Bread on My Face

So last week, my host family invited me to eat with them one of the best meals possible in Macedonia- tavche gravche.  It is a dish that mainly consists of beans, but it so well cooked and spiced that it is super delicious (and usually cheap, if ordered at a restaurant).  As I was eating the delicious meal, my host mother offered me a dry pepper, which looks like the picture below.  She told me it was spicy, which I was super excited about.  So I instantly crushed up much of the pepper between my fingers and added it to my dish.

Tavche Gravche (an old pic taken in Veles)

Dried peppers

Well, spicy it was, and my face was sweating profusely.  I drank plenty of water, wiped the sweat off my face, and finished the meal.  Not long after, my face started to hurt, and I realized that I had transferred the capsaicins on my fingers to my forehead and lips.  As my face began to burn painfully, I excused myself and decided to wash my face with soap in water.  That did not help much.  As I returned, my host mother advised that I put bread on my face.  At this point I was ready to try anything, so she cut up some slices and I placed them on my face.

Well, at first it was soothing, but after laying the slices on my face for a few seconds, the burning sensation returned.  In a way, this remedy makes sense, as the bread would soak up the oils and sweat from my face.  Over time, the burning passed, but unfortunately my family thinks that I do not like spicy food (which is obviously not  the case!) due to this incident.  As I mentioned to my host mother, I learned something new that day!