I love seeing the variety in the takes on how bad “India hot” spice level is.
My limited anecdotal experience has landed my white ass firmly in the camp of “do not fuck with the flavors of back home.”
My go-to core memory on that one is going out for wings with a group of friends a long time ago. We ordered a half dozen of whatever the place’s ridiculous triple-atomic or equivalent was. I want to say 500,000 scoville and they give you gloves to eat it with. I think the deal was something like White Guy eats one of the wings and Indian Guy eats the rest, after the latter had claimed in a friendly way that they wouldn’t be too hot.
Long story short, Indian Guy eats all available wings and licks his fingers like it’s honey BBQ. He liked them and said yeah they do have some spice. White guy ruined the entire rest of his day and suffered for his hubris!
Most of the rest of us (I think all of us were additional White Guys) tried a tiny little piece of a wing or even just a half drop of the sauce. The spot where that little bit touched my tongue was numb and tingly for the rest of the day, lol.
Once upon a time, I was traveling in Thailand and went to a small restaurant in the middle of nowhere that mostly served tourists. There were two guys there who thought they could handle spice, so they told the waiter to bring them something spiced for Thai locals. He tried to discourage them, and offered to give them something that was really spicy for westerners, but they insisted that they wanted what locals eat.
When they received their dish, they couldn’t even manage a single bite. I could overhear them, and they were convinced that the waiter was playing a joke on them, so when he came back they asked him to try it to see if it was good, trying to catch him out. The waiter had a few bites, said “yeah, tastes good”, asked if they needed anything else, and when they said no, just went on to help his other customers. The tourists were just gobsmacked.
I know my limits, and decently high for “The West”, but it’s nowhere near the limits of a Thai person who likes spicy food. And, I know enough to know that when I’m on vacation, I want it even less spicy than normal. If I get something ultra spicy at home, I might have to spend some unpleasant time on the toilet. But, at least it’s my own toilet. I really didn’t want to be caught out in some rural Thai toilet or outhouse trying to process something that was too much for me and missing out on enjoying my vacation.
I love seeing the variety in the takes on how bad “India hot” spice level is.
My limited anecdotal experience has landed my white ass firmly in the camp of “do not fuck with the flavors of back home.”
My go-to core memory on that one is going out for wings with a group of friends a long time ago. We ordered a half dozen of whatever the place’s ridiculous triple-atomic or equivalent was. I want to say 500,000 scoville and they give you gloves to eat it with. I think the deal was something like White Guy eats one of the wings and Indian Guy eats the rest, after the latter had claimed in a friendly way that they wouldn’t be too hot.
Long story short, Indian Guy eats all available wings and licks his fingers like it’s honey BBQ. He liked them and said yeah they do have some spice. White guy ruined the entire rest of his day and suffered for his hubris!
Most of the rest of us (I think all of us were additional White Guys) tried a tiny little piece of a wing or even just a half drop of the sauce. The spot where that little bit touched my tongue was numb and tingly for the rest of the day, lol.
Some people just shrug off that capsaicin.
Once upon a time, I was traveling in Thailand and went to a small restaurant in the middle of nowhere that mostly served tourists. There were two guys there who thought they could handle spice, so they told the waiter to bring them something spiced for Thai locals. He tried to discourage them, and offered to give them something that was really spicy for westerners, but they insisted that they wanted what locals eat.
When they received their dish, they couldn’t even manage a single bite. I could overhear them, and they were convinced that the waiter was playing a joke on them, so when he came back they asked him to try it to see if it was good, trying to catch him out. The waiter had a few bites, said “yeah, tastes good”, asked if they needed anything else, and when they said no, just went on to help his other customers. The tourists were just gobsmacked.
I know my limits, and decently high for “The West”, but it’s nowhere near the limits of a Thai person who likes spicy food. And, I know enough to know that when I’m on vacation, I want it even less spicy than normal. If I get something ultra spicy at home, I might have to spend some unpleasant time on the toilet. But, at least it’s my own toilet. I really didn’t want to be caught out in some rural Thai toilet or outhouse trying to process something that was too much for me and missing out on enjoying my vacation.