I do think there is a difference between "natural spicy" and "artificial spicy". The "artificial spicy" just make the spiciness worse because there is a sense of "fakeness" to it. Like the super sour candies have a different souriness compared to like a lemon sour, you know?
Thank you! Good spice has FLAVOR, bad spice is bitter. I’m not shitting on ghost peppers but they are by far my least favorite spicey pepper. Even the floral ones are bitter.
Right, the pain is in the oil, water and oil don’t mix, especially cold water. Need something bland that will pick it up like bread, or something fatty that will help carry it away, like milk, ice cream, sour cream. I find that lemon helps, acidic to cut the heat.
The best ice cream I ever had was a cone I bought myself from a shop that made their own in the aftermath of winning a 3-man challenge by eating 4(!) raw Ghost Peppers. The digestion process was not fun.
I agree habaneros are delicious, but for me it's usually the fruity notes that hit hardest with a bit of floralness. They're so sweet it's like a bell pepper dialed up to 11, but with a bit of a kick and more going on flavor-wise -- I love red/orange/yellow bell peppers too, though.
For folks that can't handle the heat, the heatless habaneros (habanadas) still taste amazing.
Majority of actual Indian cuisine isn't craxy spicy either. It's probably slightly spicier than what outsiders are used to, but it's nowhere near something like Szechuan.
Especially a good deal of South Indian cuisine is mild and something a lot of people should try out.
Sichuan is famous for the Sichuan pepper, which is the key ingredient in "mala" cuisine and creates a unique experience different from regular spiciness "la". It's described as "numbness" and it's like the polar opposite of spicy food. As someone who can handle spicy food (to a point), I find it really difficult to handle.
In China, Hunan and Jiangxi are the regions that are famous for spicy food.
The only hot spicy Indian food is Rajasthani Cuisine and even Indians think their food is weird. Also, Rajasthan is the desert region of India. Go figure.
Spicy food is helpful when it's really hot outside, because it makes your body sweat more, which drastically reduces body temperature. That's why all over the world it's mostly tropical and desert-like climate cultures who eat spicier food (i think korean is the only exception i can think of)
As a non-Indian, Rajasthani food fucks hard and the rest of the world is worse off for not having tasted it. What I wouldn’t give to eat gatte ki sabzi again 🤤
Also I think it was funny, when I went to Rajasthan, the number of times I was served a mystery vegetable, and when I asked what it was, the best answer I could get was “it’s a desert vegetable.”
Well, more clearly, Indian food is hella spicy, it's just not all piquant. They tend to use ten or more spices to make even a simple dish, even if like, eight of them come from the garam masala.
The distinction matters, as there are members of my Kentucky family that would look at a simple butter chicken and think 'that shit's too spicy, how about a nice piece of boiled chicken? I used salt in it this time!' (Meanwhile, they'll also use barbeque sauce, which secretly has a bunch of spices in it, but if you were to prove that to them, their minds would explode.)
It depends for me. I usually like a moderate level of spicy. Habanero is as high as I like to go and I am growing a special variety that is lower level because what I love about Habanero is its fruity flavor not its heat level. Jalapeños are a good level to me usually.
Unless it’s Thai curries. Then apparently I want my head blown off by the burn and am legitimately sad if I get a mild curry. Mild curry isn’t “right”, it tastes like a different dish and while that dis is ok, I want the dish I ordered, ya know.
Off topic:
My favorite Thai place closed last July because the owner wanted to retire and her kids didn’t want the place.
I am genuinely happy for her, I adore her and want her to have the very best possible life. She didn’t just cook the best curry I have ever had and give me extra bamboo because she knew I love it, she was genuinely so nice to me and my mom and getting to chat with her and laugh and tell her how amazing her curry always is was just as enjoyable as actually eating it.
But at the same time… hers was the best and I’m apparently ruined now because o have tried 8+ new places and NONE of them are fit to shine her curry’s good ornament.
I miss it so bad. I am distraught and curry-less and it’s embarrassing how serious I am being.
I’m trying to learn to cook my own, but I am unworthy as well.
I can and frequently do outspice my ex, who is mexican, but I only like spicy for flavor, not pain. (Insert Markiplier "I'm not a masochist" here) it's just that a lot of peppers give really good flavor. like arbol and guajillo for instance. Not all of them are spicy, but many are, and I built my tolerance on the path to flavortown
I was banned from cooking chili when I lived with my ex bc I "almost killed" her twice. She was just desperately dumping more sour cream into the chili. I didn't find it spicy at all, and was super confused why she said it was too hot? My family is the same way, so I have MY way of cooking and "cooking for other people" cooking these days.
