It’s nice to be back. I was in Toronto for two weeks, (transit) for a week in Holland, and then I went to my hometown in Indonesia for my brother’s wedding. I’ve also spent a day transit at Dubai airport on my way to Indonesia.
I really enjoyed my trip, but I am also very glad to be back to my attic studio in the idyllic Dutch countryside. I arrived two days ago. Yesterday I went to the Saturday open market and bought octopus. I made a very spicy octopus curry and grilled veggies. No pics because I left my camera’s battery in Indonesia.
It was the first time I tried habanero, because the regular chili was not available. I pride myself as the chili girl because chili is my staple food, but habanero was at a completely different level. Have I told you that my curry was very spicy? It’s the habanero, and I’ve only put 4 of it into my homemade curry paste. Normally i would put at least 10 regular chili for the paste.
When I ate my octopus curry, my head was steaming and sweat started to drip drop by drop to my neck. Another type of “liquid” also came out of my nose (I don’t know what it’s called in English). I almost cried but I just tried to eat as speediest as I could, put rice on my tongue to reduce the super spicy sensation (but unluckily I’ve spread a generous amount of the curry sauce on my rice - I was over-confident that I could handle the spiciness). After the speediest eating time of my life I immediately drank water and ate banana. It really helped.
Is chili eater a masochist? The hotness of habanero was an unforgiving sting, but it felt really good. It made me feel alive and brought me back to my senses. I must say that I quite enjoyed the slight pain of my tongue. But of course I could only say this after the spicy sensation was over. A bit of cockiness on my side, as if I’ve conquered something and came out as a heroic winner.
day 122 (çoz I’m writing about yesterday)
