There are definitely places and people in America who are going a big overboard on spicy food. As long as the products they're buying are clearly labeled so that people know what they're getting...
There are definitely places and people in America who are going a big overboard on spicy food. As long as the products they're buying are clearly labeled so that people know what they're getting into, I figure live and let live. I personally have no interest in doing any "challenges", personally.
That said, I'm being forced to live at the other side of the spectrum. I'm a total white girl when it comes to spicy food in the States, but here in Germany I must seem like one of these thrill-seekers because I'm constantly complaining about the inability to find spicy food. If the labels on menus here are anything to go by, Germans consider anything that contains ginger or black pepper to be spicy. My wife and I have found some gems here, but the fact that the restaurants here are expecting German clientele means I have to insist on a higher level of spice at ethnic restaurants than I would in the US, and my wife (who's a fiend for spicy food) has only a few places that make stuff spicy enough for her. I know my tolerance for spice has gone down as a result of living here.
Finding fresh chilis here to cook with is also a huge pain in the ass -- even the fancy grocery stores tend to have extremely limited options on that front, if anything at all. I bought some jalapeño plants to grow on my balcony this summer out of frustration with my inability to buy fresh jalapeños at the grocery store. I bought a variety that's supposed to be a little less spicy than your standard jalapeño, since I'm still a weak-ass white girl and I figured I could just use more of them... unfortunately, the first one we harvested tasted about as spicy as a bell pepper, so I figure next year I'll buy the normal jalapeño plant.
This is in no way scientific, but it has been my experience that growing conditions have affected the spiciness of my chili peppers. I'm not sure how happy they would be outside of maybe BW.
This is in no way scientific, but it has been my experience that growing conditions have affected the spiciness of my chili peppers. I'm not sure how happy they would be outside of maybe BW.
The peppers have grown great in terms of size and quantity, and they're on a covered balcony so I have a lot of control over how much water they get. Some friends have theorized that I should've...
The peppers have grown great in terms of size and quantity, and they're on a covered balcony so I have a lot of control over how much water they get. Some friends have theorized that I should've watered them less, idk. I suspect the variety of pepper I bought is to blame. I'm also growing a Nepali Snake Bite pepper plant, so we'll see how those end up tasting.
Yeah, I largely blame myself because I did buy a cultivar that the website explicitly said was a little milder. I just thought it only meant a little milder.
Yeah, I largely blame myself because I did buy a cultivar that the website explicitly said was a little milder. I just thought it only meant a little milder.
Getting spicy ingredients here in Switzerland is pretty similar; basically you can't get them in grocery stores, not even the fancy ones. But we do have "Asia" market stores that carry fresh red...
Getting spicy ingredients here in Switzerland is pretty similar; basically you can't get them in grocery stores, not even the fancy ones.
But we do have "Asia" market stores that carry fresh red Thai chillies for instance, which is much hotter than anything you can get from typical grocery stores.
This is true, some of the Asian grocery stores have proper chilis! But the one I usually go to only has dried stuff, and the places I know have good options are on the other side of the city, so...
This is true, some of the Asian grocery stores have proper chilis! But the one I usually go to only has dried stuff, and the places I know have good options are on the other side of the city, so it's mostly my own laziness at play lol. There's even a place here in Berlin that I've heard has Mexican stuff, including homemade tortillas, and hot sauces, but I gotta actually get myself to trek across the city for that. Though I just bought the city-wide ticket and need to justify the subscription, so maybe now's the time.
the best thing I've ever done was decide to stop chasing super spicy things. I was eating reaper chicken sandwiches and stuff like nothing. Most often I'd feel fine but every so often I'd feel...
the best thing I've ever done was decide to stop chasing super spicy things. I was eating reaper chicken sandwiches and stuff like nothing. Most often I'd feel fine but every so often I'd feel kind of gross. The thing too, once you get pass the habanero level, the peppers don't taste very good.
I thought about doing this challenge -- but to what end? I know the chip is hot. I know I can take a lot of heat, but it'll still destroy me. No thanks, Hershey.
That said, the salsa verde chips from this company are the best.
In my case, the problem is that I enjoy the feeling of spiciness. But eating spicy foods over the years made me less sensitive to it, so I had to increase the levels in order to taste this. But I...
the best thing I've ever done was decide to stop chasing super spicy things
In my case, the problem is that I enjoy the feeling of spiciness. But eating spicy foods over the years made me less sensitive to it, so I had to increase the levels in order to taste this.
But I don't recall feeling gross after eating very spicy foods. Was it affecting your health somehow, or did you notice any benefits after stopping it? I'm curious as to why it was such a good decision for you.
I don't chase spice but I've seen the physical reactions from some of the folks that do the one-chip challenges or the "hottest sauce ever" tastings and the like. Some people seem to be more...
I don't chase spice but I've seen the physical reactions from some of the folks that do the one-chip challenges or the "hottest sauce ever" tastings and the like. Some people seem to be more sensitive to capsaicin from a physical body reaction sense, not just their tolerance of the taste.
Afaik the "hotness" of capsaicin is entirely that physical body reaction sense. It doesn't really have a taste of its own -- chilis can have different tastes but they're caused by other compounds,...
