Heaven On Seven "Hot as a Mutha," Downtown, Naperville, IL

Attended "Hot As A Mutha" last evening and boy
oh boy was it HOT!!! As mentioned on the event, this night is not for the
timid. It was quite an experienced.

As we sat down there were pumpkin
seeds for munching, however the pumpkin seeds were seasoned with habanero. This was tasty but HOT right away. Was worth a
taste, but not a snack I would continue to munch on.

Next was an Octopus Ceviche de Pulpo accompanied by
plain saltine crackers. This basically reminded me of
a salsa. At very first taste, you could taste and appreciate the Octopus along
with the onion and tomato, but not long after that first bite, the Jalapeno and
Jamaican Red Chile kicked in and sat right in the center of your tongue
bringing many sensations of pain. This was top three of the hottest for me this
evening. I must have had 6 glasses of water just to tame this dish.

Following, and with enough time to
allow my sense of feeling and taste to return in my mouth, was a Pumpkin Soup.
It had a texture of soupy pumpkin pie. Temperature was hot, as I like my food,
and the taste of pumpkin and spice was experienced on every bite. The sting
swelled over about 2 spoonfuls to coat the back of my throat, but because sense
of the hot spice sat in the back, I was able to taste the pumpkin on every
bite. I was able to have several spoonfuls for the experience of this combination
without having to put myself into a trance to get through the pain.

Volcano Scallop was the next entre.
This event was sold out and it took so long for them to serve, I was able to
clear my pallet in preparation of the next combination of flavors and HEAT. At
this point I was intimidated and as I once thought I could handle the heat, I
wasn’t so sure anymore. However, this dish was a dish I could almost order on a
regular visit. Make no mistake, it was burnin hot,
but I could tell by the flavors that with the right balance, I could really
enjoy eating this dish. The burn was at the back of my tongue while bringing a
bit of pain to cope with just behind my lips. Again, with the right balance of
spice, I could taste the potential of this as a legitimate entre. This was one
of my favorites for flavor and level of tolerable pain. Only made it through 4
bites, but I was also trying to leave space to try the next five courses.

Chicken Pot Pie, not what mom use
to make. Actually it was very much like mom use to make other than the burn
that grabbed the front and middle of your tongue. It had all the taste elements
of what you would expect Chicken Pot Pie to taste like. The presentation of it
was intriguing as well. It was done in a cake like form. The best way to
describe the shape or construction is to imagine a pie crust wrapped on topping
two hockey pucks with textured edges done by some sort of utensil for
presentation purposes, but instead of hockey pucks, it is filled with steamy
hot chicken, vegetables, and Yucatecan White Habanero Chiles. This was also one of my favorites for
flavor, potential as a real dish, and presentation. Again, this could be an entre I would order if the balance of White Habanero Chiles were much less. By this time, I had moved
from water to milk, and let me tell you, milk is a wonder when it comes to hot
spices.

Seared Beef Fettucine, not an Italian dish. This was seared beef
tenderloin with onion, fettucine, and chocolate habanero. First bite allowed for you take in the full
flavor of the dish. After that, PAIN. I really liked the flavor of this but
just could not get passed the spicy aroma as well as the pain it brought to my
entire mouth once the spice set in. Would have liked to have more of the
initial flavor I had at first bite but could not get passed the heat. As far as
where I rank this one for spiciness, I put it in there with the Octopus Ceviche that kicked the night off.

3 more courses to go…

                Pineapple
Glazed Pork Tenderloin over white rice with antillais
red chile. Another enjoyable,
or almost enjoyable dish. The pork tenderloin reminded me of tender fillet
minion and the pineapple sauce was a nice addition. The rice was plain and
bland as it needed to be with its rival the anillais
red chile. Another potential for a dish I would order
with the right balance of spice. This one mainly attacked the center part of my
tongue as well as giving me the most pain around my lips inside and out. As
long as you bypassed the chunks of pepper, you could make it through while
enjoying the flavor of the course.

                Dragon’s
Breath Chicken, and appropriate name for this
course.  The menu reads, “Roasted Chicken
with Five Spice, Sherry, Soy and Trinidad Scorpion Chile. Have you ever been
stung by a scorpion? From the tropical islands of Trinidad comes the Trinidad Scorpian Chile. So hot, some say it is hotter than the Bhut Jolokia (Ghost Pepper) and
Naga Morich. The island of Trinidad is in the Caribbean
northeast of Venezuela. I went straight for the meat under the skin, because I
wanted to get the flavor of the meat before I burned my mouth of taste.  I got to the meat deep under the skin without
any sauce. It was a nice taste of roasted chicken, moist, tender, clean, with a heavy heavy pepper flavor. As I took my time
chewing this one bite, the heat swelled and engulfed my entire mouth. I then
tried another bite but this time with a touch of the skin and the sauce. I was
done after that. This was burning hot but with flavor. This was top three of
hottest on the menu this evening.

                The
final course for the night was the dessert course, Deep Fried Oreo (orange
fall/Halloween filling)with fresh Whipped Cream and
Ghost Pepper. This was prepared by taking each individual oreo
and separating the two cookies, removing the filling, mixing in with ghost
pepper, and putting all the cookies back together with the new modified
filling. The Ghost Pepper or Bhut Jolokia
is rated at over 1,000,000 Scoville units, whereas
regular habanero tests at about 260,000 Scovilles. I didn’t attempt this dessert and I actually
asked for the same dessert unmodified. This worked perfectly for me because it
gave me some normalcy at the conclusion of the night allowing me to come out of
the intense focus that was required of me all night to get through the heat
while trying to actually appreciate the flavors involved. Cookies and milk
finished it up for me perfectly and I really don’t have regrets trying it with
the Ghost Pepper after seeing the reactions on everyone’s faces.

                I had a
really great time experiencing this unique style dinner event while enjoying
good company. This has intrigued me to find more types of events like this
involving tastings or other experienced to be had. Thanks to Trevor Copeland
for inviting and treating me to this experience of a lifetime.