I HATE spicy foods, Danggit!
- Thread starter Lookingglassman
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Chilli is my friend and curry too. Strong flavours for the win. Blandness is for the bland.
If it's got curry in it, I'm there.
Mon frere! Yes, I too, am of the transparent persuasion. But I love spicy foods. It enhances the flavor to have a mild kick to it. Just a little tingly burn is enough. Hubby, however, will be floored by black pepper. He's such a wimp with spices that when we go to a friend's house, she puts little labels on all the salsas she sets out:
Hot, Medium, Mild and Dave's Tomato Water.
I like a little bit spicy . . . like 2 out of 5 stars. Any more than that and I can't really taste the food anymore. But I think it just depends, the more spicy food you eat, the more you can handle. At least it doesn't seem to be as bad as salt (which I'm super sensitive to). The more salt you eat, the more you need to enjoy your food. It's a crappy cycle.
My coworkers constantly amaze me by their sensitivity to spicy foods. Salsa that to me is bland will have them crying- literally. It completely blows my mind.
Then I guess I'm bland. You can find me over here in the line of people who can't bear even the slightest taste of hot spices in their food.
I do occasionally make chili, and I'll put the requisite amount of chili powder and cayenne into it as called for by the recipe, but by the time it's all cooked, I can't taste any of it. My father, on the other hand, would probably take that recipe and put about ten times the amount of chili and cayenne into it - he eats entire raw jalapenos as a snack. (Or, at least he did 20 years ago - I don't know if he still does.)
When asked if I want something "hot, medium or mild," I generally respond "wimpy".
A friend of mine used to work at Walt Disney World and when he went to one of the local stores, he found salsa that was "extra-mild." I believe the lid was blue.
It amazes me too. I had a friend who could not eat some crackers with a bit of pepper on them.. they were table water crackers. They had so little pepper I thought it was poppy seed. She was often refusing to eat stuff I couldn't even discern the hottness in.
I actually don't find wasabi to be terribly bad, myself, mostly because it doesn't linger at all. Whereas a curry will eventually get to me, since the spiciness is cumulative.
Speaking of which, I could really go for a nice dhansak right now...
The first time I tried wasabi I popped this huge chunk of it into my mouth, mistaking it for avocado.
Fortunately I had been raised on horseradish (which wasabi is) and that english mustard they have at chinese restaurants in the US (which contains horseradish) so I did not die. It was pretty funny though because I had NO IDEA what I'd just eaten. I had to go ask and then go home and google it.
Fortunately I had been raised on horseradish (which wasabi is) and that english mustard they have at chinese restaurants in the US (which contains horseradish) so I did not die. It was pretty funny though because I had NO IDEA what I'd just eaten. I had to go ask and then go home and google it.
I'm not so sensitive so I can enjoy the taste without the burning. It's weird that whatever food that is labelled "hot", I've never found at all hot. I guess they're afraid of burning people with sensitive taste buds like you. I wouldn't want to have such sensitivity since I would miss out on alot. But maybe other kinds of food taste much much better to you than to me.
Horseradish is weird the way it is intensely hot and then the heat vanishes. Why doesn't it linger like chillie?
And here I thought that except for the soccer hooligans, the UK was a nation full of mannerly people.
But as it turns out, you're just like us!
Well, we have better manners than you when we aren't drunk
Horseradish is related to mustard. Its heat comes from oils like in mustard. Those oils are very volatile and evaporate quickly, especially when heated.
The heat in chilies, of course, comes from that wonderful thing called capsaicin. The burn of love.
Up until recently, I didn't like spicy food, but I had an Indian friend who was spice crazy, so I had to learn to adapt, since she found it difficult to accept that I didn't like spices! Nowadays, if a meal doesn't have a little bit of a kick, it risks tasting bland to me, especially since I've stopped drinking, there has to be some sort of thrill on the table. 
I like it to be a flavoursome heat though, rather than heat for heat's sake. I especially love Thai spicy dipping sauces, full of lime, garlic, ginger, and tangy flavours like that.
OP, if you don't force yourself to try spicy a few times, you'll never know if you could learn to like it, it's one of those acquired tastes, although some people are born with it... my sister was demanding more spice while she was still in her high chair(!), and at the tender age of 6, liked drinking ginger teas, coffee, and all kinds of odd flavours you would not expect of a child. Perhaps you have more taste-buds than most - apparently there is great variation amongst people.
I like it to be a flavoursome heat though, rather than heat for heat's sake. I especially love Thai spicy dipping sauces, full of lime, garlic, ginger, and tangy flavours like that.OP, if you don't force yourself to try spicy a few times, you'll never know if you could learn to like it, it's one of those acquired tastes, although some people are born with it... my sister was demanding more spice while she was still in her high chair(!), and at the tender age of 6, liked drinking ginger teas, coffee, and all kinds of odd flavours you would not expect of a child. Perhaps you have more taste-buds than most - apparently there is great variation amongst people.
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