I am so emotionally dead inside the only way I can feel something is to put things in my face that illicit a visceral reaction to cause so much pain only dopamine can cure myself.
I don’t consider myself a person that’s really into spicy foods, but at the same time I genuinely can’t detect heat in most hot sauces. Even the dumb novelty “ass blaster nine million” ones.
Since we’re talking Korean noodles, I’d say Shin Ramyun (2700SHU) is the optimal level of spice for me. The regular Samyang fire chicken noodles (4400SHU) are spicy but enjoyable. The 2x nuclear fire chicken noodles are just too much for me (8800SHU).
Can’t do hot-on-the-tongue spice (chili powder, jalapeño, etc.) Hot-in-the nose (horseradish, wasabi, etc)? Give it to me. Make me cry!
Then there is also no such thing as to much garlic, on ANYthing!
@brennyn I’m going to err on the side of those not being my thing. It’s the capsaicinoids that define it. Just because it isn’t too bad for you doesn’t mean I’ll be able to even take the tiniest nibble.
@brennyn@ratman Exactly. Just like everything else in life, different people have different experiences. I don’t tell Indian restaurants to make my food mild any more because the cook’s mild may be my too hot. Now I tell them to make it not spicy at all. That usually does the trick.
I can’t even eat pickled jalapeno slices… I literally couldn’t make myself swallow it. I don’t know if it was the spice or the fact it was pickled but never again.
@kjady And my kid DRINKS that juice that is left on the can like it is water!!! OMG no. Just no. And my kid dumps spoonfuls of cayenne pepper on her food. I joked that she’d eat anything as long as it was buried under cayenne pepper. I banned her from spicing any food I cooked until I pulled out of the pan what I wanted and what was destined for a meal another day. Then she could set it on fire with spices.
@Kidsandliz I grew up and live in the midwest. I’m pretty sure 99% of people in our area didn’t know there was spice other than black pepper before the advent of the Food Network. I envy people who can handle spice. Anything more than mild sends me screaming for the milk.
@spacemart I was out getting Mexican food after a mountain bike ride with a friend and he got the El Yucatec Green Habañero Hot Sauce confused with the XXXtra Hot Habañero Sauce. I laughed quite a lot watching him struggle with lunch that day.
I sincerely don’t understand people putting hot sauce on their food. When I eat, I like to taste the FOOD, and I have never had any kind of hot sauce that would allow me to do that.
People who don’t like spicy food are like people that listen to generic pop music of their era. It gets you through the day to day, but never really stands out. I hope you’re all satisfied with your boring existence.
@zinimusprime There are a lot of really interesting flavors in the world – many of which stand out on their own without needing heat. Just saying – maybe you are the one who is stuck on generic pop.
@mehthanol@zinimusprime Maybe needing a ton of spice means that your taste buds aren’t working properly. Nothing wrong with subtle flavors if you can taste them. (I have tickets to a Beach Boys concert so take my opinion for what’s it’s worth.)
@zinimusprime You sound like my work husband. About 25% of the population has more taste buds than average; they’re called supertasters. At the other end are nontasters, the 25% who have fewer than average.
Supertasters can’t stand foods like coffee, green peppers, and spicy food. For me, the taste of spicy food is overwhelming and it’s almost painful. But I can taste the vanilla in vanilla pudding and tell you which spices are in the chai I’m drinking.
For my work husband, a nontaster, it’s the opposite. He thinks foods like vanilla pudding or mac and cheese are tasteless and likes spicy food. He can’t taste the subtler flavors in his food, so he gets flavor from the spiciness.
That’s a long-winded (and hopefully mildly informative) defense of those of us who can’t bear spicy food. As I told my work husband, it’s not his fault he was born with a tongue covered in dead stumps instead of taste buds.
@lisagd@zinimusprime I’m a super taster, but I do like getting my mouth kicked in from time to time. But I mostly eat bland foods (oatmeal, gruel) and put spicy foods with wine (rotten fruit smothered in dirt): something to remind me other people like things.
@sammydog01
On one of the very first CDs I bought, circa 1984 (not a Beach Boys disc, but a collection of songs from various albums; it even had the theme from Superman and Pachelbel’s Canon in D):
That was of my favorite CDs for decades, till I lost it.
