Shaming Heat Intolerance

[heidih]

I've always enjoyed spice heat as in chile spiciness. But I get grumpy when I see people putting others down or acting superior regarding heat tolerance. Step mother does it constantly to my dad as if her using tasteless but hot chili flakes makes her superior. Then this Serious Eats article today set me off. My son for exaample has always enjoyed heat but operatve word "enjoyed". Am I just beng grumpy (blame the weather heat) or have you experinced it?  https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-build-a-tolerance-for-spicy-foods

Edited July 26, 2023 by Smithy
Adjusted title for clarity (log)

[Alex]

Yes, you're being grumpy. I don't see where the shaming is in that article.

[pastrygirl]

I love spicy heat but agree that it's lame to have a superiority complex about it. 

[blue_dolphin]

I don’t really get the point of the Serious Eats article WRT to building tolerance, but I don’t see shaming there either.

An article on how to accommodate eaters with varying levels of heat tolerance might be more helpful.  Something more interesting than putting a bottle of hot sauce on the table, like suggesting alternate chilies with lots of flavor but less heat in order to maximize flavors with less heat. 

[heidih]

An article teaching you to get heat tolerance - to me - implies you shoukd cultivate it. I could care less. Like cilantro. I know people who have that gene that makes it taste like soap. I wouldn't presume to train them to like it. Too much good food to enjoy in the world rather than force a like. and yes I am grumpy - live in this house for 10 minuetes and Death Valley woud sound like a great vacation spot   

[liuzhou]

I too, see no shaming or compulsion whatsoever. In fact, as the writer points out the article is aimed at "anyone new to the spicy food world or who just wants go to the next level". My emphasis. It also suggests serving chilli as a side rather than incorporating it in dishes "to balance the spicy fans with those who aren't"

 

Quote

This idea is especially useful if you are trying to increase your tolerance while other people in your family may not be as interested in doing so.  (my emphasis)

 

The notion that merely offering advice or information on how to do something somehow implies you should do it is ridiculous. On that basis every educational establishment is telling us we should study every major. My neighbour teaches flower arranging; is this a subtle ruse to turn me into a decorative horticulturist against my will?

 

[Tropicalsenior]

I don't see any shaming in the article but I don't see much value in it either.

As I see it, people fall, mainly, into four categories.

1. People who love hot food, who have grown up with it, enjoy it, the hotter the better, Bring It On.

2. People, who for some physical reason, simply cannot tolerate hot food. It's painful.

3. People who don't like hot food. It's not in their culture and it's not to their taste. They may like a little heat but they don't want to make dining a painful experience. (That's me).

4. People who are adventurous and want to try other cuisines or people from category 2, or 3, who have been tormented by mental morons who keep insisting, "try it, you'll like it".

Therefore the only audience for this article is category 4 and probably, they have heard all of this advice before.

It's also obvious that none of us who have responded to this topic are within the targeted audience and I, for one, found it a total waste of time to read.

 

Edited July 26, 2023 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[Tropicalsenior]

Probably the stupidest advice that I ever heard was if you keep your mouth shut while you are chewing and swallowing you won't feel the heat. Let me tell you from experience, it is hard to keep your mouth shut while you are screaming in pain.

[Arey]

Having experienced lima bean shaming as a child I might have appreciated an article on how to cultivate a taste for lima beans. I might have started small such as vegetable soup with  a few lima beans in it  and gone on to succotash and then forward to lima beans as a vegetable side dish.  No longer would I sit at the dinner table for what seemed hours contemplating a dinner plate with a mound of the vile beans in front of me

[Tropicalsenior]

1 hour ago, Arey said:

Having experienced lima bean shaming as a child I might have appreciated an article on how to cultivate a taste for lima beans.

But it would certainly have been an article with a very small audience.

 

1 hour ago, Arey said:

Having experienced lima bean shaming as a child

And would you, as a child, been inclined to read it?

[blue_dolphin]

2 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Probably the stupidest advice that I ever heard was if you keep your mouth shut while you are chewing and swallowing you won't feel the heat. Let me tell you from experience, it is hard to keep your mouth shut while you are screaming in pain.

I'm not convinced that would prevent you from feeling the heat entirely, but it might minimize the scenario where you open your mouth and gasp for air, directing a shower of particles of hot stuff directly at the back of your throat, near the the upper reaches of your airway where it triggers uncontrollable coughing. 

[Arey]

2 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

But it would certainly have been an article with a very small audience.

 

And would you, as a child, been inclined to read it? 

Unless the article was in a Hardy Boys mystery or  the Saturday  Evening Post I might not have come across it, but if I had come across it I might have read it, and if I did read it I certainly would have hidden it from my mother.

 

Lima bean haters are legion.  They are right there along with brussel sprouts haters.  The difference being that brussel sprouts are despised usually

because cooked wrong whereas lima beans are vile in and of themselves  however they are cooked. And, raw, they are poisonous.

Note - I am not shaming brussel sprout haters   I have sympathy for them because they've never had the opportunity to encounter any of the many delicious ways brussel sprouts can eaten cooked or raw.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Try any recipe for Spanish gigantic bean tapas to become friends with Lima beans.

 

 I now sub fresh/frozen baby Lima’s for favas in many dishes since double peeling favas is not something I’m willing to do any more.

Edited July 26, 2023 by Margaret Pilgrim (log)

[Tropicalsenior]

2 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Try any recipe for Spanish gigantic bean tapas to become friends with Lima beans.

Uh-oh, we found one. We found a 'try it you'll like iter'.

Seriously though, Margaret, I love your writing and I love lima beans. Unfortunately it's something I've never seen down here and when you start talking about things like that I miss them.

Unfortunately, some of the haters have had such bad experiences with the food that they hate that no matter how well you dress it up or how well you hide it, they are never going to be able to eat it.

[TdeV]

I had to argue with a friend the other day that serving a main dish with hot chiles was unacceptable, one can't exclude diners. "Think of it as an allergy," I said. Instead of thinking that I just like being a dick. 😲

[Tropicalsenior]

8 minutes ago, TdeV said:

Instead of thinking that I just like being a dick. 😲

I hope you succeeded. Unless you know that everyone on your guest list is a devoted chilihead, that is a recipe for disaster.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

46 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Uh-oh, we found one. We found a 'try it you'll like iter’

Sorry about that, but I’m a STRONG believer that there are no bad foods, only bad cooks.    Of course, husband says that particularly when traveling, I will

eat stuff that you wouldn’t give your dog, or that you’d take away from him should he drag it home.

[Tropicalsenior]

3 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

I will

eat stuff that you wouldn’t give your dog, or that you’d take away from him should he drag it home

My husband was like that when we traveled. I had to make sure that I had packed plenty of Imodium because I knew that sooner or later he was going to need it.