Grrl Power #1140 – Air (borne) Travel
I would say Anvil should have known better, but it’s been a while since Sydney did any spicy food shenanigans. A long while, come to think of it.
Sydney wasn’t going to drink it straight, either. If you missed it, Sydney is fumbling a granola bar in the second to last panel there. I mean, I don’t know who puts hot sauce on a granola bar, but I couldn’t think of anything else she might have to snack on in her pocket. She’s a vegetarian, one of those ones who will eat ethically sourced animal secondary products like dairy and eggs. She also eats fish… Basically she doesn’t eat red meat. Or white meat if it comes from a bird. Anyway, I only mention that because she wouldn’t have a slim jim or beef jerky in her snack options, and I could definitely see someone putting hot sauce on that.
She might have brought a few MREs with her… I don’t know if those break down well into “stick it in your pocket to snack on later” units. Vegetarian options in MREs are stuff like cheese tortellini or curry. Most protein bars would be comfortably vegetarian for her. I guess I could see putting hot sauce on a chocolate protein bar. Of course it depends on the hot sauce. Weak vinegary shit like tabasco would be awful, but you can get all kinds of flavors. Spicy honey, hot apple pie hot sauce (link), there’s one I got from the Hot Ones guys that has coffee and chocolate in it. It goes amazingly well on a burger. My point is, there might well be a hot sauce that is really good on a granola bar. Honestly the Hot Ones one I linked might work, even though I wouldn’t actually categorize it as actual hot sauce. Still good though.
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Aerosoling Sydney grade hot sauce in a sealed environment full of people? I don’t see how that could possibly go wrong. They could add spicy food to the no-fly list after this.
Now the question remains as to whether that spray is traveling at normal human rate or at super rate.
Considering Anvil’s powers… Yes. This is weapons grade assault condensed into aircraft cabin form.
wait- I thought many of the really hot sauces were mildly corrosive an would eat its way out of a flask like that?
I refuse to look down the center isle. I am suffering enought.
supply chain can’t order parts… and it has to ship… we are missing parts…. where are my parts… can’t have donuts.
Many hot sauces have vinegar which will corrode steel, aluminum, and tin. Vinegar isn’t a required ingredient though.
I have this hot sauce called The General’s hot sauce which is 85% peppers instead of vinegar and other stuff like that. It’s quite good. Comes in bottles that look like hand grenades.
The General is okay.
Let me know if you ever come across a bottle of Possible Side Effects.
Used to be made by Blair’s…but I think the recipe was lost after the divorce. =P
There’s a store in the Staten Island Mall which sells nothing but hot sauce. I think it’s called something like ‘The Sauce Store.’ I just know it’s near It’Sugar. Next time I go I’ll check if they have it.
I did check their website and it seems to be sold out on their website. I’m assuming that if they don’t have it, it’s because it’s description is:
“Possible Side Effects Hot Sauce. Use one micro drop at a time!”
And:
“Use with extreme caution! Possible Side Effects is the hottest sauce ever produced and should only be used by consumers experienced with hot foods…”
I somehow doubt it still is the hottest sauce ever produced since the Scoville Units listed is 283,000 SHU, and Buffalo Wild Wing’s Blazin’ Sauce (which I have pretty regularly) is 300,000 SHU.
And the more research I do, it seems to say that Blair no longer makes it but the ingredients list is interesting:
Red Savina Habanero Chile
Cayenne Chile, Vinegar
Natural Pepper Flavoring (contains Soybean Oil)
Orange Juice
Roasted Green Jalapeno Chile
Ground Pumpkin Seed
Salt
Potatoes
Spices
Now I really want to see if I can find a bottle to see what it tastes like. :)
It tastes like something you should use in small quantities.
Here’s the thing, hot sauces are typically hyped up for “heat.”
But you can get ridiculously hot stuff with zero real flavor. Possible Side Effects is not “the hottest” I have ever had. It _is_ really hot, never mind the scoville count, but more importantly, it has/had the best flavor of any sauce I’ve ever tried.
