The Year of Eating Dangerously A Global Adventure in Search of Culinary Extremes

Food columnist Parker Bowles engages in a year-long odyssey in search of the worlds most thrilling, terrifying, and odd foods.

TOM PARKER BOWLES, son of Prince Charles’ wife Camilla, is a respected British food critic, with columns in The Mail on Sunday, “Night and Day” and Tatler.  He is also the author of E is for Eating: An Alphabet of Greed. He lives in London. 
   

I realize that beery bravado was the main culprit but I do remember (very vaguely) thinking what the point was in going on a search for the hottest sauces in the world if I didn't try at least a spatter. I imagine myself stepping up to the challenge, a brave knight fighting for the pride of his homeland.
            ‘Bollocks to that,' says my ever-sensitive friend. ‘You were a sweaty mess, and the whole crowd was waiting to see you go down in a blaze of unglory.'
            Apparently, the braying masses whooped for joy when I took on the challenge. And the crowd grew bigger still, as at least a dozen hot-sauce maestros gathered expectantly to have a laugh at the English fool. The bottle appeared once more, named Salsa Para Pendejos.
            Now it's one thing drunkenly agreeing to try a drop of this liquid fire but quite another to risk putting myself in hospital before I've finished at The Fiery Foods Show. I took the straw, touched it to my palm so there was a dot no bigger than a comma. A few in the crowd voiced their disappointment.
            Ignoring the heckles, I touched the tip of my tongue to the dot of sauce on my hand, probably taking no more than a quarter of the punctuation mark blob. The crowd grew silent, craning their necks to get a better view.
--from A Year of Eating Dangerously