And what's nice about building up an extreme tolerance to capsaicin is that afterwards you are able to better experience the flavor of peppers, without focusing entirely on the heat.
For anyone picking up the hobby, know this, you will reach the point where your stomach and other parts of your body will become a limiting factor so build up slowly. I own a bidet.
It's a whole new world of stimulation!
"The genus Zanthoxylum belongs in the rue or citrus family, and, despite its name, is not closely related to either black pepper or chili pepper."
For a long time, importation was forbidden because the US is very protective of its citrus crop. We had to bring it back over from China.
I regularly consume habaneros, and I've recently tried ghost peppers in the form of hot chicken wings. I didn't know hot sauce could make my whole hand burn, but it did, for an entire day. I can see why people put on gloves to handle ghost peppers. I want to try them again, but my wife doesn't think I should.
Wearing gloves is a good idea while processing capsicums, but also quietly chant to yourself "Don't touch your eyes. Don't touch your eyes. Don't touch your eyes."
I frequently put them on in situations where they aren't terribly necessary exactly to remind myself to keep my fingers out of my eyes.
We don't all agree that beer tastes bad, but a lot of Holden Caulfield-ish high school kids (the main xkcd shirt buying demographic) would agree to that to demonstrate their intellectual superiority. Like it's a open secret that people don't like beer, but it's just an excuse to get drunk, and ole Randall is holding his nose because beer is terrible but he still wants to drink. How precious.
Oh but I assure you they do.
In fact everybody I know drinks beer exclusively for the flavour. Why else would they?
Even my 93-year-old grandmother drinks it, but she can only drink half a bottle, after that it will start to affect her. She complains bitterly how she'd like to drink more, but can't anymore.
> or non-alcoholic beer would be a lot more popular than it is, since it just tastes like beer
I have never found a tasty alcohol-free beer. I'd be happy to find some. I love the taste of beer, but after a few I need to stop before it goes to my head.
The process that removes the alcohol somehow also removes the pleasant taste (maybe because the alcohol content partly determines the taste?)
> without the bitterness of alcohol.
The bitterness comes from hops, and possibly malt.
If it were the alcohol that was bitter, wine would be quite bitter, and Vodka would be unbearable.
I don't mean this as an attack on you at all, but you seem to have little experience in the matter.
I've drunk plenty of beer and it all tastes bad. I'm not inexperienced. I much prefer the flavour of fruit juice. I really do think there's a huge social pressure to get to like beer. Maybe after a while our brains get to enjoy the bad flavour and associate it with pleasant past experiences. I have learned to put up with the flavour of beer and sometimes I am able to ignore the bad flavour of beer if there are other parts of the flavour that are enjoyable.
I don't think anybody likes beer the first time they try it.
I feel the same way about coffee too. It's a bitter drink and it smells bad. It cannot possibly be true that these substances would be popular if it were not for the side effects. What is a popular bitter beverage or food that has no other side effects?
I suppose you did, yes :-) Homebrewer here.
> Alright, beer is great, we must all do our part! ;-)
That's the spirit ;-)
> I've drunk plenty of beer and it all tastes bad.
Fair enough, I know a few people who don't like the taste.
> I'm not inexperienced.
Respectfully, assuming all other persons' motivations to be identical to your own makes you appear inexperienced not in matters of alcohol, but rather in (I'm struggling to find a good expression here -- I hope you get my meaning) how the world works.
> I much prefer the flavour of fruit juice.
Fine by me. I like it too.
> I really do think there's a huge social pressure to get to like beer.
Perhaps. I can't comment on American culture.
Certainly among adolescents in Germany there is some peer pressure WRT alcohol, including beer of course. After a while people tend to emancipate themselves from it though. I have a few friends who dislike alcohol. Nobody cares.
> I don't think anybody likes beer the first time they try it.
I didn't like it, that's for sure.
> What is a popular bitter beverage or food that has no other side effects?
I usually try not to feel side effects from beer. I dislike being drunk. I still like drinking beer though.
Apart from that: Brussel sprouts (ok, popularity is debatable ;-) ). Artichokes. Endive/Chicory. There are also other very bitter vegetables whose name I don't know that are quite popular in Asia; I'd have to ask my wife for the name. They have no effects other than taste that I'm aware of. They were definitely an acquired taste for me, but now I really like them.
Perhaps you just don't like bitter taste. Obviously there's nothing wrong with that.
The gloves are a safety precaution and should be used every time - just in case.
In my experience, Mexican food is rich, but not spicy. Same thing with (some) Indian food. Maybe I'm trying the wrong food, though? I've only traveled in western India (Maharashtra). I would love some recommendations for dishes to try!
BBQ (from the US) is the hottest food I have ever found. Mexican and Indian food barely registers compared to that stuff.
It's also near-lethal... consume with caution.
Disclaimer: was last there >10 years ago, so much may have changed.
I can find nearly any food item on the planet that somebody has decided to jack up to 11, that doesn't make that food item the most generally hot thing out there.
And then obviously tons of Mexican restaurants around the US (I live in Phoenix).
But yeah, even the spicy regions are (mostly) less spicy than "American Bengali restaurant signalling authenticity with too much spice" that I expected before I got here.
I think that the American culture (especially thinking about the Midwest) has the idea of "spicy vs not spicy", but not the idea of which flavor of pepper goes well with which kind of food. A lot of restaurants here will have black pepper and Tabasco sauce, but not much else, despite the fact that the vinegar in Tabasco will destroy the flavor of a lot of foods.
There's a culture of "spicy and mild", but not a culture of "spicy, but subtly flavored". Of course, I can always go to a Mexican restaurant and find a salsa that matches my food well. But even there, there are usually "mild", "medium", and "hot" labels on almost everything, rather than telling you what kind of peppers were used in preparing the sauce.
Then I moved to Norway. Oh, I was so wrong about selection. Tacos and Mexican-type flavors are very popular, albeit very mild. If I don't want the single 'normal' variety, I have to search for fresh peppers and hope they have them in stock. There isn't generally even an option for mild vs spicy. Wanting different flavors from different chilis is downright exotic.
But yeah, Norway is a horrible country for food. You pay an arm and a leg for barely edible stuff, and if you want to get really good ingredients you have to pay double or more!
"Norway is a horrible country for food" .... It is a great country to live in if you want to vastly improve your cooking skills, though :)
I actually think some of my cooking skills have declined, mainly because the stuff I liked to cook before require ingredients that are harder to find here (and cooking is less fun for me when I can't find what I consider to be quality ingredients).
IANANM, but my college roommate was. We roasted+peeled pounds of red & green chiles when his mom sent the fresh crop. Tasty times.
Here, it's entirely plausible (and frankly likely, given how easy it is to come up with a dismissive answer like yours) that the author meant something like "those who are inspired by cuisines that traditionally use a lot of peppers, like Mexican cuisine, seem not to understand the reason they're used in those cuisines."
I'm not trying to offend, just to be clear and to clarify the other person's position in the process.
I am not angry at the poster, but I sincerely think that the first dismissive statement here was the one I replied to. It shuts discussion down before it gets to happen.
As someone who enjoys spicy food (and used to eat super spicy food), I have been confronted with this argument often. If you put yourself in my shoes for a second: it is pretty insulting -- here's something you care and are excited about. And there's someone who doesn't understand, and claims you're missing 'the point'. I think it's valuable for a discussion to point this out in no uncertain terms.
Edit: thank you for the feedback though! Next time, I'd probably say the same thing with a bit of extra sugar coating.