I would most often use it to spice up wings I’d get delivered in with my pizza. And specifically, I would use a toothpick – yes, you read that correctly – to stir in exactly one toothpick’s worth of sauce into a sauce cup of whatever dip I was using. Usually bleu cheese. That was literally all that was required. the actually spiciness would increase by an order of magnitude, and the _flavor_ would just be out of this goddamn world.
I haven’t had the stuff in over 20 years, and I am already salivating, just thinking of it.
*Cartman Voice* So good.
It’s actually the basis for my homemade recipe. For those interested in trying it themselves, “natural pepper flavoring” is just piperine, which is the active compound in your basic peppercorns, and “roasted green jalapeno chilis” is the long way to say “chipotle.” You can use standard issue white vinegar, but I like to mix mine with double strength apple cider vinegar from the Korean market. “Potatoes” in this case means using potato starch as a thickener, and “spices” can be whatever you like, though I tend to lean into a mix of garlic powder, pulverized juniper berry, bay leaf powder, and onion powder.
If you like a slightly sweeter version, add in agave nectar or mirin until you’re satisfied; both are good natural sweeteners that don’t have powerful flavors of their own, and won’t goof up your sauce’s flavor profile.
I start by roasted the habaneros, outside, on the grill. Once the skins start to char and blister, pull’em off the heat, and seal them up in a plastic bag to sweat. Once they cool enough to handle, get the stems and all the skins off. Skins will make the sauce bitter. Then, I puree the lot, and put into a pot with the OJ, and bring it up to a low simmer. Start stirring in the various other ingredients (except the starch), and let the whole thing simmer for about 45 minutes. Next, cut the heat, and as it cool, mix in the potato starch, slowly, a bit at a time, until you get the consistency you want.
Bottle, refrigerate, and enjoy as you like.
I was mainly intrigued because of ‘ground pumpkin seed.’ :)
But I am saving this post of yours in case I ever want to try to make my own hot sauce. Which I almost definitely will try to do.
Oh and about that toothpick thing. It reminds me of ‘Toxic Waste’ which is a 6.4 million SCU chili extract (not meant to be a hotsauce itself, it’s chili extract, do not try even a toothpick tip of it directly or you will surely die or wish you had). It’s meant for LARGE batches of hot sauce. HUGE ones. And you use a single toothpick tip of it. :) So yes I definitely read you right when you said toothpick and I thought ‘Okay that is probably really hot’ :)
Whiiiich makes me want it more.
Give it a whirl, then. Just remember to roast the habaneros first, and use hulled, unsalted, roasted pumpkin seeds. Put’em through a grinder before adding them in, though. Really rounds out the whole thing.
Thanks!
Vinegar is an acid, so eventually, just like canned tomatoes.
Good thing modern cans have a special coating on the inside…
i believe any Sydney grade hot sauces would get too angry and the metal flask would have been glowing red. remember in that kitchen in the beginning he specifically said don’t make it angry when he was moving that sauce she hurt her eyes with and had to sign a legal document to wave her injury rights away to be able to eat.
Molé hot sauce could go well on a granola bar.
I could see hot sauce and granola being pretty good. Then again, I’ve been a tuna & mustard guy since I was eight. Keep that mayo away from my perfectly good tuna, you heathens.
Even if it’s wasabi mayo?
I agree with Dick on this one. Wasabi is pretty good but finding something that isn’t actually horseradish difficult. Horseradish tastes gross to me.
That is presumably a suitably inert material coated hip flask Sydney is rocking. Normal hot sauce is quite capable of corroding through metal containers, but the chlorine trifluoride grade stuff Sydney prefers might need antimatter containment protocols.
“My only regret is that this board has no likes for me to give for your post.”
~Almost, but not quite, Nathan Hale
I think you’ve nailed it. It’s probably a normal structural metal (i.e. stainless steel) that has been passivated by SLOWLY introducing ClF3 and letting it scorch the internal surface, fluorinating it to hell and back and rendering it immune to anything that is remotely human-compatible.
i believe any Sydney grade hot sauces would get too angry and the metal flask would have been glowing red. remember in that kitchen in the beginning he specifically said don’t make it angry when he was moving that sauce she hurt her eyes with and had to sign a legal document to wave her injury rights away to be able to eat.