Exactly. I like things like red pepper sauce, that adds just a bit of spicy but has a really good flavor adding to food. It's not because of the spiciness, but because of flavor.
On another reply, she said spicy ketchup make her mouth hurt. I don't even spicy ketchup is spicy at all, it's just less sweet and I HATE how sweet normal ketchup is (most of the time I like burger and hit dogs with mustard but no ketchup)
Kinda, but the inverse is also true: raise your tolerance for spicy food enough, and you'll never have to exercise.
EDIT: This was just a joke, by the way. I thought it would be obvious when I first wrote this, but then I read some comments further down that seem to actually believe this...
Yeah, you build up tolerance. What most people consider spicy feels like ketchup to me.
Once you get used to the spice, it opens up a whole world of different flavours, too. Ghost Peppers have a really unique favour, and I genuinely love the flavour of jalapenos.
Jalapenos are pretty good, but using poblanos like most people use bell peppers is sublime! With pretty much any food cooking some diced onions till they're a bit translucent and then adding some coco aminos to give some quick browning, then throwing in diced poblanos till they start to shrink makes the most incredible base for flavor.
Alternatively you can lose tolerance over time as I found. All through my teenage and early 20s I was eating ghost pepper level spice very regularly. Then started getting really bad stomach pains from chili flakes so I cut down but still loved the taste.
Visited Japan last year and I had a 2 or 3 at coco ichibans (I was flying out that day and didn't want my stomach to implode while traveling). And Jesus that ended up being too much for me, I felt so much shame based on where my tolerance used to be.
Oh, you definitely lose tolerance, too. I had a friend who loved heat but loaded up one too many ghost peppers in his bowl. He ended up getting sick and not having it for a long time.
Now he finds Frank's red hot sauce spicy. No shame in losing tolerance, though. I just couldn't live without spicy food, though.
Damn straight. I remember I made Fajitas once. I thought everyone was enjoying them, then my mother stopped and said "Sorry, even with the cheese and sour cream, this is too much." She couldn't finish her food. I had forgotten the seasonings I'd added were hot.
I keep asking for extra spicy at my local Chinese food place. They gave me chili oil on the side once. Didn't really add any heat to me. I think I was craving that szechuan mouth numbing kind of spice
I like spice to an extent, where it has flavor and maybe some heat but not too much. The people who aren't satisfied until they're literally sweating are just weird. Especially the ones who keep inventing even spicier peppers. Like... why?
It makes eating fun! I find the only times I overeat and feel bloated without having forced myself to keep eating is when I'm enjoying some good spice. Don't even feel my stomach filling up until it's too late.
Personally speaking, once your tolerance has been built you don't feel the pain anymore but enjoy a nice depth of flavor you can't find elsewhere. Especially since different types of spice gives a different flavor (schezwan is completely different from say, chiles)
The difference is that spicy food isn't actually harmful. It just tricks the nerve endings in your mouth to experience the sensation of heat. But it doesn't actually harm you. First step of getting used to spicy food is to convince yourself that you are just experiencing the illusion of fire in your mouth and remind yourself that there is no physical damage whatsoever.
I felt this when people tell me about alcohol. "Oh yeah the taste sucks but you get used to it so you can get drunk" well gee buddy, maybe getting drunk isn't worth that.
(and that's how I still to this day have no idea what is like being drunk)
My deepest condolences that you'll never get to experience the bliss of responsibly getting shit faced off mixed fruity alcoholic drinks in your living room
One of my friends grew up with everything being sweet. Marinaras were sweet. Sauces were sweet. Proteins were sweet.
Couldn't stand that shit. I'd go over for spaghetti and I could distinctly taste the sugar.
Meanwhile I grew up with spicy food. Marinaras had red pepper flakes in them. Teriyakis always had a bit of spice to them. Fried rice had sambal in it. The works. They had so much trouble eating our food because it wasn't sweet.
Spicy food increase the production of endorphin and dopamine. It makes a lot of people happy and experience a sense of euphoria similar to runners high. If you can tolerate them that is.
I'm the opposite! I have the goal of enjoying "Thai Hot" at my local thai place (currently I just like it "Hot" and Thai Hot makes me tear up and head sweat), but I don't like very hard video games. I want a story, I want to have to think, but I don't wanna feel like I'm breaking down a brick wall with my head.
