Spot on dreadnought72, water on chilly, same as water on greek fire.
Having lived in south east asia for a number of years found early on what those slices of tomato where for. When the mouth turns from red to white hot, simply pop in the slice of tomato, and instant relief. Also helps to regulate the the length of the flame out the other end as well.
Worked for me, and still does.
Long before I found this out, lived in London for a while, 4 of us shared a flat. One evening arrived home after work to find the two girls had kindly made dinner for everyone. I was the last home the girls had eaten and Mark had disappeared to the pub. Well, that was a little suspicious right off, anyway, sat down, girls fussed around and the plate appeared in front of me. Curried mince, with all the trimmings, looked very nice, if a tinge to yellow. Even though the two girls had already "eaten", give away number two, they sat down and chatted while I tucked in. The first mouthful, hey not bad. The second, getting a we bit warm. The third, well lets just say the sweat started to break out on the brow. The fourth, you know the macho teen male thing, well reasched for the glass of water conveniantly placed in the centre of the table. Big mistake, mouth went from red to white heat. Girls ask, do I like it. Macho male, yeah, not bad, how much curry powder did you use, while heading fifth mouthfull towards opening in face. Just as fifth mouthful arrived in tongue, reply came back, two desert spoons. How that mouthfull didn't forcefully find its way to the wall opposite I'll never know. Suffice it to say that cooking lessons where very high on the agenda that evening, as even I knew that for the given curry powder we carried in the cupboard, more than a pinch would burn the lining off of the mouth and everything on the way down, and out. All three of them thought it a huge joke seeing me "sitting in state" for most of the night. They had tried one mountful, duely spat out, before deciding to 'save it' for me, when I came home
Did get my own back on them all a few months latter, but that's another story.
kiwi