MREs routinely get field-stripped down to fit in cargo pants pockets. So much so that the US military came up with the notion of a “first strike ration”.
Anyway, Sydney has rather more free access to Uncle Sam’s inventory AND gets paid well enough she could stuff her cargo pants to the brim with snacks of any stripe or colour she’d care for on her own dime, down to special-order artisanal whatnots. Though knowing her it’ll be cheetos compressed into a bar or something.
New policy: From this day forward Sydney is required to have a flaming hazmat logo on anything she transports her sauces in. Additionally she is required to maintain Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) on all of her sauces.
This is it!
This is The Way!!
May Dave give this post the Kiss of Canon.
Huh, okay. I guess this MIGHT count as an on-the-job injury for Anvil. Or, if not, at least enough of a close call that they make a new rule. So, let’s see what OSHA says about SDS’s and figure out how Sydney might fill the form out.
Section 1:
Identifier: “Hydrogen Bitters”
Name, Address, and Phone Number of manufacturer, importer, or other responsible party: “Fusion restaurant, Archon Headquarters. Their phone number for pickup orders is ***-**** and it’s 24 hours so I think that counts as an emergency number but I’m not sure.”
Recommended Use of the Chemical and any restrictions in use: “It’s hot sauce. Do I really have to spell it out? You put it on food. Or in food. Or maybe dip food in it. Does that count as putting it on food? I think that counts as putting it on food, but that’s strange because you’re really putting the food in it. Anyhow, I recommend THIS brand for garnishing savory food. NOT sweet food. Well, maybe if the savory has a bit of sweet in it, like a granola bar with chocolate chips or
something like that. Actually, it works okay with sweet food. It’s not the best brand for sweet food but not bad on ice cream or chocolate or pineapple pizza or whatever. Hey! What about a pizza with hot sauce instead of tomato sauce? Oh man that sounds awesome. What was that, Anvil? Yes, of course I’m staying focused and filling this out right. You don’t need to tell me to get back to work, I’m still working. Anyhow, I guess it’s a choking hazard if you aren’t expecting it… or aren’t used to it… basically, don’t eat it if you’re a baby. Actually, I was eating this stuff as a baby, so don’t eat it if you’re a super-baby or something. But wouldn’t super-babies be more likely to have super-toughness or something? How does that work? Oh, right, supers don’t get super until puberty, so I guess it doesn’t matter if you’re a super-baby or not. Really, this stuff is perfectly fine, I don’t know why I have to fill this out…. what? Okay, I guess I’d rather you fill it out, thanks Anvil!”
If they are letting you on a plane with an MRE, security screwed up :P (Look up MRE bomb if you’re curious why)
Naw, it’s actually just a good pop really. Now if you aerosolized it could…just a quick flash fire and out. (note I was not involved in that in vehicle test) In fact if you set up properly it won’t even break a 1l pop bottle, just deforms into a sphere above the water line.
Only the heating pack. Hydrated lime is dangerous stuff.
They’re almost certainly flying either charter, private, or a U.S. government aircraft. Their security measures are far less restrictive.
Medic!!!
Now that was one of Davies best jokes thus far. Of course Sydney have hot sauce in a hipflask. All in character.
Been a while since we seen the good ol hot sauce flamethrower. Think last spicy food incident was with Neil Degrasse Tyson?
Sydney had gone to her comic shop first thing in the morning. Tyson showed up shortly after Sydney’s fans were having her grind autographs. The unfriending happened hours later when the shop closed and they were leaving. No doubt he unfriended her because of the sparks and “flame” he had coming out of him, maybe while he was in the hospital!
I think I recall DaveB saying that it was the aftereffects that did it. That whole glowing toilet thing apparently was the last straw.
If you are something spicy that someone gave you, and the next time you went to the toilet and you started screaming on the toilet, You’d call 911 too! I know I would if no one told me this would happen. (Sydney says “My bad” to him?) Don’t ever do the ghost pepper challenge, it’ll feel like grakz too lol.