Afaik the "hotness" of capsaicin is entirely that physical body reaction sense. It doesn't really have a taste of its own -- chilis can have different tastes but they're caused by other compounds, not directly by the capsaicin. The heat from capsaicin is due to it directly activating a protein in your cells that senses heat. When people eat spicy food more often, those receptors become desensitized/downregulated. This is probably physically independent from the things that make people really like that hotness (which afaik has to do with release of endorphins), though obviously people who like spicy food are more likely to regularly eat it.
It is also down to how you moderate your reaction. I did the one chip challenge last year, for example, and it is one of the most painful things I have experienced (only behind nearly destroying...
It is also down to how you moderate your reaction. I did the one chip challenge last year, for example, and it is one of the most painful things I have experienced (only behind nearly destroying my left shoulder in a bicycle crash). The major trick is to not let yourself panic. If you panic you start making loud noises and getting spicy saliva places it should not be, which makes everything worse. The typical reaction is a combination of "not used to managing the incredible, if harmless, pain" and actively allowing themselves to lose their shit for content.
That said, crying in response to that level of pain is completely reasonable. I have had enough exposure to stay calm, but it's infrequent enough that even jalapenos will kick my ass. I cried a few times as a kid, even. One could eat enough to feel less pain, as @sparksbet mentioned, but most people aren't.
This just solidifies how little interest I have in those challenges. Yes crying is very much reasonable, but also I don't understand intentionally eating something that painful.
This just solidifies how little interest I have in those challenges. Yes crying is very much reasonable, but also I don't understand intentionally eating something that painful.
I wouldn't say most people aren't, as that's highly dependent on diet and thus on local cuisine. Your average white American is going to be wildly different than your average Thai in respect to...
I wouldn't say most people aren't, as that's highly dependent on diet and thus on local cuisine. Your average white American is going to be wildly different than your average Thai in respect to how much tolerance they've built up. That said, probably very few people have built up enough of a spice tolerance that the hot chip challenge isn't a painful experience.
I'd largely agree, but ghost peppers actually have an amazing flavor that I love and I recommend anyone who enjoys heat and pepper flavor should not sleep on ghost peppers.
once you get pass the habanero level, the peppers don't taste very good.
I'd largely agree, but ghost peppers actually have an amazing flavor that I love and I recommend anyone who enjoys heat and pepper flavor should not sleep on ghost peppers.
I like spicy food. Probably spicier than whatever level of spice "spicy" conjures for you. I don't really do challenges, I just cook spicy dishes for myself. That said, with the furor over this...
I like spicy food. Probably spicier than whatever level of spice "spicy" conjures for you. I don't really do challenges, I just cook spicy dishes for myself. That said, with the furor over this chip last fall, I did order a bunch and sent them as Christmas presents to some friends, and kept one for myself. We eventually all got together and did the challenge together.
The chip itself tastes pretty bad. It is also pretty spicy, unpleasantly so. But as someone who routinely cooks hot food, it wasn't overwhelming. My friends on the other hand did a speed run through their milk and ice cream, while I waited a bit and then had tacos with chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.
I could see some of these crazy sauces having an age restriction. An adult should know their limit, but teenagers peer pressure each other to unfortunate ends all the time. Barring that though, I think the pepper arms race is a little silly, but fairly harmless in the grand scheme of things. There are many things that need legislative or regulatory intervention more.
There are definitely places and people in America who are going a big overboard on spicy food. As long as the products they're buying are clearly labeled so that people know what they're getting into, I figure live and let live. I personally have no interest in doing any "challenges", personally.
That said, I'm being forced to live at the other side of the spectrum. I'm a total white girl when it comes to spicy food in the States, but here in Germany I must seem like one of these thrill-seekers because I'm constantly complaining about the inability to find spicy food. If the labels on menus here are anything to go by, Germans consider anything that contains ginger or black pepper to be spicy. My wife and I have found some gems here, but the fact that the restaurants here are expecting German clientele means I have to insist on a higher level of spice at ethnic restaurants than I would in the US, and my wife (who's a fiend for spicy food) has only a few places that make stuff spicy enough for her. I know my tolerance for spice has gone down as a result of living here.
Finding fresh chilis here to cook with is also a huge pain in the ass -- even the fancy grocery stores tend to have extremely limited options on that front, if anything at all. I bought some jalapeño plants to grow on my balcony this summer out of frustration with my inability to buy fresh jalapeños at the grocery store. I bought a variety that's supposed to be a little less spicy than your standard jalapeño, since I'm still a weak-ass white girl and I figured I could just use more of them... unfortunately, the first one we harvested tasted about as spicy as a bell pepper, so I figure next year I'll buy the normal jalapeño plant.
This is in no way scientific, but it has been my experience that growing conditions have affected the spiciness of my chili peppers. I'm not sure how happy they would be outside of maybe BW.
The peppers have grown great in terms of size and quantity, and they're on a covered balcony so I have a lot of control over how much water they get. Some friends have theorized that I should've watered them less, idk. I suspect the variety of pepper I bought is to blame. I'm also growing a Nepali Snake Bite pepper plant, so we'll see how those end up tasting.
