DazharionOne way to get the point across
henfredemars
ZephorahI think this is masochism. Food doesn’t leave any external marks so these people go with food.
I do lots of very spicy food. I think my tongue has literally been damaged over time, so stuff I don’t register as being even the slightest bit spicy are unbearably hot to others, and I have to really ratchet it up.
But what I’ve found at lots of Asian restaurants is that the staff assumes my pale, white ass can’t take real heat. I ask for “5-peppers” hot and they’re like “We’ll start you with a 2.” It’s annoying. I’ve never been served food that’s “too hot” in a restaurant. So I kinda understand these exaggerated descriptions people give on food orders.
HossenfefferWhen I was in the US with another Brit buddy we went out for a curry (Gaylord Chicago IIRC) and each ordered a vindaloo. The head waiter was dispatched to our table to warn us this might be too spicy. When we told him we were British he nodded, smiled, and said “I understand, I’ll let the kitchen know.”
It was still a bit on the mild side for a BIR vindaloo.
socsaThe fact is that even with just a bit of intentional spice “training” you can get your tolerance into the million scoville range, far beyond what your average Indian place can do to their vindaloo unless they are specializing in spicy food and have ghost peppers available.
WildmimicYou can lose that training too, ask me how i know. I had a phase of about 2 years where everything had to be spicy, in the end my sister couldn’t eat from my plate anymore. Somehow I stopped eating spicy food - after a few months without training i made the mistake of cooking something spicy without reducing the intensity. Well, then i knew how my sister felt.