Southeast Asian food is more than just a beautiful sight, it smells good and tastes even better. What’s the secret? It’s got to be the spices. In fact, the region is notorious for producing some of the hottest plates out there. And we all have the bird’s eye chili to thank for that.
Just so you know we are dealing with one of the hottest and spiciest things on Earth (there are hotter stuff out there, if you can imagine). You do not want to scratch your eyes after handling these little yet menacing fruits! Don’t be surprised to see the bird’s eye chili, otherwise known as Thai chili or comically referred to in Thai as prik kee noo (mouse dropping chili) eaten fresh off from the stem. If you are not accustomed to eating hot and spicy food, do not try this!
So, how hot are these little suckers? At one time it was even listed as the hottest chili in the Guinness Book of World Records but other varieties of chili have since been identified. There is actually a system that measures these hot peppers. It is the Scoville scale. So, where does bird’s eye chili rank? Let’s find out:
- Pure capsaicin: 15,000,000–16,000,000 Scoville heat units
- Law enforcement pepper spray: 5,000,000–5,300,000 Scoville heat units
- Trinidad Scorpion T Butch Pepper: 855,000–1,463,700 Scoville heat units
- Habanero pepper: 100,000–350,000 Scoville heat units
- Bird’s eye chili: 50,000–100,000 Scoville heat units
- Cayenne peper: 30,000–50,000 Scoville heat units
- Tabasco pepper: 30,000–50,000 Scoville heat units
- Tabasco sauce: 2,500–8,000 Scoville heat units
- Jalapeno peppers: 2,500- 8,000 Scoville heat units
- Paprika: 2,500- 8,000 Scoville heat units
- Pimento: 100-500 Scoville heat units
- Bell pepper: 0 Scoville heat units
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