I believe soil impacts it too. But sometimes it's just genes I think. I've bought store jalapenos and they'll be wildly different levels of spice.
Yeah, I largely blame myself because I did buy a cultivar that the website explicitly said was a little milder. I just thought it only meant a little milder.
Find an underground pepper seed supplier?
Luckily there are plenty of over-ground ones -- I just need to switch to a hotter cultivar and/or a different supplier this year.
Getting spicy ingredients here in Switzerland is pretty similar; basically you can't get them in grocery stores, not even the fancy ones.
But we do have "Asia" market stores that carry fresh red Thai chillies for instance, which is much hotter than anything you can get from typical grocery stores.
Maybe you have something similar in Germany.
This is true, some of the Asian grocery stores have proper chilis! But the one I usually go to only has dried stuff, and the places I know have good options are on the other side of the city, so it's mostly my own laziness at play lol. There's even a place here in Berlin that I've heard has Mexican stuff, including homemade tortillas, and hot sauces, but I gotta actually get myself to trek across the city for that. Though I just bought the city-wide ticket and need to justify the subscription, so maybe now's the time.
the best thing I've ever done was decide to stop chasing super spicy things. I was eating reaper chicken sandwiches and stuff like nothing. Most often I'd feel fine but every so often I'd feel kind of gross. The thing too, once you get pass the habanero level, the peppers don't taste very good.
I thought about doing this challenge -- but to what end? I know the chip is hot. I know I can take a lot of heat, but it'll still destroy me. No thanks, Hershey.
That said, the salsa verde chips from this company are the best.
In my case, the problem is that I enjoy the feeling of spiciness. But eating spicy foods over the years made me less sensitive to it, so I had to increase the levels in order to taste this.
But I don't recall feeling gross after eating very spicy foods. Was it affecting your health somehow, or did you notice any benefits after stopping it? I'm curious as to why it was such a good decision for you.
nah, health is fine — but eating reapers on stuff and feeling gross is the desire of the pepper :)
I don't chase spice but I've seen the physical reactions from some of the folks that do the one-chip challenges or the "hottest sauce ever" tastings and the like. Some people seem to be more sensitive to capsaicin from a physical body reaction sense, not just their tolerance of the taste.
Afaik the "hotness" of capsaicin is entirely that physical body reaction sense. It doesn't really have a taste of its own -- chilis can have different tastes but they're caused by other compounds, not directly by the capsaicin. The heat from capsaicin is due to it directly activating a protein in your cells that senses heat. When people eat spicy food more often, those receptors become desensitized/downregulated. This is probably physically independent from the things that make people really like that hotness (which afaik has to do with release of endorphins), though obviously people who like spicy food are more likely to regularly eat it.
Yeah thanks, I didn't have a lot of the technical verbage in my brain. People that chase spice just look miserable!
It is also down to how you moderate your reaction. I did the one chip challenge last year, for example, and it is one of the most painful things I have experienced (only behind nearly destroying my left shoulder in a bicycle crash). The major trick is to not let yourself panic. If you panic you start making loud noises and getting spicy saliva places it should not be, which makes everything worse. The typical reaction is a combination of "not used to managing the incredible, if harmless, pain" and actively allowing themselves to lose their shit for content.
That said, crying in response to that level of pain is completely reasonable. I have had enough exposure to stay calm, but it's infrequent enough that even jalapenos will kick my ass. I cried a few times as a kid, even. One could eat enough to feel less pain, as @sparksbet mentioned, but most people aren't.
This just solidifies how little interest I have in those challenges. Yes crying is very much reasonable, but also I don't understand intentionally eating something that painful.
I wouldn't say most people aren't, as that's highly dependent on diet and thus on local cuisine. Your average white American is going to be wildly different than your average Thai in respect to how much tolerance they've built up. That said, probably very few people have built up enough of a spice tolerance that the hot chip challenge isn't a painful experience.
I'd largely agree, but ghost peppers actually have an amazing flavor that I love and I recommend anyone who enjoys heat and pepper flavor should not sleep on ghost peppers.
yeah, I'll give you that one. I'm not even sure what the order is around that level -- but the higher scale ones are so gross.
I like spicy food. Probably spicier than whatever level of spice "spicy" conjures for you. I don't really do challenges, I just cook spicy dishes for myself. That said, with the furor over this chip last fall, I did order a bunch and sent them as Christmas presents to some friends, and kept one for myself. We eventually all got together and did the challenge together.
The chip itself tastes pretty bad. It is also pretty spicy, unpleasantly so. But as someone who routinely cooks hot food, it wasn't overwhelming. My friends on the other hand did a speed run through their milk and ice cream, while I waited a bit and then had tacos with chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.
I could see some of these crazy sauces having an age restriction. An adult should know their limit, but teenagers peer pressure each other to unfortunate ends all the time. Barring that though, I think the pepper arms race is a little silly, but fairly harmless in the grand scheme of things. There are many things that need legislative or regulatory intervention more.
OT: but is the correct spelling chile? I've always written it as chili
Hot chile pepper fans think so apparently.
It's regional and language based actually