I will never understand people who enjoy pain while they eat. I similarly don't understand BDSM. I eat to taste and enjoy food, not engage in some sort of iron man challenge. At a certain point, your tongue is so inflamed that you can't possibly taste what you're eating no matter how much you scream about how it enhances the experience for you.
There are spicy foods that are quite flavorful. There is definitely an element of my taste buds gradually deadening though. At one time a jalapeno was enough to set my tongue on fire and was repulsive. Then a habenero. After a certain amount of time I could taste the real differences in flavor besides the heat, and now the combination is delicious to me. This ghost pepper salsa is just the next step in the line.
And nothing wrong with people enjoying a little BDSM.
Oh no doubt my Crohn's plays a role in my analysis here, but honestly even without Crohn's I don't think I'd enjoy the burn, and I have a very, very, VERY high tolerance for pain (maybe I get my pain "allowance" in other ways and that's why I don't go looking for it?)
That the primary sensation you get is pain is part of the problem. It's not like I'm going to spray pepper juice into my eyes. If I want pain from it, there are better delivery methods.
I'm not saying it doesn't take time and experience. My first encounters with beer, wine, and hard liquor are rather different than the palette developed after time and experience.
My first encounter with a habenero was pretty vile. Same for ghost pepper. But a little bit at a time, served with the right complements, and I start to understand why habenero goes better with sweet things and ghost pepper goes together with rich hearty foods.
Eh, OK I can see that I guess. I don't have the endurance to get there. To me it all looks like a dick measuring contest, which frankly is supported by all the Tool Time style manly man talk that surrounds spicy food eating rituals. ;-)
It's a big deal to me that something actually be flavorful and not just hot. My favorite wing place in town, their hottest sauce is actually pretty mild, but the flavor profile is pretty excellent. Whereas there are some vastly hotter sauces even at chain restaurants around here, but they are not actually tasty (at least to me).
My favorite wing place in town specializes in "dirt style" buffalo wings which are sauced, fried, sauced again, and fried again. They are fucking phenomenal. They don't even OFFER "fire" wings, or whatever, which improves their standing in my eyes.
I will never understand people who enjoy pain while they eat. I similarly don't understand BDSM. I eat to taste and enjoy food, not engage in some sort of iron man challenge. At a certain point, your tongue is so inflamed that you can't possibly taste what you're eating no matter how much you scream about how it enhances the experience for you.
Spicy foods are popular because consuming capsaicin, the "heat" in spicy meals helps stimulate sweat production, helping keep someone cool in warmer climates. May be why they're most popular around the equator.
I will never understand people who enjoy pain while they eat. I similarly don't understand BDSM. I eat to taste and enjoy food, not engage in some sort of iron man challenge. At a certain point, your tongue is so inflamed that you can't possibly taste what you're eating no matter how much you scream about how it enhances the experience for you.
Spicy foods are popular because consuming capsaicin, the "heat" in spicy meals helps stimulate sweat production, helping keep someone cool in warmer climates. May be why they're most popular around the equator.
Smoking is popular because the space between two fingers is just right for a cigarette.
I will never understand people who enjoy pain while they eat. I similarly don't understand BDSM. I eat to taste and enjoy food, not engage in some sort of iron man challenge. At a certain point, your tongue is so inflamed that you can't possibly taste what you're eating no matter how much you scream about how it enhances the experience for you.
Spicy foods are popular because consuming capsaicin, the "heat" in spicy meals helps stimulate sweat production, helping keep someone cool in warmer climates. May be why they're most popular around the equator.
Smoking is popular because the space between two fingers is just right for a cigarette.
Are you seriously trying the equate the two? AT WORST eating spicy food will kill your taste buds, but they grow back.
I'm saying that the assertion that spicy food is popular because it cools you by sweating makes as much sense as saying smoking is popular because cigarettes fit nicely in your hand.
One other thing is that spicy foods are more popular among older people than younger because the sense of taste weakens as you age. Most of the hardest-core spicy food nuts I've known tended to be mid-to-late 40s and older, and that includes my dad.
Now graituitously spicy stuff, like phaal and the four horsemen burger is going a bit too far I admit.
True, although at a previous company I worked for, they used to have a new hire hazing routine in the main office in California (I worked at a satellite office in Massachusetts) where you'd have to go out and eat an infamous Habanero Hamburger from a local establishment (that's no longer in business). That was again, one of those purely "can you eat this crazy hot food on a dare" things as opposed to something legitimate.
As a corolarry, there is a restaurant in Cambridge, MA, called The East Coast Grill which has semi-regular "Hell Night" where they serve insanely spicy foods. Their most infamous dish is dubbed the "Pasta from Hell." Apparently, the food is actually quite good there, even on Hell Night, but just that only the hardest core spicy food lovers can actually overcome the extreme heat of the Hell Night dishes to appreciate the more subtle flavors.
The only people on FRCF that I've seen in hats (in person) that can pull off hats:
Adam Pete Phil Keats (Yosho) Victor
I may have missed some people, but those are the few off the top of my head.
Baseball cap probably. The only people I know who can rock fedoras are:
Al Capone Frank Sinatra Don Draper Tom Hanks Young Harrison Ford
In Order - Yep, Yep, Nope, Yep, yep. Don Draper wears a Trilby. As does Adam, Yosho, Victor, and I think Pete but I can't recall, and I can't connect the name to a face with Phil.
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And nothing wrong with people enjoying a little BDSM.
I bit directly into a pepper in my General Tso's a decade ago and thought I was going to fucking die. I was surprised not to have a scar on my tongue.
My first encounter with a habenero was pretty vile. Same for ghost pepper. But a little bit at a time, served with the right complements, and I start to understand why habenero goes better with sweet things and ghost pepper goes together with rich hearty foods.
Adam
Pete
Phil
Keats (Yosho)
Victor
I may have missed some people, but those are the few off the top of my head.
My daughters kick ass in hats. Hats like them.
As a corolarry, there is a restaurant in Cambridge, MA, called The East Coast Grill which has semi-regular "Hell Night" where they serve insanely spicy foods. Their most infamous dish is dubbed the "Pasta from Hell." Apparently, the food is actually quite good there, even on Hell Night, but just that only the hardest core spicy food lovers can actually overcome the extreme heat of the Hell Night dishes to appreciate the more subtle flavors.
Al Capone
Frank Sinatra
Don Draper
Tom Hanks
Young Harrison Ford
Conclusion: my kids rock hats.