I laugh at the ghost pepper challenge. I laugh at it I tell you. Wendy’s makes a ghost pepper sauce for their nuggets and on fries. It is not grakz. :)
Those are rookie numbers of scoville heat units! You gotta pump those numbers up!
Try a carolina reaper or a trinidad moruga scorpion pepper. :)
No thanks on the scorp sause, I’ve heard people have died eating the peppers. I’ve had reaper, and yes, I”m an aging man with ulcers it was a BAD idea, going in and out. Both of those are sauces, eating the raw peppers are way worse. When the ghost pepper came out I was younger and still enjoying hot sauces, I just didn’t expect my hemorrhoids were going to react like that! (yes I know, TMI)
*mentally preparing a Wendy’s Ghost Pepper Frosty for you*
Just an FYI. Top panel, Anvils response should read “You’re not letting down the team”. Otherwise it does not make sense, looks like it got a bit scrambled. Just wanted to let you know.
Was about to make a similar comment
I had to reread that a few times to make certain I wasn’t reading things in the wrong order.
Yikes, I’m not sure how I even did that.
Figured you were attempting to write “You’re not the ‘letting the team down’ person” but got distracted mid-edit and forgot to go back
Sydney was right… it wasn’t her fault. Anvil assumed things, this is all on her.
Yups: even if it has been a hot while since Sydney inhaled liquid fire, when has she ever drunk white lightning?
Uh Dave, Anvil’s second word bubble needs a rewrite. It’s not even Yodaspeak.
Yeah, took me a minute to figure that out but I blame me still being half asleep. At first I thought anvil was trying to say something like “its not THE TEAM that your letting down…” as if it was a self-esteem issue. Or if Anvil had suddenly developed a weird accent and/or turned english into a second language.
Yeah, that is possible, and DaveB got Sydney’d mid-edit :)
Oh… oh… oh, that’s horrible… oh, poor Anvil…
Could have been worse. It could have been Grakz. But Sydney is wise enough to not bring WMD on a plane.
Grakz is far worse coming out than going in, and it’s a semi-solid/noodles. Wouldn’t be able to carry it in a flask.
For fish-eating vegetarians, there are a variety of “fish-jerky”/dried fish options. Some of them are not bad at all, I’m saying this as a non-vegetarian.
I also love very spicy stuff, and I’m a bit of a purist about it. As in, I like the hot and the flavor of the pepper itself with minimal other flavoring agents. Example: I grow my own Scorpion Peppers, run them through a hand-cranked meat grinder with a little bit of garlic, then steep it in a double-boiler at the simmering/boiling temp of water. Add in some avocado oil (it can cook at absurdly high temperatures without breaking down, and doesn’t oxidize for years) and a splash of vinegar … I have jars I packed in 2014 that are as good as the day I made them. The garlic, vinegar, and heat-sealing keeps them almost indefinitely. Refrigerate after opening and they’re still good for six to ten months.
Anyway, dipping dried salmon (dried smoked salmon, even better) or a whitefish of some sort in hot sauce is definitely something I do. Dear Sydney: try it. You’ll like it. Goes great with smokehouse almonds and an apple or something. For non-vegetarians, turkey jerky (smoked turkey jerky) is a wonderful variant.
Dried squid is kind of sweet all by itself.
I got kicked out of my berthing for having that stuff. They wouldn’t let me back in until I either finished the pack or threw it away.
What, and they weren’t worried obout the aftereffects of you gorging yourself on cured seafood? I would have farted loudly in the dark just to remind them of their unreasonableness.
Dried fish is GOOD!
Never tried it with hot sauce, though…
Seriously, what did she EXPECT Sydney would have in there? Brandy?
I expected candy, isn’t that what she had in the last one?
A hipflask full of skittles would work pretty good.
That way they don’t crush and melt, and if they do, it’s still all in the flask, so nothing will stain horribly.
Maple syrup?
Anvil probably thought it was something alcoholic, oops.