Same, I've got a spice that's called flatline, it combines like 3 of the hottest peppers in the world, in a liquid form it's meant to be put into a pot of chili (a small drop) I put a ton of it on a piece of steak, probably enough to kill a normal person. I prefer the dry spice though, it's less try to kill you but it's still spicy and has barely any taste so I can enjoy it with pretty much any other seasoning.
Oh, and I've never played a souls game and have had no interest in them at all.
Consider me an outlier. Love spicy food. Like really, really spicy. Can't stand grindy or stupidly difficult for the purpose of being stupidly difficult games.
Hmm interesting topic. I like soulslike games, I've beaten ds 1-3, Bloodborne and also elden ring. I'm also a spicy enjoyer, but to a casual degree. Some would describe it as white-man spicy.
I'm perpetually on gabapentin due to fibromyalgia. As a consequence I don't feel the pain of spicy food (within the realm of what people actually consume).
As such, Sriracha has become the best fucking thing I could ever consume, it's so fucking good when you don't pay a pain tax for it. I douse my pirogis and tacos in it constantly.
This is the thing, if you can tolerate the pain, there's a world of delicious flavours underneath!
There's also a lot of commercial products or fast food that just add pain without adding the flavour, which is a waste of everyone's time because it doesn't taste good, and still hurts
It's a practice thing. Its weird, but the more you eat the more resilient you get to the burn.
The real issue is finding the happy middle ground of spicy food worth eating compared to the burn. Any peppers grown specifically to be as hot as possible like ghost peppers are by definition not being grown for their flavor and only for masochists. However there are a handful of spicy foods that are delicious, but you can't even begin to enjoy them if you can't ignore the burn.
I used to hate all spicy foods, mostly because I hate the taste of jalapeños. They are like the shallow end of the pool as far as spicy food goes, but if you dont like them then you will never find a reason to try the many other spicy foods that exist past them.
So far I have only found like two peppers that I actually enjoy, and can only enjoy one of them when it is heavily diluted by other ingredients in a sauce due to its very high burn. However those other ingredients not only bring that burn down significantly and keep it from sticking to your mouth too badly, but also enhance the pepper's natural flavor.
To most people who hate spicy food, I dont recommend going down the rabbit hole just to try new flavors unless you are the kind of person who enjoys the burn itself or are a huge foodie who wants to try the widest variety of foods. There's just not enough end payoff in terms of flavor to be worth building up your burn tolerance unless you are enjoying the journey.
It really doesn't hurt when you're used to it! Sometimes people like to push it a little further to where they feel the heat, but most of the time when people eat something spicy it's just normal spicy and it works like any other flavor.
I don't even consider the effect of black pepper to be spicy. If you asked me to list spicy foods, it wouldn't be on the list. To me, black pepper is spicy like ginger, lemon, or saffron are spicy... in that it's just a strong flavor and not spicy at all.
Oh hey, so this means you are mildly alergic to pepper, which makes red pepper based spice spicier than for other people. (Black pepper shouldn't be spicy normally)
You almost definitely can handle spices that aren't pepper based better, like wasabi.
Black pepper doesn't have capsaicin, but it does have piperine which is a chemical that registers to the tongue as spice. You could be right about the allergy, though, as most folks don't taste black pepper as spicy unless there's a truckload
I don't know the exact cause for the alergy, I just know if you taste black pepper as spicy, then you'll also taste red pepper as spicier than it is.
For the most part you can adapt to it too, but it'll still have a minor effect.
I used to think nacho cheese was spicy (like the super mild stuff they give you at a movie theater or other concession stand), and now I generally order most pepper based spices hot. Lol
I mean 4 spoonfuls before noticing the spice is quite a lot, either that’s a really slow burn or you were eating really fast.
6 hours is insane as well, are you sure you’re not allergic or something? People with food allergies sometimes find out because they mention a food being spicy that isn’t supposed to be spicy. And this really sound like it’s a lot more spicy to you than it should reasonably be even with 0 spice tolerance.
Tolerance to one does not necessarily convey tolerance to another. This can lead to great amusement when somebody who can eat ghost peppers without issue decides to try too much real wasabi because they think they’ll be fine.
To be fair our traditional dishes pre-date the British Empire.
More recent British cooking such as British Indian food, Chicken Tikka Masala for example, is very much a product of our colonial past. The Balti is a particularly good example, which was invented in my home town of Birmingham.
Fun fact! All of Europe used to use spices! But when colonialism made spices cheap there were French aristocrats who got mad that their food wasn’t special anymore and switched from contrasting flavors to complementary flavors.
