# Your Tolerance for Spicy Foods **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 20, 2009, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-tolerance-for-spicy-foods/514483 "2009-10-20T15:10:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![hobscrk777](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a6a055/32.png) [@hobscrk777](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hobscrk777)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-tolerance-for-spicy-foods/514483/61 "2009-10-21T00:35:44Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > I live in Sichuan, China, which has got to have the most consistently spicy food found anywhere in the world. There may be places that have technically spicier food, but in Sichuan it’s _every dish all of the time_. It’s normal for Sichuan restaurants to keep a pack of tissues on the table, because they diners _will_ be blowing their nose and wiping their eyes during the meal. Even the simplest thing- like so boiled greens- is going to come with a mound of dried red peppers sprinkled over it. > > I adore it. When I traveled away from Sichuan, I came away from meals disappointed because I didn’t get that rush that you get from eating spicy food. Now and then I’ll come across a dish that is too spicy for me to enjoy, but in general spicy=good for me. > > I recently took a cooking class in Thailand with a Dutch couple. I spiced things the way I would normally spice them- not specifically to make a spicy dish, just some peppers for flavor. The poor Dutch couple couldn’t get more than a bite or two down! I hadn’t realized how far my palate has deviated from the norm. Now that’s what I’m talking about! If a spicy dish doesn’t clear out your sinuses, it isn’t spicy enough! ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-tolerance-for-spicy-foods/514483/62 "2009-10-21T02:20:56Z")
> [@butler1850](#): > > I’ll take them nearly as hot as I can get them. I think I have about 2# of dried peppers in the pantry. I used to attempt to grow them, but it just doesn’t seem to work so well in my garden. > > I will, however, remind all the other chili heads to wear gloves while chopping, and NEVER EVER EVER “touch” your wife with any hot pepper remnants on your hands. Never mind the wife, never ever ever touch your little brother either, you will squirm for a bit. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-tolerance-for-spicy-foods/514483/63 "2009-10-21T02:32:05Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > I tolerate it, but I don’t _like_ it - for the most part. > > Maybe I’m fooling myself, but there’s flavor as well as heat and hot sauce isn’t just “hot” it also tastes like something and I don’t like the taste. I tend to avoid many cuisines known as spicy because I don’t even like those foods toned down. This is a good point. I like some spicy foods, but not at the expense of flavor. Sometimes things are so spicy that you cannot taste anything else, which can ruin a good dish. Now, I’ll eat a plate of hot wings and enjoy them, but I sweat, Lord, do I perspire. That’s about my limit, though. Try some of this if your palate veers towards numb (its the spiciest, hottest shit known to man…I’ve seen grown men reduced to tears by this stuff): [Pure Cap, 2oz.](http://www.hotsauceworld.com/purecap.html) It’s no joke. Stuff is dangerous. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-tolerance-for-spicy-foods/514483/64 "2009-10-21T02:42:59Z")
When I’m in the mood for spicy, I want really, really spicy. However, heat is not a replacement for flavor. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-tolerance-for-spicy-foods/514483/65 "2009-10-21T02:47:35Z")
I also love to order the spiciest things on the menu. I was introduced to Sichuan hot pot a couple years ago when I traveled to Beijing. After that, I realized that anything called “Szechuan” at most American Chinese restaurants is a complete travesty. There is an authentic Sichuan restaurant (Lao Szechuan) in Chicago’s Chinatown that I’ve been to a couple of times for their hot pot, which is very good. At Thai restaurants, I always order the maximum spice level, but it’s always pretty damn mild to me. The other night at California Pizza Kitchen, however, I finally met my match. I ordered the Thai chicken pizza extra spicy, and I had to throw in the towel after only three slices. I ate two more the next day and the last slice the day after that. ---
