I made some Mexican pizzas on tostada shells earlier today, figured I'd mince 8 orange habaneros because... well, I put 6 on a whole regular pizza before with no problem. 8 on 5 Mexican pizzas can't be *that* bad, can it...? I realized when it came time to put the "toppings" on it that I overshot the peppers by at least 3, but I didn't want to waste those I took out of the freezer and cut, so I used them all anyway. I'll just say that it kicked me right in the face, and at least now I can feel my cheek again... 
The main difference compared to the way I usually make tacos (in which case I can easily use five or more orange habs) is that instead of cooking the peppers with the meat on the stove after draining, I just put them on top of the cheese and cooked them on "broil" (top shelf). Only took about 2 minutes and it was sizzling, compared to the 15-20 minutes to cook as a topping on pizza... the additional time must be it.
It started off nice an innocent... fairly quick heat that doesn't give in, and each bite got much, much hotter, and at an insane rate. The habanero flavor became incredibly strong... a bit overbearing, actually. I quickly was asking myself what I got myself into... it quickly became apparent that eight was just too much for those things; there was probably the skin of 2 or more habs on each tostada. The burn felt more intense than my tacos with 2 Naga Moriches (cooked thoroughly in the beef, though), and it was a similar kind of burn (hard to describe, not a nice tingly warmth kind of feeling, but it literally felt like it was burning).
The pain started getting to my ear; nothing new there, it's happened plenty of times before; drank water to reduce the heat (no milk, I start with the weakest form of relief first). I started getting disturbed though when my cheek--yeah, my whole cheek--went numb, along some strong tingling sensations in my legs (and somewhat in my arms). I couldn't feel a whole lot of burning in my mouth; it was replaced with some intense tingling of my gums; it felt like my teeth wanted to leave my mouth. LOL. By this time the right side of my face felt numb, and I couldn't feel my cheek. If I had to go to the dentist, I bet he could've cut a lot off of the bill, since I wouldn't need any additional anasthesia...
Long story short, by the time these strange sensations popped up (the tingling and numbing), the pain was pretty much subsided. Then I decided to brush my teeth after eating... yikes, the brushing brought the heat right back, and seemingly worse than it was for a while. I thought it was about gone... man, how wrong could I be? The mint and pepper combination was crazy, but needless to say the newly-emerged habanero took over massively, and the drool made the toothpaste hard to spit out. My eyes weren't watering while eating, but they sure started now. But yeah, damn. Intense, crazy stuff.
But the real point of this post is... does anyone else get feelings *other* than burning from eating something extremely hot? As in, tingling (the gums bigtime, and stranger yet, the legs and arms)? And numbness in an area that you would expect would well be out of reach of the capsaicin's contact area (ie. a cheek)? I always hear of people talking about the heat, maybe numbness in areas the peppers came in contact (tongue, mouth, throat), but... the cheek? The cheek on the same side of the face as the ear that started burning just minutes before if I remember right, so apparently there's a correlation. But damn, did the full-body and intense gum tingling and numbed face freak me out...
My forehead still feels slightly warm, and it's a few hours later... apparently my metabolism must still be in overdrive as well. But at least I can feel my whole face again now. Unbelievable. And amazingly... the burning itself was not near as strong as the other sensations (probably because of the numbing).
The main difference compared to the way I usually make tacos (in which case I can easily use five or more orange habs) is that instead of cooking the peppers with the meat on the stove after draining, I just put them on top of the cheese and cooked them on "broil" (top shelf). Only took about 2 minutes and it was sizzling, compared to the 15-20 minutes to cook as a topping on pizza... the additional time must be it.
It started off nice an innocent... fairly quick heat that doesn't give in, and each bite got much, much hotter, and at an insane rate. The habanero flavor became incredibly strong... a bit overbearing, actually. I quickly was asking myself what I got myself into... it quickly became apparent that eight was just too much for those things; there was probably the skin of 2 or more habs on each tostada. The burn felt more intense than my tacos with 2 Naga Moriches (cooked thoroughly in the beef, though), and it was a similar kind of burn (hard to describe, not a nice tingly warmth kind of feeling, but it literally felt like it was burning).
The pain started getting to my ear; nothing new there, it's happened plenty of times before; drank water to reduce the heat (no milk, I start with the weakest form of relief first). I started getting disturbed though when my cheek--yeah, my whole cheek--went numb, along some strong tingling sensations in my legs (and somewhat in my arms). I couldn't feel a whole lot of burning in my mouth; it was replaced with some intense tingling of my gums; it felt like my teeth wanted to leave my mouth. LOL. By this time the right side of my face felt numb, and I couldn't feel my cheek. If I had to go to the dentist, I bet he could've cut a lot off of the bill, since I wouldn't need any additional anasthesia...
Long story short, by the time these strange sensations popped up (the tingling and numbing), the pain was pretty much subsided. Then I decided to brush my teeth after eating... yikes, the brushing brought the heat right back, and seemingly worse than it was for a while. I thought it was about gone... man, how wrong could I be? The mint and pepper combination was crazy, but needless to say the newly-emerged habanero took over massively, and the drool made the toothpaste hard to spit out. My eyes weren't watering while eating, but they sure started now. But yeah, damn. Intense, crazy stuff.
But the real point of this post is... does anyone else get feelings *other* than burning from eating something extremely hot? As in, tingling (the gums bigtime, and stranger yet, the legs and arms)? And numbness in an area that you would expect would well be out of reach of the capsaicin's contact area (ie. a cheek)? I always hear of people talking about the heat, maybe numbness in areas the peppers came in contact (tongue, mouth, throat), but... the cheek? The cheek on the same side of the face as the ear that started burning just minutes before if I remember right, so apparently there's a correlation. But damn, did the full-body and intense gum tingling and numbed face freak me out...
My forehead still feels slightly warm, and it's a few hours later... apparently my metabolism must still be in overdrive as well. But at least I can feel my whole face again now. Unbelievable. And amazingly... the burning itself was not near as strong as the other sensations (probably because of the numbing).