My son was in Thailand on a trip once and did some “couch-surfing”. Met a family that invited him to spend the night at their house and fed him real Thai food. He was super jazzed to really get to try “Thai hot” foods and enjoyed them tremdnously (but then again… he ate some stuff on his plate that was supposed to be decoration/garnish!!)
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
As for me, I enjoy a wide variety of ‘hot sauces’ and spicy foods. Some of my favorite ‘mild’ hot sauces are the chipotle and garlic varieties of Tabasco. My SIL make a fermented pepper sauce that is hot and very tasty. On a trip to Trinidad the guy that ran our AirBnB made us supper one night and had some kick-ass hot sauce that went really well with his food.
I can eat, and potentially enjoy, things that are rated “very spicy” in cultures where that’s prized. But if the heat is the only note in the flavor, meh, bleh, why bother? I want the heat to be complementing or emphasizing the rest of the notes, and that’s not as common as would be desired.
I am so emotionally dead inside the only way I can feel something is to put things in my face that illicit a visceral reaction to cause so much pain only dopamine can cure myself.
Depends on the food but is usually around Pretty to Very.
Enough to really feel it but not enough to make me take a break from eating.
I don’t consider myself a person that’s really into spicy foods, but at the same time I genuinely can’t detect heat in most hot sauces. Even the dumb novelty “ass blaster nine million” ones.
Since we’re talking Korean noodles, I’d say Shin Ramyun (2700SHU) is the optimal level of spice for me. The regular Samyang fire chicken noodles (4400SHU) are spicy but enjoyable. The 2x nuclear fire chicken noodles are just too much for me (8800SHU).
Can’t do hot-on-the-tongue spice (chili powder, jalapeño, etc.) Hot-in-the nose (horseradish, wasabi, etc)? Give it to me. Make me cry!
Then there is also no such thing as to much garlic, on ANYthing!
@ratman Scorpion peppers may be up your alley. It’s like biting into a tangerine that hates you.
@brennyn That looks extremely hot-on-the-tongue, which I said was a no-no for me!
@ratman It’s not. It really tastes like a citrus fruit that then lights up your sinuses. The YouTube reaction people are playing it up.
@ratman I’m with you on this; my brother though is the exact opposite.
@brennyn I’m going to err on the side of those not being my thing. It’s the capsaicinoids that define it. Just because it isn’t too bad for you doesn’t mean I’ll be able to even take the tiniest nibble.
@brennyn @ratman Exactly. Just like everything else in life, different people have different experiences. I don’t tell Indian restaurants to make my food mild any more because the cook’s mild may be my too hot. Now I tell them to make it not spicy at all. That usually does the trick.
I can’t even eat pickled jalapeno slices… I literally couldn’t make myself swallow it. I don’t know if it was the spice or the fact it was pickled but never again.
@kjady And my kid DRINKS that juice that is left on the can like it is water!!! OMG no. Just no. And my kid dumps spoonfuls of cayenne pepper on her food. I joked that she’d eat anything as long as it was buried under cayenne pepper. I banned her from spicing any food I cooked until I pulled out of the pan what I wanted and what was destined for a meal another day. Then she could set it on fire with spices.
@Kidsandliz I grew up and live in the midwest. I’m pretty sure 99% of people in our area didn’t know there was spice other than black pepper before the advent of the Food Network. I envy people who can handle spice. Anything more than mild sends me screaming for the milk.
Is the Thai spice levels (Not too spicy, sometimes), Mexican spice levels (Very spicy), or New England spice levels (Extremely spicy)?
@hchavers Not to mention “Iowa spice levels”. (They have one bottle of Tabasco for several entire counties there.)
@hchavers @werehatrack that would be Wendell’s in Norton, MA spicy - which would be “highya spice levels, guy”.
Spicy food is a personal thing for me. I like to feel it.
It’s magic, for me, when my head starts to sweat. From the food.
That makes it an experience I remember
@00
yep, when the “cranium starts to cry” it’s hot enough!
I don’t want my food to “kick” me. Thanks.
@katbyter Kicks you once when it enters, twice when it leaves!
el yucateco hot sauce is the perfect spice level for me. it is sofa king good
My friend thought that green was mild like tomatillo salsa. He learned very fast, and made it through.
