I am a nut for spicy foods. I LOVE hot sauces, hot peppers and any other food that punishes the tongue. I could use Tobasco sauce as eye drops.

If I go to a Mexican restaraunt I bring my own habanero sauce because I know that their house salsa will not do the trick. I ask for my Thai food to be made 12-star spicy and stress that they will not be able to make it TOO hot for me. INVARIABLY the dish they bring out is a whimpy 2-star on the ugdork scale of heat.

I literally can't be satisfied with a meal if I am in the mood for spicy and it is under spiced. I realize that I am freakish about what I can handle in the hot pepper arena but I get annoyed when I cook for people and put 12 molecules of hot sauce in a dish only to have people complain that it is too spicy. It has absolutely ZERO heatto me and they are crying.

"I like to be able to TASTE my food," people will say. Arrrrggggh! If My food is insanely inferno hot I not only taste it, but I get an endorphin rush that makes me feel content and satisfied after a meal.

I've only been to 3 restaraunts in my life that made food that could kick my ass. One was a Buffalo wing place, the other a Thai place (now closed) and my new favorite is a BBQ place near me. Even there I have to specify INSANELY hot but they do me proud.

I'm curious to know who else out there appreciates lava-mouth foods.