Re: [CH] Re: Lemon Grass and other roughage
Brent Thompson (brent@hplbct.hpl.hp.com)
Wed, 31 Oct 2001 10:52:09 -0800
> Hmm, it makes me wonder, what happens where the culture of eating with
> fingers intersects with a hot pepper cuisine? Is it common to get hunan
> fingertips - that is, are there common folk sayings about pepper in the eye
> (or anywhere)?
In India, people normally eat using hands only, no utensils, and the food
normally contains considerable chile content. During the 3.5 years I lived
there, I never heard discussion of the problem of Hunan hand/eye nor ever
personally imagined such a thing even existed. Maybe everyone is just used
to it hence never notices. Or more likely, regardless how laden with
chiles any food item is, it is still going to be way lower capsaicin
concentration than the hot portions of the chiles that were added to it,
and of course those chile hot portions are what we handle directly in order
to get our very own Hunan hand/eye.
--- Brent