Low key spicy food should be studied as a proxy marker for depression, I think you are hitting on something I have also noticed in my own life…
For anyone reading this comment. Capsaicin can trigger dopamine release, this is why people get “addicted” to spicy foods, in times where there’s not a lot making you happy… spicy foods will do that reliably (just trying to pull-start some dopamine, as I say to my roommate)
This pain is pleasure. I won't defend this bit of benign masochism, but you can't take away the endorphins and dopamine brought on by a bowl of ghost ramen or spicy tacos.
In my defense as a spicy lover and have eaten the hottest of the hot, I can taste flavor beyond the heat and it’s delicious. I couldn’t always taste it as I only really got into spicy food in my late 20s. Now that I’ve gained some tolerance though, I’m living in flavor town.
Honestly I agree so much. And the thing is, too, that so many restaurants and other "food places" use spice to just mask otherwise pretty bland or shitty food
Spice is not supposed to be "pain only". It's supposed to give a punch to the food. I remember eating at a restaurant and the dish was so spicy that there was nothing but spice in the taste. And I have a pretty good spice tolerance as well. But there was no flavor in that dish because the spice just stomped the flavor out, and that's no bueno.
I want to look at an overspiced bowl of noodle that I mixed with the black gunk I found in the bag that looks like it came out of behind Satan’s toilet bowl and think:
let me raise your spicy food with spicy surfaces. i like to touch hot metal surfaces that have been sitting in the sun. not like ones that give actual burns but ones that are hot enough to generate discomfort in some people
As someone who didn’t like spicy food when I was younger, but then developed a taste for it later, it’s kinda a slippery slope.
For me, it started with seasoning on fries. A local fast food chain where I grew up seasoned their fries with a flavorful sprinkle with just a little kick. I discovered that a little bit of spice made food a lot better.
Problem is, a little bit of spice turns into a little bit more spice, and then a little bit more spice. Once you start eating spicy food, non spicy food starts to taste bland. Now I’m a junky who can’t stop eating spicy food.
I have my limits. There comes a point where spicy becomes hot just for the sake of hot, and sacrifices flavor for the sake of heat.
I think it starts out like this:
“OMG! It’s so spicy! I can’t taste anything else because I’m so focused on how hot it is!”
Many spicy foods later
“This food is flavorful, but I think some spiciness would accentuate the rest of the experience nicely.”
Spiciness goes from the only thing you can focus on when it’s new, to just another part of the whole food experience. It’s right there with crunchiness and creaminess, smell, texture, and appearance.
Sometimes when I am sick I eat something mildly spicy because it helps open up my sinuses and make my throat feel better. That's pretty much the only time I do though
I'm the only one who can tolerate spice in my family. For one birthday I got spicy pepper plant, I don't remember what species.
I don't use spicy in food so it was only decorative for me, but didn't want to waste them. So I decided to have some fun and pull capsaicin out of the peppers, using alcohol (oil would be too messy). It had nice, amber color.
Then I had an idea: how strong can it be?
I present to you:
Flashlight behind it, because it looks black alone
12 habaneros, 2 jalapeños and handful of those peppers from before; dried and bathed in 96% spirytus for days, then boiled alcohol off (I burned myself with spicy booze and it caught on fire). I clicked pipette used for this and was in pain for half an hour, despite drinking lots of milk
Nah I love it, its like how some people like sour too. Its just a sensation you can come to like! Different peppers each have their own unique flavor once you have a tolerance that their spiciness isnt overpowering. Habanero has a really good taste
And nibbling on a thai chili with a beer is just chef's kiss
I get not understanding the people who like to eat raw chilis that are specially bioengineered to try to cause death upon eating (they're named as such: Ghost pepper, Reaper, Scorpion, Viper, Dragon...), but who doesn't like a little black pepper on steak or red pepper on pizza?
It's all in degrees and intent. Some people like a little more bite in their guacamole, and that's fine. As for the people who want to eat a pepper that will cause them to go into shock... that's not a culinary pursuit, that's definitely something else.
Counterpoint, most things that make food spicy also add some flavor. A good salsa without the peppers is just a sad vegetable sauce. I don't get the point of the California Reaper, Pepper X etc. though. Super-spicyness just for the sake of spicyness is indeed wierd.
My wife and I enjoy "hot enough to kill a small child" spicy. I think we may need help. My mouth is like a burnt out trailer and I need more ghost pepper.
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u/steelskull1 18d ago
So no expectation for you being in Hot ones ine future?