Up until about 5 weeks ago, I could not eat Thai chilis without my mouth burning up. Even one in my som tam Thai would burn my mouth, make my scalp break out in a massive sweat and make my eyes water. It would be uncomfortable for a good 15 minutes.

And the next day? My chocolate starfish would be SCREAMING. I call it the .357 effect: It goes in small and blasts large debris out the backside.

Then about 5 weeks ago, I was fixin' to eat some kao moo daeng (red pork with rice). I always take the black sauce & chilis that it comes with and just pour the sauce on. This time I said, "Fuck it" and poured it all on the rice, mixed it up and ate it.

It wasn't that bad.... I was sweating and my mouth was on fire, a little bit. But it wasn't totally uncomfortable like it usually is.

And now, the weirdest thing is that I can eat really spicy food and barely have any sensation in my mouth. And the backside? A.O.K. One thing I will say about spicy food, it keeps ya regular!

I'm not sure if this will last or if it's because I tend to eat the chilis farther back on the tongue now or if it was all in my head this whole time. I don't know. But I'm glad I can eat spicy now, if only because I've since found out that, OK, chilis are a bit hard on your stomach, but they also have great cancer fighting abilities.

I'm still going to hold off on adding pla ra to my spicy som tam, though....