When I was in high school, I worked as a dishwasher and prep-cook in a Mexican restaurant.  I really enjoyed making the hot sauce for the nachos.  The recipe called for 2 cans of tomato sauce, various amounts of salt, pepper, cilantro and other spices, and 1/4 of a blender full (to be ground) of red chili peppers.  I like my hot sauce really strong, so I would put 4 full blenders of red chilis in the sauce.  My boss complained to me that my recipe was too hot for her customers.  She said, "It's even too hot for me, and I'm Mexican !"  I said, "What's the problem?"  I dipped a rolled up flour tortilla right into the bucket until it was slathered in sauce.  Without batting an eye, I ate the whole thing right in front of her and said, "Delicious".  She walked away in disgust because to her, I seemed unwilling to repent and change my recipe.  I did change the recipe so I wouldn't get fired.  But at the time, I didn't think her recipe had any zing in it !

About a year later, I had to stop eating spicy food because I was having stomach problems.  Gosh, I wonder why?  I didn't eat any spicy food, Mexican, Asian, Indian for about 10 years after that.  One day (10 years after) I tried some Mexican food, and didn't have any problems.  I've been eating spicy food ever since, but with more restraint !  Some of us have to learn the hard way.

The things we talk about around here -- love me some tacos (not THAT kind, Jodi!), don't love me no fish tacos (either kind), but have a weakness for quesadillas (esp w/ chicken, not chicks)

When I was in Edinburgh (of all places), I had some East African food which I thought was AMAZING!

I don't mind East Indian curry but I love Thai curry.

And tacos. Love me some tacos.

Actually, Danielle was working at Taco Time when we met and right away I knew she had a crush on me which was flattering but kind of awkward since I thought she was about 14 (she was sixteen). Over the course of a couple of years (being a single guy who loved tacos I was there about two or three times a month) we would talk a bit but not much, and after a while she asked my name and things like that. I was dating somebody else but it wasn't working very well and finally I broke it off and didn't even try to get with anybody else. Just wanted to be alone for a while and think things through. So I was sitting in a mall and Danielle comes up to me and starts talking like we're old friends (she'd quit Taco time for about four months at that time) asks how old I am,then tells me she's turning 18 in less than a month and asks for my phone number. I give it to her and she starts calling every day, we form a rapport and a week after she turned 18 we went on our first date (I took her to a Thai place, actually) and four and a half years later we were married.

The funny thing was I would tell friends that a 14 year old taco girl had a crush on me, and she'd tell her friends she had a crush on the taco guy. The whole thing worked out pretty well for everyone involved. Though I have to admit I did feel a little weird the first six months or so, what with being about ten years older than her, but since she initiated the contact I decided that it wasn't all that skeevey.