I don’t understand how people do this, to be honest. Do you know how spicy food works? The receptor it triggers in your mouth is TRPV1, which does handle heat regulation and sensitivity, but it’s also a pain receptor. Like, selectively removing it to treat the pain caused by bone cancer kind of receptor.
The kind of heat that sets it off is heat above 109F/43C, in addition to things like scorpion venom. Presumably it comes through as heat. Everyone tells me it feels hot. I don’t get “heat.” I get what is clearly agony in one of the most innervated areas of the body, and science backed me up on this.
Y’all are addicted to licking the curling iron and I’m the weird one
You’re probably just sensitive to capsaicin. I love hot food, and it takes a lot for me to end up in agony like you described. But I’ve definitely been that guy at an Indian place where I’m sweating profusely while telling the staff the food is delicious.
Finding a hot sauce that tastes good/doesn’t taste like hot garbage is harder than actually eating food seasoned with it.
I’m a chili head and I fucking hate hot sauce that’s just pain without flavor. I’ve also been the guy in a Thai restaurant that regretted “hottest” on their menu.
Same. I’ve thrown out entire gift sets I’ve gotten because it’s just hot garbage in a bottle. I always tell the giver that I appreciate the thought, but if you’re gonna spend the money, go to someplace like pepper Palace and get one good thing instead of six bottles turds.
Same here I like chilli in moderation, a drop or two of habanero or a really strong ghost pepper sauce gives plenty taste and heat.
At some point I found out that I’m not superman when it comes to chilli and while I eating really hot food my body says “Stop not a bite more!”
Now I just try to stay far from my limit where I can enjoy the taste of chilli.
I think that’s why I tend to like carrot based hot sauces over vinegar. The carrot dulls the spiciness a bit and you get the flavor of the peppers more.
Theres too many “extract enhanced” sauces out there now like Da Bomb that just taste like chemicals and spice. It’s cheating in my book, make a hot sauce that blows my head off and tastes good.
It might be because I am also a bit of a masochist, but spicy food just taste better
Also you can build a tolerance for spicy food, I am in the unfortunate position that my mouth is much more tolerant than my ass (that I do not have the gene to digest capsaicin is a curse I levy upon my ancestors)
That’s the weird thing that got me just a couple minutes after posting this, and I just sat there for a while, staring into the middle distance.
I am a sadomasochist that needs my salsa to be mostly yogurt.
You can build a tolerance, I know. You’re literally burning your pain receptors out temporarily. But the kind of determination I appear to need to get there. How am I the world’s worst bitch
mouth is much more tolerant than my ass
Protein powder (I use the Orgain pea protein stuff) + banana + ice + milk/milk alternative all in blender. I don’t question the dark magic of this concoction, I just appreciate it after going a little overboard with the scoville units.
It’s why many women enjoy being spanked. Pain and pleasure have a really intricate, interconnected system.
I’m genuinely sitting here wondering if I can flip my brain to see it that way, and that might even work in theory. But if this is my best way out…I don’t wanna be turned on by hot sauce 😭
You don’t even have to see it in a sexual way. People like boxing and MMA. Or getting into bar fights for fun. It makes your body release adrenaline and other hormones that give you a natural high.
I love extremely spicy food that almost makes you want to tap out. But I’m Asian so might be cultural
I totally agree with you. My in-laws are always talking about how spicy they like their Indian takeaway food, and how they have to change their usual order when I’m dining with them. I’m just here thinking, “I don’t like it when the food hurts my mouth when I’m eating it.” Its as simple as that. If I can choose two versions of the same food, where one hurts my mouth and the other doesn’t, I’m going with the non-painful one, thanks.
The one exception I make is Jalapenos. I love the taste of jalapenos. They are not very spicy on the whole scale of things, and the flavour they add to subway sandwiches and vegetarian pizzas is amazing. But that is unrelated to Indian food.
The pain is kind of the point. More specifically the body’s response to pain is the point. Eating spicy food, especially mild foods when starting, is a low level pain but it triggers the body’s pain response. You get those nice dopamine and endorphins released. You end up associating the two and your journey to liking spicy food has begun.
It gets easier the more spicy food you eat. I think your brain just starts muting the pain response because it clearly isn’t stopping the painful thing from happening.
Also, spiciness is an easy way to get some flavor into an otherwise bland dish. Handy if you’re on a diet.
And it hurts in kinda a good way? Kinda, like wiggling a loose tooth when you’re a kid…
My mom, a wonderful lady in every other sense, was a terrible cook. The blandest of the bland. Unseasoned potatoes and overcooked meat was the norm. Even when she branched out to other things like stir fry and pizza, she still somehow managed to make them utterly flavorless.
I distinctly recall one day at school, somehow I ended up with a little too much pepper in my tomato soup. It was like my taste buds had finally come of age or something. I started regularly adding too much pepper to my tomato soup. Then Tobasco. Then, as a young adult I found a specialty hot sauce place in the mall. It was the second coming!
Now, I live in Korea, and wow they’re not afraid to spice it up here. I do get tired of the constant “Oh, the waygook (foreigner) can handle spicy food!” refrain though.
Some people go overboard with peppers that are all heat and no flavour; Those add nothing to the dish. Proper Thai or Indian with a mix of spice brings out the flavours, so its hot but also delicious. And it hits the mouth different. Like those hot pepper challenges arent food, they just burn all over lips mouth and throat, that should never a dining experience
Before refridgeration was developed, food rotting was a major problem in the hot, humid tropics. The solution was to poison the food with spice - it would be somewhat unpleasant to eat, but would kill pests. I suppose over the years we got used to it.
Fun fact: English has words for four basic tastes (sweet, salt, sour and bitter). Indian languages have a fifth basic taste - chilly or spicy.