**Author:** ![Terraplane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Terraplane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terraplane)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-tolerance-for-spicy-foods/514483/66 "2009-10-21T02:57:23Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Try some of this if your palate veers towards numb (its the spiciest, hottest shit known to man…I’ve seen grown men reduced to tears by this stuff): [Pure Cap, 2oz.](http://www.hotsauceworld.com/purecap.html) > > It’s no joke. Stuff is dangerous. That webpage says the sauce is 500,000 Scoville units, the Naga Jolokia pepper mentioned in the poll is over twice that (Or it can be anyway, I imagine like any pepper it depends on genetics and growing conditions). I do kinda wonder if it matters past a certain point, if you’re already in excruciating pain can it really double it? If you’re hellbent on chasing that spicy hot dream, you can get pure capsaicin crystal [here](http://www.hotsauceblog.com/hotsaucearchives/blairs-16-million-product-review/). In the review on that page the guy uses a crystal about the size of a kosher salt grain and ends up having to throw out a whole pot of soup because it’s too hot. It’s mostly a collector’s item, I think actually eating it goes well past the point of dickwaving and into the realm of deeply stupid. ---
**Author:** ![\_xiao\_wenti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/b782af/32.png) [@\_xiao\_wenti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_xiao_wenti)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-tolerance-for-spicy-foods/514483/67 "2009-10-21T03:01:18Z")
I find that serranos have the perfect mix of flavor and heat. Ideally, you need to add several types for the perfect chili bouquet. I will eat habanyeros, but they taste soapy to me. My MIL got me a nice peri-peri hot sauce in kenya. > **[Peri-peri](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piri_piri)** > > Peri-peri (/ˌpɪri ˈpɪri/ PIRR-ee-PIRR-ee, often hyphenated or as one word, and with variant spellings piri-piri, piripiri or pili pili) is a cultivar of Capsicum frutescens from the malagueta pepper. It was originally produced by Portuguese explorers in Portugal's former Southern African territories and then spread to other Portuguese domains. > Pilipili in Swahili means "pepper". Other romanizations include pili pili in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and peri peri in Malawi, deriving fro... ---
**Author:** ![Bacon\_Salt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@Bacon\_Salt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bacon_Salt)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-tolerance-for-spicy-foods/514483/68 "2009-10-21T03:25:14Z")
Okay, you guys have fun waving your dicks around with your Naga Jolokia’d hands. I’ll wait. I guess I’m bitter because I’ve reached my limit on spicy foods, not because my mouth can’t handle it, but because if I eat anything hotter than jalapeno level, it feels like my stomach lining is being eaten away. The tiniest bit of raw onion has the same effect. Any tips for getting over the hump? Speaking of bitterness, I also have a problem with certain hot sauces in that they just get bitter and nasty in large doses. It tastes like the mild bitterness of a cooked green bell pepper. Tabasco is the worst about this. ---
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-tolerance-for-spicy-foods/514483/69 "2009-10-21T03:58:21Z")
I’ve found my tolerance for spicy is increasing as I get older. I don’t know if it’s something biological going on (losing my sense of taste?) or I’m building up a tolerance the same way you do for alcohol, so I need more spice to feel the heat. I started off putting a teensy drop of Tapatio on whatever I was eating, now I cover my beans or my eggs with the stuff so you can hardly see them. I also seem to have an iron stomach. People complain about heartburn, indigestion, or unpleasantness on the way out after eating spicy food. That has never happened to me, even if the food was intolerably spicy. However, I can’t brag too much because I know a three-year-old girl who has me beat times one hundred. I watched her wolf down three bowls of posole verde and then beg for more. Her mother offered me a bowl, and I could barely get down more than a few bites, delicious though it was. My eyes and nose were streaming and afterwards I was literally exhausted. I figured the spiciness cause an adrenaline rush and then a crash. ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-tolerance-for-spicy-foods/514483/70 "2009-10-21T04:24:01Z")
> [@Apocalypso](#): > > BTW I think habaneros taste better than jalapenos, for those that said habaneros bring nothing but heat. There’s better tasting peppers, but I disagree that habaneros are hot and nothing else. Absolutely concur. Jalapenos have no flavor whatsoever as far as I can tell–habeneros at least have some. (My favorites are Thai peppers–less spicy than habaneros, but very tasty!) I put habaneros in the poll, mainly because I’ve never tried anything spicier. I’d be interested in trying something–but Naga Jolokia’s, as described, quite frankly frighten me. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-tolerance-for-spicy-foods/514483/71 "2009-10-21T04:47:45Z")