@spacemart I was out getting Mexican food after a mountain bike ride with a friend and he got the El Yucatec Green Habañero Hot Sauce confused with the XXXtra Hot Habañero Sauce. I laughed quite a lot watching him struggle with lunch that day.
More spice than Pizza Hut pepperoni and I’m right out! I absolutely cannot handle spicy food of any kind.
“How spicy is the right amount of spicy for you?”
We talking food, or our Saturday night date?
@phendrick Yes.
I sincerely don’t understand people putting hot sauce on their food. When I eat, I like to taste the FOOD, and I have never had any kind of hot sauce that would allow me to do that.
People who don’t like spicy food are like people that listen to generic pop music of their era. It gets you through the day to day, but never really stands out. I hope you’re all satisfied with your boring existence.
@zinimusprime There are a lot of really interesting flavors in the world – many of which stand out on their own without needing heat. Just saying – maybe you are the one who is stuck on generic pop.
@mehthanol not possible. According to my waistline, I eat those too.
@mehthanol @zinimusprime Maybe needing a ton of spice means that your taste buds aren’t working properly. Nothing wrong with subtle flavors if you can taste them. (I have tickets to a Beach Boys concert so take my opinion for what’s it’s worth.)
@mehthanol @zinimusprime Eating only spicy food is kind of like only listening to heavy metal all the time.
@zinimusprime You sound like my work husband. About 25% of the population has more taste buds than average; they’re called supertasters. At the other end are nontasters, the 25% who have fewer than average.
Supertasters can’t stand foods like coffee, green peppers, and spicy food. For me, the taste of spicy food is overwhelming and it’s almost painful.
But I can taste the vanilla in vanilla pudding and tell you which spices are in the chai I’m drinking.
For my work husband, a nontaster, it’s the opposite. He thinks foods like vanilla pudding or mac and cheese are tasteless and likes spicy food. He can’t taste the subtler flavors in his food, so he gets flavor from the spiciness.
That’s a long-winded (and hopefully mildly informative) defense of those of us who can’t bear spicy food. As I told my work husband, it’s not his fault he was born with a tongue covered in dead stumps instead of taste buds.
@mehthanol @sammydog01
The Beach Boys are awesome.
MEALS! DEALS! EELS! AWESOME!
@Kyeh @mehthanol
This is a good analogy. I don’t eat spicy food all the time.
@lisagd I taste all those things. I’m just being mildly antagonistic for the sake of humor.
@mehthanol @zinimusprime My brother, who loves hot food (capsaicin only though, no wasabi) is also a big fan of heavy metal.
@mehthanol @zinimusprime I’m pretty excited about The Beach Boys.
@lisagd @zinimusprime I’m a super taster, but I do like getting my mouth kicked in from time to time. But I mostly eat bland foods (oatmeal, gruel) and put spicy foods with wine (rotten fruit smothered in dirt): something to remind me other people like things.
@lisagd @zinimusprime a flavor all on its own
@sammydog01
On one of the very first CDs I bought, circa 1984 (not a Beach Boys disc, but a collection of songs from various albums; it even had the theme from Superman and Pachelbel’s Canon in D):
That was of my favorite CDs for decades, till I lost it.
My son was in Thailand on a trip once and did some “couch-surfing”. Met a family that invited him to spend the night at their house and fed him real Thai food. He was super jazzed to really get to try “Thai hot” foods and enjoyed them tremdnously (but then again… he ate some stuff on his plate that was supposed to be decoration/garnish!!)
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
As for me, I enjoy a wide variety of ‘hot sauces’ and spicy foods. Some of my favorite ‘mild’ hot sauces are the chipotle and garlic varieties of Tabasco. My SIL make a fermented pepper sauce that is hot and very tasty. On a trip to Trinidad the guy that ran our AirBnB made us supper one night and had some kick-ass hot sauce that went really well with his food.
I can eat, and potentially enjoy, things that are rated “very spicy” in cultures where that’s prized. But if the heat is the only note in the flavor, meh, bleh, why bother? I want the heat to be complementing or emphasizing the rest of the notes, and that’s not as common as would be desired.