this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
610 points (97.1% liked)
Asklemmy
43757 readers
1414 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy ๐
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Growing up we barely seasoned food and now I was getting to point were I was getting bored with food, so I started buying black pepper, paprika and chili peppers to experiment and it changed me.
For me, it's not about the burn/numbness (the first two barely give you any sort of kick anyways), but instead it's about the flavour they add that I had never tasted. It's that flavour that enhances the food, not the hotness. I have no interest is using artificially hot sauces for the gimmick.
A few years earlier I ate a chili hamburger out of curiosity and two bites into it my lips were absolutely numb, it was ridiculous. It wasn't painfull, but it wasn't pleasing either and it kept me out of "hot" food for a long while.
So it's not solely about "stubbing your toe on purpose" or stepping on a Lego, but it can also be about experiencing new things like walking on freshly cut grass or wet sand.
I seriously can't imagine a flavor so good that I would be willing to experience significant (let alone severe) pain in order to taste it. (Nor Have I been able to taste any extra flavors in even mildly spicy food.)
I don't doubt your experience, but I absolutely can't relate to it, or for that matter comprehend it.
Spicy food isn't just "it's so hot I can't breathe", it's no different than eating something that's bitter or sweet. Obviously, things that are super bitter or super sweet are equally displeasing for most people. Watered down lemon juice is very different from sugary lemon juice or raw lemon juice.
Spices and herbs affect the flavour of food, that's why people use it. Same for condiments. For most, it's not about a flaming/numbing effect because they don't put big doses or use gimmicky sauces in the first place.
I think it's incredible how the internet can connect people who come from different planets like this.
I mean yeah, if food is more bitter than it is sweet then it's unpleasant to me (even the darkest chocolate has a lot of sugar) but that still doesn't directly stimulate pain receptors like capsaicin does at any level. Very low levels of "heat" (pain) are indeed tolerable to me, but No level above zero is more enjoyable than zero, for any type of food.
I also don't understand that concept of "too sweet" (for things that should be sweet, I am not talking about pizza for example). The only thing that stops me from just buying sugar in bulk and eating bowls of it at a time is concern for my health/teeth. (Which of course is a strong concern, and so far has managed to keep me from being diabetic)
I'm not sure if all of their drinks are like that, but my only experience with Starbucks was one of their holiday drinks and I could only drink 1/3 of it because it was so sweet that it was nauseating.
Meanwhile it disappoints me that their whipped cream isn't sweet enough...
I agree with this one. Spicy sauces actually need to have flavor. My friends recommend Tapatio and so I doused that stuff on my food and it was just salty. I much prefer Sriracha or any other spicy sauces with flavor.