HE thought #8 was decent because his taste buds had been destroyed.
I judged a BBQ cook off in Texas once. I tasted some of the worst meat I’d ever tasted in my life. I thought “Holy smokes! Don’t people taste this crap before they enter it?” That experience taught me that there really are some damn good BBQ cooks out there and if they have a trophy or two, eat some!
I remember living in Houston (so, in other words, not real Texas) during the Urban Cowboy craze, when every cook-off and restaurant had jalapeno-eating contests. Jalapenos.
Soon, contestants were eating an obscene number of jalapenos, so the promoters put in the fix. They added one habanero to the mix. One.
Today, people know about Scoville Units and seek after ghost peppers and more. We've come a long way.