And The Winner is.....Horse Radish!

Well, it's been a while but here's another eating story from yours truly. This is about maybe only the 2nd or 3rd time I've been beaten by food. (I told you about my last culinary defeat in "And The Winner is...Habanero Pepper!"). So I'm at my annual industry trade show in Las Vegas this past week. I had a speaking gig at the trade show also, so I was there for 4 days(way too long in Vegas for me). So after a day of speaking or walking the trade show, I look forward to eating at one of the many fine restaurants Las Vegas has to offer. The 3rd night of the show, the owner of our company has told us that he's taking us to a great restaurant at the Bellagio Hotel. I'm excited because I know that this is going to be a great meal and I'm hungry as hell.  The owner also tells us that we've been invited to a wine tasting party thrown by one of our vendors that is also at the Bellagio. He tells us, "Let's go to the party, get some drinks and then we'll go eat"  Considering I don't drink and I haven't been to an industry party in 9 years (don't like hanging out with people who do the same thing I do. Just don't), I wasn't overly excited to go but whatever, I'll survive. So we get to the Bellagio Hotel and find the ballroom where this party is. It's packed with people. Also, there are a bunch of long tables with lots of different wines for people to taste. We also notice they have stations with different kinds of food. Lots of stations. There's a station with Asian Noodles, a station with fruit, a station with Sushi and there a couple of stations with  guys carving what looks like Prime Rib. Not to mention, there are a bunch of servers walking around with great hors d'oeuvres.  I was pleasantly surprised at not only how much food but how good it was. We're all filling up on food (we ate so much that we ended up cancelling our dinner reservations). So It's time for me to get some of that Prime Rib. I grab a plate and a little roll while my guy in the chef outfit is carving a really nice piece of beef. He plops the Prime Rib on my roll and now it's time to add a condiment. There's about 5 little bowls of what looks like Mustards and Horse Radish. I ask the chef about each one. He tells me about each but my attention is on the one that he calls "Pure Horse Radish". We all know that I like food as hot and spicy as it comes so I figure "Pure Horse Radish" was the call.  I grab the ladle and start to put the horse radish on my mini Prime Rib sandwich. "Put" is probably the wrong word. I should use the word "Glob" because I put a TON of horse radish on this sandwich.  I think the chef must have been thinking "Geez, fella. Do you need a paintbrush?" Now I'm ready to sink my teeth into this bad boy. I take a pretty healthy bite and HOLY *#&#@%* !!!! Immediately it feels as if my face has exploded. The burning sensation I'm feeling in my eyes, nose and mouth is unreal. My eyes and nose are watering like someone drilled a hole in the back of my head and stuck a garden hose in it. My mouth feels like I just drank Drano. The woman next to me says "Are you OK?" I say, "No! You may have to take me to the emergency room!"  She laughs thinking I was kidding and walks away. I grab a full glass of water I had with me and down it in about 2 seconds. I'm starting to regain my senses and grab a plain roll to try to nutrilize this heat.  It actually worked( along with 2 more glasses of water). After I composed myself I walked back to this same station. I asked the chef "What is your name?" He replied "Renaldo". I said "Renaldo, you seem like a very nice man."(learned at an early age not to anger people that handle your food)  He replied "Thank you" I then continued "But that being said when you saw me put so much of the horse radish on my sandwich, did it ever occur to you to tell me that it was going to burn my ass out?" He looked at me sheepishly and replied "No, sorry about that." Thanks Renaldo.