Then again Sidney may like her booze with “some’ capsaïne extract. : )
Old acquaintance of mine made jalapeno wine some years back. I have an aversion to alcohol so I did not touch the stuff, but would assume stronger peppers would also work :)
I have heard that jalapeno wine makes a good marinade.
I actually do swig various hot sauces for taste and to clear my sinuses from time to time.
Heh, I used to as well until age and ulcers took their toll.
I’m just glad this happened with Anvil and not with Heathwave.
I wonder if Heatwave would be somehow covered by her power for hot food. I mean, scoville unit hot food isn’t exactly hot from heat, it just kind of simulates the sensation chemically with human heat receptors. Presumably Heatwave still actually has heat receptors but I’m guessing they don’t care about actual heat as part of her power, so would her power also click them off for chemical stimulation?
Hmmmm….
Dave should show us that. Sydney and (Heatwave’s name) could be epicurean galpals.
(Wiki says I don’t know what epicurean means. The restaurant reviewer one.)
Heatwave might not notice, but could taste nuances in sauces that escape 99.99999% of people who use hot sauces.
Then Mr Amorphous might inherit secondary effects of that when heatwave kisses him. Or more personal areas.
I have the impression that what capsaicin stimulates is not heat receptors but pain receptors.
So, how many millions of Scoville is it, then?
Heh heh.
Did one of those ‘wing eating’ deals.. where they had multiple sauces ranging from nice to ‘core temp of the Sun’… I was finishing up and I could tell the guys were disappointed because they get more views and clicks if people break down and flip out…. they made it seem like I was letting them down some-how… so while I was shaking both of their hands I belched in their faces…
.
Yeah… it was like I tear-gassed them LAWL
you mean like Syd’s pepper bees? (from the bank scene at the start of the comic back in the dark ages)
I love this, I was just rereading the spicy food comics (and what was in between) a few days ago!
Sydney can still breath teargas, has antininja reflexes and is a master of tonguefu, without the orbs.
Anvil breaking the seat in the last panel…
They didn’t have their seatbelts on yet either.
A few minutes before takeoff?
That was lucky it happened then and not while airborne!
(Had the Apollo 13 explosion occurred 24 hours earlier or 24 hours later it would have been unsurvivable.)
Sydney has her belt on
Ok, I’m laughing way too much at this last panel. XD XD
Who else beside me believes that we are about to learn that recharging Sydney’s batteries involves hot spices ?
She said that her power (source) is like touching the sun, which shouldn’t really run out of energy, and it doesn’t look like she needs coolant either considering that she lacks all symptoms such as sweating, exhaustion, serious thirst, … . But considering the 5 star hot sauce she enjoys, just to add stuff called “Vulcano” or “The UnMaker” as sweet toppings, maybe she is feeding her “sun”, burning her special sauce for power ?
No, that was where the PewPew power came from, not what powered her balls
Totally agree. My theory is the high levels of capsicum in her system acts as a capacitor of types to allow her to interface with the orbs. The orb’s aren’t running out of power, Sydney is running out of “juice” to facilitate the connection.
Sydney *really* should have known better than to let a person drink from someone’s else’s flask without telling them what was in it *before* they took a swig.
And Kenya should have (or WOULD have) at least smelled it before tasting. But they are both very tired and this was slapstick.
A block of emergency ration wouldn’t be a bad choice to keep in your pocket for a snack really. It’s really just a thick, dense, barely chewable, almost flavorless candy bar. Okay a candy bar is a much better choice for any reasonable occasion
A Snickers bar will carry you for a while.
The trick is in the peanuts.
Well they do say that Snickers satisfies. You’re not you when you’re hungry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTPJYZLD6L8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UO2A2p-19A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MixNh9L7G5M
Canadian army MREs used to have honey in resealable metal tubes, similar to toothpaste tubes. They were lifesavers on long patrols. Then they changed to plastic packets and ruined it.
I usually smile at the Jokes in this comic. Few make me actually laugh. This one OTOH I am still laughing about
Oh.Yhank yo7. I MISSED THIS!!!
