As I grabbed a few green and red peppers in the produce aisle, a guy next to me had a big bag of jalapeño peppers. I mean big. He had all of them. There were none left on the shelf. There must have been at least sixty in his bag.
I should have asked, “What are you going to do with those?” But I didn’t, so I can only imagine what someone would do with that many jalapeño peppers.
- He works at a Mexican restaurant and peppers were missing from most recent the food order. His manager sent him out to get as many as he could.
- It was contest time. He and his friends argued loud and long about who could eat the most jalapeños. Now it was time to find out. Someone’s going to feel the burn. Twice.
- Someone lost a bet. Their team lost. They lost at eight ball. They were late. Again. It’s time to pay up.
- Party food time. Everyone’s coming over for a celebration. “You’ll make your jalapeño poppers, right?” Of course.
- Salsa time? The pepper shelf was first. Next stop: tomatoes. Onions and cilantro, too.
- What about resale? If there’s none at the grocery store, you create demand and jack up the price at your roadside stand.
- Prank time. It’s fun to watch an unsuspecting victim bite into some food with a jalapeño hidden inside.
As I was starting my shift at Subway (a long time ago), my assistant manager was getting ready to head home. We got to take home a footlong after every shift. “Make me a BMT on white.” No problem. Just for fun, I lined up about twenty jalapeño slices between the cheese and the meat and veggies, sliced it in two, wrapped it up, and stuffed it in a bag. The next day, he asked, “Who put all those hot peppers in my sub? I almost died when I took a bite!” Very entertaining.
Much later I found creative ways to hide slices or bits of jalapeño in my youngest daughter’s food. Inside a hamburger patty. Hidden amongst the green beans. Between scoops of ice cream. It was hard to keep a straight face, waiting for the cry of “jalapeño!” Never gets old.
Waite for it... 