Youtube’s full of videos of people eating nagas by the way. Some are funny. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-tolerance-for-spicy-foods/514483/72 "2009-10-21T05:07:54Z")
This [guy](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg4trPZFUwc) (Col. Assumption is the Mother of all Fuckups), from Steven Seagal’s [Under Siege 2: Dark Territory](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114781/) sprayed pepper spray mace into his mouth as a breath freshner and had some witty retort to tolerence after being sprayed with it… don’t know the exact quote- Anybody know? I wonder if this is true … he claimed a immunity from tolerence to the peppers? Be a an excellent myth to see Adam, Jamie, Tory, Kari, and Grant bust. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-tolerance-for-spicy-foods/514483/73 "2009-10-21T13:12:47Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > don’t know the exact quote- Anybody know? Penn: Not mace, sweetheart. Pepper spray. Sold to civilians. [snatches canister from Sarah] Penn: But once you get used to it… [sprays some into his mouth] Penn: …it just clears the sinuses! [cite](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114781/quotes) Mmmmmmmmmm. Underage Katherine Heigl. Naughtylicious. ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-tolerance-for-spicy-foods/514483/74 "2009-10-21T13:44:24Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > Never mind the wife, never ever ever touch your little brother either, you will squirm for a bit. I’ve done both. I suffered far more from an unhappy wife. ---
**Author:** ![CBEscapee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@CBEscapee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBEscapee)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-tolerance-for-spicy-foods/514483/75 "2009-10-21T13:59:53Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > I love me my chiles torreados! Every once in a while, though, I get one that’s just hot enough to kick my butt. > > It’s disappointing for me that in general, Mexicans (here in Mexico) seem to have a lot less tolerance for peppers and spicy-hot foods than we as Americans do! > > I’ve read somewhere that Americans consume (per capita) a hell of lot more bottled hot sauces than in Mexico. > > While the local cuisines have a lot of peppers, one mustn’t forget that the vast majority of peppers just aren’t hot. In our home we might only use 4 or 5 bottles of sauce in a year. We never put bottled sauces on tacos as an example. What you didn’t take into consideration is that Americans don’t make many homemade sauces, in fact they consider one type of sauce, _salsa_ while we generally consume freshly made salsas of a large variety on a daily basis. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-tolerance-for-spicy-foods/514483/76 "2009-10-21T14:23:33Z")
I can’t even handle Pace mild salsa! I hate black pepper too. It tastes like wood chips. ---
**Author:** ![ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryan)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-tolerance-for-spicy-foods/514483/77 "2009-10-21T14:43:00Z")
Heavy on the Jalapeno or light on the Serrano for me, but it’s got to be tasty as well, just heat doesn’t cut it. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-tolerance-for-spicy-foods/514483/78 "2009-10-21T15:15:36Z")
There used to be a shop on the River Walk in New Orleans (it may still be there) that sold over 500 brands of hot sauce. From what I could tell, a lot of them were for bragging purposes only. My favorite label was for “Boudreaux’s Butt Burner” sauce. Yeah, that’s the one I’m keeping on my kitchen table. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-tolerance-for-spicy-foods/514483/79 "2009-10-21T15:25:44Z")
> [@PoorYorick](#): > > My favorite label was for “Boudreaux’s Butt Burner” sauce. Ah, yes. Butt burn. It’s never been so bad that it’s painful, but I do have to chuckle ‘Oh, yeah. Pa naeng.’ ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-tolerance-for-spicy-foods/514483/80 "2009-10-21T15:33:28Z")
I’ve never been served food that was too spicy to enjoy, but I’ll admit the that it may be possible, in theory. I like an “internal sauna session” once in a while. I think it’s good for you to sweat from time to time, and I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t break a good sweat as frequently as I figure I ought to from simple exertion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-tolerance-for-spicy-foods/514483.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-tolerance-for-spicy-foods/514483.md?page=5)