WATCH: Indonesians take on Ghost Peppers, one of the hottest chilies in the world – can they stand the heat?

Besides its general deliciousness, Indonesian food is also known for its spiciness. And while it’s true that not all Indonesian food is spicy, for many of us here, a meal is simply unbearably bland if it doesn’t include at least some chili.

Of course, there are plenty of Indonesians who don’t like spicy food at all (some people would say they’re not real Indonesians, but we are willing to accept our weak-tongued brothers and sisters). But at the other end of the scale, there are the chili crazy folks who happily take on the challenge of insanely spicy dishes such as the Indomie “pedas mampus” (death spicy) at Warung Abang Adek – a dish which has been shown to nearly kill some foreigners (or at least make them go temporarily deaf).

To see just how well Indonesians can handle heat in its purest form, the fine folks at Fix Productions gathered a few brave souls to take on the Bhut Jolokia aka Ghost Pepper, infamous for being one of the hottest chilies in the world. To give you an idea, your average cabe rawit (bird’s eye chili), which many Indonesians nibble on casually while gorging on gorengan, is rated at about 100,000 Scoville units (the scientific measurement of spiciness). Ghost Peppers usually measure well over 1 million Scoville units

So how did the Indonesians taste testers fare when facing off against the hellish heat of the Bhut Jolokia?

At first, most of the guys on the panel seem more put off by the pepper’s berry-like appearance and strange odor then its nuclear spice potential. And once they’ve finally eaten them, they seem to handle it okay… at first. But then, well… just watch.

This video comes from Fix Productions, an Indonesian-based production house “that makes videos for when you’re bored as poo”. They also made this hilarious taste test video showing Indonesians trying European food like escargot, scotch eggs and foie gras for the first time. You can check out their Youtube channel for more amusing videos. 



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