Like hot sauce? How about spaghetti? How about maple syrup? Ever tried them all together?

A brave group of teens tried all three tastes, simultaneously, in a gut-busting food contest, Food Fear Factor.

The eating challenge, held Wednesday, May 6, at the Snoqualmie Library, started out easy.

The seven teens from Snoqualmie and North Bend quickly met the challenge of eating wedges of sour lemons down to the rind.

But library staffer Sarah Lynch soon brought the pain, bringing chocolate covered seaweed, maple syrup-covered Spaghetti O’s and two kinds of baby food.

Teens were asked to prove the strength of their stomachs, choking down a series of questionable combinations for candy prizes and bragging rights.

Lynch wanted the teens to explore their culinary instincts, and shared books on weird foods and other world traditions, such as edible worms and grubs.

“It’s all a matter of culture, what is normal,” she said.

Some students had stronger guts than others.

“It’s good! Can I have both, please?” said Casey Ross, 13, who endured the baby food mix of brocolli and cheese and banana-strawberry. “My personal favorite,” quipped Ross.

Only Ross and Uyen Lam, 13, could make it all the way through the final round of sardines, seaweed, spam, syrup and everything else thrown together.

“It’s like a mixture of sweet and burning mud,” said Ben Forton, 13, trying out chocolate sauce, baby food, hot sauce and maple syrup. “If it was warm, I could take it.”

“The baby food activated my gag reflex,” said Elizabeth Parker.

She figured she’d never be able to eat Spaghetti O’s again.

“I’ll be thinking of the syrup.”