How's your tolerance for hot spicy foods? (freezer, tomatoes, Indian)

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by High_Plains_Retired

My mouth loves a good hot jalapeno but my stomach rebels.

and the older we get the more our spomach rebels!!!

[Icy Tea]

I like it hot and spicy, but not to the point of it being unpleasant. I'll take a Chick Fil A hot and spicy chicken. To me thats great. Likewise a quesedilla burger with jalapenos. I draw the line at habaneros, though. Heat is good, but when it burns you... forget it. Pepper jack cheese is great. I like horseradish on beef.
I like a local chili soup. Its very mild with brown sugar making it a little sweeter. But when I eat regular chili I like to taste the peppers and heat is fine. Likewise with salsa, anything up to medium is fine.

[jtur88]

If you get something in your mouth that is too hot to stand, reach for the bread. A piece of bread (even a tortilla) will absorb the hot pepper. Also, if you have some hot pepper, onion, etc on your fingers and get some in your eye, make a quick poultice of a piece of bread and press it into your eye, to absorb the irritant.

You can inure yourself very quickly to very hot spices, and probably should because hot chili peppers pack quite a wallop of essential nutrients, in their capsicum. You'll be doing your health a favor if you can increase your consumption of them.

I buy the extra-hot black label Valentina because it's cheap, and I go through 2-3 liters a year. I can eat it with a spoon. Once in a while, while traveling, I get a variety of chile I'm not used to, and I notice it mildly for a few minutes in the digestive tract, but it goes away quickly.

There are a lot of different varieties of chilli peppers, each one has a distinctive flavor.

[fleetiebelle]

Originally Posted by Mooseketeer

I love spicy foods but hate hot. Hot food to me hides flavours and is utterly pointless. If I can't taste all the ingredients than you might as well take out most of those ingredients.

I can tolerate medium hot but to be honest derive no pleasure from anything above a mild heat. I love a little hint of chilies for example but anything above that just annoys me.

Same for me. If all that you can taste is intense burning, what's the point?

And definitely for some people, there seems to be some kind of weird competition factor to eating spicy food, as if eating something that causes intense physical pain actually makes one a better person.

[Trimac20]

Originally Posted by Mooseketeer

I love spicy foods but hate hot. Hot food to me hides flavours and is utterly pointless. If I can't taste all the ingredients than you might as well take out most of those ingredients.

I can tolerate medium hot but to be honest derive no pleasure from anything above a mild heat. I love a little hint of chilies for example but anything above that just annoys me.

I have had delicate fish or seafood for example smothered in chili sauce and it might as well have been Tofu. So many times I have had beautiful King Scallops (or Crab) for example, juicy and plump, utterly ruined in Thailand and China , the flavour and sweetness completely masked.

A lot of spices used to be used primarily it seems to hide flaws in the quality of the ingredients in the old days and it seems to me it often still is the case. If the beef is tough and chewy and perhaps not such great quality let's smother it in chili and see if anyone notices. If the chicken is bland and sinewy let's do the same....

I also find for a lot of people eating hot foods is a competition , especially men. "How tough can I be ?", "How much heat can I take before my eyes start watering and I am begging for mercy? ".

Spicy absolutely. Spices can enhance and transform a lot of dishes into something vibrant and rich but hot ? No thanks.

I like to actually taste my food. If I want the taste of Hot Chilies being the dominant and single flavour than I will simply just eat hot chilies.

To me it is the equivalent of going to a concert and the music being so loud you can't even hear the singer , the lyrics lost in a wave of discordant noise and overpowering chest thumping cacophony.

Haha too true Moose. Chilli makes bland food tolerable. Those chilli eating competitions in the US...I have to see one one day, lol.

[Trimac20]

Originally Posted by nmnita

I know a lot of people, depending on where and how they were raised that think banana peppers are hot or a teaspoon of chili powder will make your mouth burn up: for me there is rarely anything that is too hot. I wouldn't eat the really hot asian peppers by themselves of Habanareos, nor will I eat Jalapenos with all the seeds still in them, but I do love hot and spicey.

Nita

I've tried Habanero sauce (we can't get the peppers here) in dishes and it's got the kick I like. Jalapenos with the seeds are fine too. Yeah some of those Asian chilli peppers are pretty brutal eaten alone.

[Stumbler.]

I do like hot spicy food, even though I was raised growing up on mostly non-spicy food (I guess the word for that is "bland" food? ).

Now, I haven't eaten anything hot for a while, so if I were to eat spicy food now, I'd feel its strength more (I suppose high tolerance comes with exposure/familiarity). I remember when I was in college I had a stronger tolerance, I'd often go out with friends to eat Asian foods like Thai, Indian curries etc. I'm also more familiar with spiciness from Asian cuisine than Mexican cuisine, because there's more of it in the cities I've spent most of my life. I don't know which is hotter on the whole.

I also don't know what are the standards for weak or strong tolerance but I doubt I'm anywhere near the top by world standards.

In any case, I eat stuff as long as it imparts some taste in the dish, not hot for hot's sake or to "challenge myself" to look macho or anything.

[Stumbler.]

By the way, regarding what people are saying about foods that go with it, I was usually told that dairy (like yogurt, cheese etc.) helps with quenching the heat, due to the fat compounds.

[debzkidz]

DH and I grew up eating relatively bland foods, even though we both grew up in Texas. My folks would occasionally go out for Mexican food, but not often.For me tacos was as spicy as it got. As adults, DH and I both grew to love spicy stuff. I seemed to really increase my love and tolerance for it while I was pregnant, and it never changed. We raised our kids eating it. Literally, they both were given Mexican food as soon as they went to table food. We really love all kinds of spicy foods. I'm not a fan of the pickled jalapenos but it's not the heat I dislike, its the pickled part. I love fresh jalapenos. I do have a problem cooking with them though. I can't cut them up. The fumes they put off irritate my throat and eyes and the oils set my fingers on fire and will sometimes burn for a day or so afterwards (even if they aren't that hot). So, when I need peppers chopped, most of the time I have to get my hubby to come chop them for me. Now, we just buy a bunch at one time, then he chops and freezes them for me. I just put them in a zip bag in the freezer and when I need them I just pull the bag out.

I really do think its something you just get accustomed to. We eat it all the time. It's normal to us. Several years ago we were in Kansas and we stopped at this cute little Mexican place to eat. When our waitress brought out the chips and salsa, she warned to be careful because it was really hot. Um, no, it tasted like a bowl of chopped tomatoes. Zero heat. We ate it all and when she came back she looked at the bowl and then looked back at us with a complete look of shock. She was amazed that we didn't find it at all spicy.

[kaimuki]

I like spicy food. It all started when I went to college in Texas. I liked spicy Tex Mex food. When I came back home, I really started liking hot Thai, Korean, Vietnamese and Indian food. I developed such a high tolerance for spicy hot food that Thai chili peppers don't phase me. Habaneros are just right. I like chopped chili peppers in eggs and in dipping sauces for grilled meat, fish and vegetables.