For Something Hot, That Was A Cool Thing To Do

In a local mall, there is a stand that sells locally-made olive oils, vinegar, barbecue sauce, and hot sauces. The woman working at the stand told me this story.

She has a regular customer, a teenage boy, who likes to sample the sauces and chat with the workers. Apparently this boy has a lot of trouble with his friends, who make fun of him and pressure him into doing things he doesn’t want to do.

One day, the boy came to the stand with his friends. They started messing around, trying the different flavored sauces. They saw a sauce labeled, “Da Bomb,” which is rated at several hundred thousand Scoville units. His friends wanted to try it, but the boy was reluctant, since he knew how hot it was from experience. However, they convinced him to try it, and everyone got a toothpick dipped in the hot sauce. The woman gave the boy a stick with twice as much sauce on it as anyone else, and the boy was horrified. He tried to trade it off with his friends, but the woman was insistent that he eat his hot sauce. With the biggest, saddest, betrayed puppy eyes, the boy ate the hot sauce. “Oh. That wasn’t bad at all,” he said.

His friends were floored, and the group left, patting him on the back for being the King of Hot Sauce.

“It was barbecue sauce,” the woman giggled while telling us. “I hid the bottle under the counter making his stick. He knew what was up when he ate it, and now he gets more respect from his friends!”