Eating cold spicy food

sneak peak: musing on the confusion of spicy leftovers straight out of the fridge

Eating cold spicy food. Not an assault on the senses; much more understated than that.

Not an assault on the senses in the sense (sense sense) of crossing a road at rush hour in Bangkok or entering a steam room soundtracked by very loud country music (not that I have done either of those, which might explain why they make my senses quite so confused, but I would be open to both).

Not an assault on the senses as much as an accidental banging into; you're late and rushing, looking in a hundred directions at once and OOF - your senses were walking happily along the street and you banged (bung?) right into them. They're fine, just a little discombobulated and unsure of themselves for a moment. That's what it's like eating cold spicy food.

Or maybe it's more a feeling of surprise at what was, rather than what you thought would be. You hopped on a plane to France, only to find yourself stepping off in Finland. You waited for a blind date, and then in came a catfish, swimming up to say hello and shake your fin. You bought a lottery ticket, only to find - to your dismay and genuine shock - that you didn't win the jackpot. You took a mouthful of your food, and felt the refreshing 'just out of the fridge' cool, and just as you went in for another bite, you felt a fire spark into life. Flecks of red making their way through the velvet blue.

Then you put your fork down, because now you feel confused. Cold and spicy don't go together. They don't work. They're not friends, so why are they hanging out? They must have started talking while you weren't looking. It's not bad, or good, it just is. You just didn't expect it. You didn't know how it would turn out.

And as it turns out (turns out turns out), it turned out fine. Very nice, in fact. But dishing up these fridge-cold leftovers wasn't some great study on taste or senses or expectation. It's just because you don't have a microwave, or even any pots and pans (I know). Cold and spicy it is then.