Hm comparing this page to 1100, Anvil is different… a bit bigger body compared to the head, perhaps
That flask should be confiscated on the grounds that it violates the Geneva Convention concerning chemical weapons. I wonder if it might be a rival for the The Unmaker? ( Got It In One, #118; https:// www-dot-grrlpowercomic-dot-com/ archives/comic/grrl-power-118-got-it-in-one/ )
Wait, aren’t carry-on luggage supposed to go above you? o_O
Larger bags go into the overhead compartments, but smaller ones can go under the seat in front of you. Not really room for the arrow to show that, though.
And this, ladies and gents, is why you ‘always’ ask what they’re drinking before you imbibe. Might be alcohol, might be a sports drink.
Might be weapons-grade hot sauce.
Depending on the person, assume the last.
Oh Gawd, flashbacks of prom night 1980.
Even if alcohol, you never know when you’re going to encounter one of those rare masochists who enjoys Malort.
Malort-“It’s like if shame and regret were left to ferment before being distilled through an old, sweaty shoe.”
Apparently it’s time to break out the Filk Music again.
“307 Ale”
https://youtu.be/z5K2xxgVHJE
That album cover makes me sad. I live in Panama City, a very few miles from the Deepwater Horizon spill.
You have my empathy.
Remember, Deepwater Horizon was brought to you by Capitalism, and Big Oil.
Tower ATC: Republic 451, Turn right on Alpha to Alpha-1 and hold short runway 21.
Republic Captain: Uhh, Tower. We have had an incident on-board and need to return to the gate. We will need medical personal to assess the passengers and crew as we disembark.
Tower ATC: Republic 451, Roger. Gate 6 is still open. Turn right on Delta, right on Hotel, left on Lima, to the ramp. Do you need police or fire response?
Republic Captain: [ Gasp! ] Republic 451, no but we will need lots of medical people to evaluate the passengers. [ To the co-pilot, still on the radio ] Set the bypass air to full. [ Back to ATC ] That was Right – Delta, Right – Hotel, Left – Lima to the ramp. Thank you.
As someone who carries around hot cause to drink straight from the bottle as a pick me up (and throw me), I’ve never felt so seen as this.
I laughed harder at this than I have laughed at anything in years! I almost couldn’t breathe and started coughing! I’m not sure how long the laughing fit went on actually! Thank you!!!! I laughed pretty hard at the previous comic too, but this one has made my cheeks hurt!
If Anvil started to be more like Obelix,would she have a taste for wild boar?!?
Anvil is mighty but she will never match Obelix.
…Idunno.
Might make a cute couple. o.O
In the latest Asterix story Obelix had a flirt with a russian muscle mommy so perhaps Kenya is also his type.
How would Anvil look in Obelix trousers?!?
Wide stripes and pulled up high enough to hide the pointy bits? Eww.
Halo and Anvil cosplaying Asterix and Obelix sounds like a good vote incentive to me.
Seconded
Pixel or Krona would fit Asterix better, tho
The more Asterix the better, that’s what I say.
butt in that case, it needs two s’s
I can’t remember. Have we established whether the orbs maintain their “must be within a certain radius of Sydney’s body” property while powered down? Part of me is visualizing her managing to leave without her carry on, and only realizing later that she left the orbs behind. Q and amusing interlude where they wind up having to go through the depths of baggage handling to find it.
Her balls are under seat (they are carry-on, not checked)
The orbs were presumably in sleep mode during the bank, since she had to then wake them up when meeting the brass.
Even when the ORBS are asleep, they’re still tethered to Sydney. Remember how, when she was taking the money to the bank, during the bank, and immediately after the bank, the orbs kept her tethered to her bag even before she took them out to show ARCHON and tapped them to ‘wake them up.’
No one has tested it but they’d have to remain tethered to her (or vice versa) even while they and/or Sydney are asleep.
In the parking lot when they were inactive, the tube was trying to skitter across the pavement to her. I find it amusing having her forget her luggage, only for it to like, follow behind on the floor.
“Not the team letting down?” Should have given this one another check, Dave.