It all started out innocently enough with a single pepper and the necessary accompaniments of an open beer, a bowl of yogurt and a few slices of bread. For the first few seconds Sullivan felt fine. Sadly his fireproof palate was short-lived.

He describes the "gastronomic mugging" that seared his tongue and sparked a coughing fit. Since Sullivan had to finish the pepper, he soldiered on started chewing quickly and swallowing. As if it needed to pointed out, he notes this is not the way ghost peppers are normally eaten. And with good reason, Sullivan details a sinus clearing, eye-watering, searing heat that none of his coolants seemed to help with except the beer. After 20 minutes he had recovered the ability to speak and lived to tell the tale and called his wife who laughed at him.

What's the hottest thing you've ever eaten? And what are your favorite ways to put out the fire? I'll go first. Once I was in a Peruvian restaurant and ordered my ceviche picante and was not satisfied with the heat level. When I asked for some aji, or hot sauce, and the waiter brought it in the back, I should have known something was wrong.

When he returned the entire plate was covered in little ribbons of hot pepper. In the spirit of he-men, gringos and hot pepper lovers everywhere I knew I had to eat the whole thing. Man was it hot. I felt as if a red-hot poker had been driven into the center of my tongue. My lips burned so much that when I went to the bathroom to splash water on my face and rinse my mouth out they were an angry, inflamed red.

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Let the record state that I am by no means grossed out by eating frog and have enjoyed it upon several occasions. Heck, I might even lick a toad to experience the so-called medicinal effects. But there is absolutely no way I'm quaffing a frog smoothie, even it's reputed to boost virility.

Just in case you think you misread I'll say it again: frog smoothie. Perhaps smoothie is the wrong term since the so-called "Peruvian Viagra" is a warm beverage. Start by adding three ladles of hot white bean broth, some honey, raw aloe vera and a generous portion of maca to a blender. Oh, I almost forgot, add one freshly killed and skinned frog, and set your blender to frog frappe. The steaming amphibian brew is said to not only to increase virility, but also cure asthma, bronchitis and sluggishness.

The drink is common in Lima's central highland city Huancayo. For now I'll stick to a somewhat more palatable creation of that city papas à la Huancaina. And when I want Peruvian Viagra, I'll stick with my old standby, a nice fresh bowl of ceviche de pescado, picante por favor.

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Peruvian cuisine's myriad roots, including Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, African and Italian, make it one of the world's first fusion cuisines. It's also highly regarded. Famed French chef Escoffier ranked it third after French and Chinese. It's certainly in my Top 10.

Last spring the Peruvian government announced plans to popularize Peruvian cuisine in the U.S. "We want our food to be as well known as Thai is in this country. ... We want Peruvian restaurants everywhere," Alejandro Riveros the head of public diplomacy for the Embassy of Peru, told The Washington Post.

The above video by Prom Peru, the country's tourism board, is part of the publicity effort. It's loaded with stunning shots of the Andes and the country's coast all set to traditional music.

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If it's too hot to cook something, just do ceviche - no heat required, unless it's a chile pepper.

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