Most men probably know what I’m referring to, I just want to confirm it. (I don’t assume women deal with the pressures of hot wings, but if you do, I apologize).
When going out for a meal with the boys, and dudes in general for that matter, and they serve hot wings on the menu, do you find that its like some kind of caveman sport as to who can eat the hottest hot wings? And to those who chose not to participate, do you get a kind of a jokingly, yet still a bullshit response from these guys if you decline to eat hot wings? As if you’re somehow weak if you can’t handle it kinda thing…
I myself cannot physically tolerate 911 wings, my face gets all :mad:. My tongue gets hot as hell, and my lips physically hurt to the point of swelling and chapping. And yet the guys that eat one after another still exclaim that they’re hot as hell, yet they love them. I don’t understand this. Sometimes I’ll mention that, if they’re hot and you’re in pain, why do you eat them? And the response is usually, “no pain no gain, man!” I’m mean seriously, WTF does that mean? The only conclusion that I can come up with, is that those who don’t like hot wings are somehow inferior with that kind of response. *When really what I want to say is that parts per thousand, they have less taste buds that allow them to tolerate spicy foods more so then someone with a denser field of taste buds.
*Possible a GQ thread in itself, as I remember once reading that somewhere… Might need to be confirmed.
But anyway, does anybody else suffer from hot wing discrimination?
Note: I don’t really “suffer”, just get shit for it in a jokingly way when I don’t eat 911 hot wings. And am assuming this is a universal thing…
There’s no sport because, frankly, my friends learned early on that they couldn’t keep up with me. And to be honest, that’s more of a reflection on my friends’ tolerances rather than mine, because I’m not really that tough when it comes to the heat. I do mock them for their wussiness though. I guess I’m one of the hot wing oppressors.
That’s interesting, but my “hot wings contests” were about who could eat the most wings, and not about the heat. The one with the biggest plate of bones won.
There are hot wing sauces you can whip up that no one will be able to eat successfully. Before you get near the end of the Scoville heat scale, things become inedible in concentrated form.
I have this sauce called Mad Dog Inferno that is so hot that one teaspoon can ruin a pot of chili for most people. It just came from the regular grocery store and it isn’t physically harmful but, being about 100 times hotter than Tabasco sauce, I haven’t seen anyone that can eat it straight without acknowledging they have probably exceeded their limit.
I say that because I have a very high heat tolerance and once did those macho things. For some reason, we had the Mad Dog in the cafeteria at work (it must have been a horrible mistake). A coworker dared my to eat a big dollop on a cracker and I did. I emerged out the other side of the resulting hour of searing pain physically Ok but mentally humbled.
I bought some and keep it in the fridge. My family all brags about their own heat tolerance and the topic came up while my father and brother were here. I casually got some Mad Dog and put it on a cracker and asked them to eat it. They came out the other side much later very humbles.
My point is that you can easily make a “special” batch for them to try. There are lots of extremely hot hot sauces that no one should be able to tolerate in concentration.
Even though there are some hot sauces hotter and many lower, I recommend something in the 200,000 Scoville unit range as humbling but not worthy of assault charges.
ParentalAdvisory, you’ve obviously never reached the epiphany state during consumption of really hot stuff. The sort of state that makes you cry out things like; “The food! It’s full of stars!”
That appears to be part of it, but only a part. Capsaicin also does things to the P-type fibers of neurons, and can alter the way they send their pain signals. And there is a very fine distinction between pain and pleasure signals in these types of neurons.
Yeah, I’ve got a bottle of that in the fridge. Good for adding a lot of heat, and tormenting my nephews by telling them they’re not old enough or or seasoned enough to try it.
The endorphin theory is incomplete, though. P fibers are involved!
I was going to say the same thing. I mean, I like my hotter food than most folks. And in most restaurants, I end up ordering the hottest I can get, because (to my view) most restaurants don’t make their upper limit hot enough. But the best wing place I’ve ever found, I liked the Extra Hot sauce, but the Liquid Fire was a more than I enjoyed. I’m pretty sure that I went there with other guys on occasion, but I still didn’t order Liquid Fire.
On the other hand, if it’s all-you-can-eat and the guy across the table has 30 bones on his plate and I only have 28, it would take an act of will for me to not get three more. Fortunately, this competitiveness does not generally trigger for more sane, normal amounts.
I ordered the “suicide” wings this evening when we went out for dinner. Suicide, my ass. My son was watching for my eyes to water. Nothing.
I love that rush it gives you. My Italian grandmother used to fry up these finger peppers in olive oil, they were so hot your eyes seemed to burn just walking through the kitchen. She’d make us pepper and egg sandwiches, and we’d eat them, banging the table with our hands as punctuation, our noses running and eyes watering. People would wonder why we’d subject ourselves to what appeared like such obvious discomfort. I still can’t really explain it.
This does bring to mind one word of advice regarding the super-hot sauces. The first time I tried a habenero relish, I discovered that when one subsequently goes to the bathroom, it is vitally important to wash your hands not just after you use the facilities, but also before. Oof.
“Buffalo Wings” are a dish created in Buffalo, New York–chicken wings with a sauce that ranges from the mildly tangy to the scaldingly hot. Usually accompanied by blue cheese. Good wings are awesome bar food.
