I love spicy food. It hasn’t always been this way, but after 15 years in the southwest, I’ve adapted. When I go to Subway, I will get the bread with jalapenos in it, jalapenos on the sandwich, and also chipotle (smoked jalapeno) sauce on it. Wheee! It burns so good. I also like to go to Charley’s Grilled Subs and get a Chicken Buffalo sub with extra buffalo sauce on the side. The sandwich is mildy hot, but when I add the extra sauce, smoke comes out of my ears.
Eating like this is really almost like torture- I can bring myself to tears doing it, and yet, I can’t stop. It’s so masochistic. I attribute it to a lack of sex- I think my body wants a dangerous thrill, and so this is how it will get it, for now.
When you said self-torture, I thought you’d be talking about something hotter than jalapenos. I eat jalapenos not because they’re torture, but because they’re not: They’re flavorful, with just enough heat to be interesting. If I wanted to torture myself (I don’t), I’d eat habaneros or bhut jolokia. Or, heck, take it the next step to concentrated capsaicin extract.
I grew up eating my Italian grandmother’s hot giardiniera. And I mean HOT. I’ve never tasted anything else as hot. But it prepared me for a lifetime of seeking out and enjoying the hottest stuff I can find. Jalapenos don’t even nudge the needle on hotness. Habaneros or Scotch Bonnets will kindle a fire in your mouth. Tobasco is a pleasant tingle. Melinda XXXX sauce - now THAT will get your tissues cooking.
I don’t consider any of it self-torture, though. That comes the next day, only in a different orifice…
I do find some jalapenos to be really spicy and some not. The fresh ones with membrane and seeds intact- very hot to me. The green pickled ones- not so much. Hot is subjective, of course. I don’t care for a debate over what’s hot and what’s not- whatever is hot for you is hot for you.
I used to think that people ate super-hot foods as a stunt, and that it was silly, but now I see it’s obviously an endorphin-producing activity, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was addictive.
Put me down as jalapenos are hot. Basically anything zippier than bell peppers is hot to some people. Those of us with tastebuds that haven’t chemically burned our sense of taste to shit.
Interestingly enough, it’s been at least fifteen or twenty years since I remember getting that “ring of fire” and I eat habanero-level spicy frequently. Perhaps that’s why. I guess my body must have completely adapted to it.
ETA: I should add, bhut jolokia is pretty tasty, but most of those capscacian-enhanced sauces taste like garbage to me. The only one I’ve had that I thought actually had good flavor and didn’t taste like powdery chemicals is Dave’s Insanity Sauce.
I love spicy food; thai and indian are my favorites.
I find that when I dine out at an authentic indian or thai restaraunt, I must tell them to make it real spicy, and not “white-boy” spicy, in order to have my dish made with sufficient kick. The staff always seems to get a kick out of this as well.
Jalapenos are the same as green peppers to me. Not spicy at all. When I want spicy I go to our local Thai place and tell the cook to hurt me. My greatest moment was when the waitress came out of the kitchen and said “I hope you’re happy. You made the cook cry.” I saw the cook peeking out of the kitchen at the crazy white man who wanted food Thai hot, then saw her stop as I shoveled it all down with a smile on my face. Now when we go there they no longer white-spice us.
As I recall, some hemorrhoid-relief company wanted to use that song in a TV commercial. Johnny’s family (the Man in Black was already dead at this point) said NYET to that idea!
There’s a difference between spicy-delicious and spicy-look-how-big-my-balls-are. Unfortunately a large proportion of people who enjoy spicy foods seem to fall into the latter category, and enjoy ruining flavorful dishes by participating in some bizarre ritual of capsaicin one-upsmanship.
When I was basically housebound during my first run with alcoholism, and not smoking cigarettes because of poverty, I used to store masses of serrano peppers (the strong kind, from NAfrica I guess) and chew them in a darkened room. Certainly didn’t want a cigarette after the fire burned in my mouth.
A few years later, I used to try to macho myself by using habeneros as regular ingredients in ordinary American-style dishes – steak with a pan sauce, add habenero. That kind of thing.
Fresh chiles rot too quickly, though, so I get bird’s eye dried or lovingly eye the Penzey’s catalog for some habanero powder.
When I go to an Indian restaurant, I generally order “Tell the chef to make it the way he’d like it, and don’t tell him I’m white”. I have had Indian food that’s too hot for me, but only very rarely, and I think those dishes were probably spicy-look-how-big-my-balls-are, anyway.
Jalapenos are more sweet to me than anything. There’s definitely some spice, but it doesn’t burn. I’ve eaten a full habenero, seeds and all. That burned…and burned… and burned. Then it burned again the next day. I did get a free train ride though, because I was stuck in the bathroom the entire time.
I wish we had different words to distinguish the type of “hot” from chili peppers with the type from mustard, horseradish, and wasabi (which is the vast majority of the time simply colored horseradish in US restaurants, unless you go to one that makes a point of having real wasabi.) They are quite different flavors to me. Chili heat lingers and is impossible to quench–you need to wait it out. Mustard/horseradish/wasabi heat is more a throat or breathing irritant to me, and is quickly dissipated.
See, every once in awhile, I do find a seriously hot jalapeno, and I’m one who will eat habaneros raw with a sandwich without feeling like I’ve just done something really stupid. It’s weird, but they’re all over the map heat-wise.
I love spicy food and can recommend some of the hottest I’ve ever tried. Requires some serious travel, though:
**
Hunan food** in Hunan, China. Holy freaking crap. Nothing in the world can match this, in my experience. Tasty, but so hot I could barely stand it. Men openly weep at the restaurant, laughing at the same time. It’s amazing, but unbearable food. Mao was from this region, by the way.
Hot, hot, hot, kim chi rice from Seoul, Korea. I cried eating this, but loved every second. It’s not just Gochujang, though I do recommend that if you want to start with some spicy Korean food, go to the Asian market and buy some hot Gochujang. Anyway, go try some super hot Korean food.
Mexican food from Xochimilco in Detroit, Michigan. Yes, Detroit has a Mexican and wow, the mexican food at Xochimilco is seriously hot. It’s owners are from Mexico and have a good reputation for heating up the spices real good.
