Asian Guacamole

During B’s spontaneous romantic flight to see me a few months ago, we enjoyed a relaxing weekend together in the kitchen. The love was buzzing in the air, a delicious lunch of guacamole and grilled shrimp already devoured, and as we chilled in my room, B struck up a deep conversation about true love and how much I meant to him. As I listened, I happened to rub my eye. Big mistake.

B: *waxing eloquent on about our future life together* 
Chef Uy: Ow, ow, owwww!!!
B: Uh, are you ok?
Chef Uy: Y’know those thai chili peppers I chopped for the guacamole? I think I got some in my eye, ow, ow, ow, it burrrns! Halp!

True love is running to the sink to fill a bowl of cold water because your fiance gets chili pepper capsaicin in her eye and shoving her face into the water to flush it out.

B has a tagline for me: Natalie Uy, Moment Killer.

The best way to avoid hot pepper hands is to wear gloves, but I always forget. I confess this is *ahem* not the first time I’ve gotten capsaicin on my face. During the early years of med school, B and I, being nerdy, tried to figure out the dermatomes (ie, nerve patterns) of my skin, which had been burning horribly for hours, especially after a hot shower. After puzzling over why the distribution didn’t correspond anatomically, we figured out it was related to what I had touched after chopping chili peppers. So, lo and behold, the right hand, left cheek, and right eye are not innervated by one nerve root after all.

The culprit for all this madness is an Asian guacamole adapted from i am a food blog. It has thai chili peppers, fish sauce, and green onions for a fun asian flair. Watch out for those chili peppers – they can have a mean bite!

Asian Guacamole

Ingredients
1-2 ripe avocados, peeled and pitted
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch green onions, thinly slices
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
3-4 thai chili peppers, minced
1 tablespoon patis (fish sauce)
pepper, to taste
pita chips, for serving

Directions
In a shallow bowl, use a fork to mash the avocado. Stir in the lime juice, garlic, green onions, cilantro, chili peppers, and fish sauce. Add pepper, to taste (the fish sauce provides the salt).  To make is spicier, add more thai peppers; for a milder kick, remove the seeds. Serve with pita chips and enjoy!

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

29 Comments

  1. Avoid touching your eye after working with chili pepper is the lesson to take away from this. Perhaps the Chef will heed her own advice one of these days 🙂

  2. This sounds so good! And I honestly cracked up at your attempted anatomy lesson about innervation. My fiancé is in med school too so I can totally picture him doing the same thing! Saving this to my Pinterest… And noting to self to NOT touch my eyes after I chop the chilies 😉

  3. Ha, cute story, I can totally see that happening to me during a romantic talk. I'm the worst about forgetting to wear gloves. In college, I made a soup with habanero peppers and my hands were on fire for hours afterward. Big mistake.

  4. I always wear huge rubber gloves for washing dishes, but never get around to using disposable gloves for peppers since they mysteriously vanish (out of sight, out of mind) and I'm too hungry to look for them most of the time.

    Hopefully you didn't have further habanero mishaps after that incident

  5. Yum! I haven't tried spicy guacamole before. Sounds like a great new addition to my snacking to-do list 🙂 Don't worry, the washing your eye made the moment that much more memorable. Now you'll never forget and you'll think of B every time you make this guacamole.