Flaming Lips!

We decided to be a little experimental for lunch today. After narrowing down our choices, we decided to eat hot pot. But instead of the ordinary hot pot, our choice was the "extremely hot" kind of hot pot. And how hot was it? It was this hot:


Yup, those are siling labuyo floating all around the broth. They weren't only on the top of the soup, but they were under it as well. That'll make it around a gigagazillion pieces of siling labuyo in one small pot. So as Paris Hilton would say: "That's hot!"

But since i'm from Bicol, the thought of sili didn't faze me. After all, my Mom eats sili like she'd eat grapes. Plus, my relatives in Albay would usually cook dishes that are unbelievably spicy, that it brings everyone to tears. Everyone except my family members, of course.

Anyway, I thought this would be a fairly simple challenge to face. That was until I dipped my first fishball in this concoction and placed it in my mouth...

Gosh! I underestimated how hot it was! The moment that piece of fishball touched my lips, it was in flames! Suddenly, it felt like my lips puffed up so much, I felt like the son of Tina Turner and Mick Jagger! If this were a cartoon, my lips would've covered half of my face! Thank goodness this was reality. After checking my lips in the mirror, they were still in their normal size. (Although it felt like anything but...)

After the initial shock subsided, I was able to come up with a plan for me to enjoy the hot pot and prevent my lips from further burning. First, I dipped it in the hot soup, then dipped it in the plain soup. The result was, as Kuya Nips would say, "poifect!" And yes, it was indeed a good and perfect lunch.

Hmmm... I know a lot of celebrities pay thousands of dollars to have collagen injected in their lips. Maybe they should just go to this restaurant and order the spicy hotpot. It produces the same effect for only HK$70!