Some people absolutely love spicy foods.
Spice is also closely related to culture. Some cuisines are well-known for their spiciness, with many of them from tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
Bringing the heat to the heat?
Whereas other cuisines are known for a lack of spice—many being in Europe. Denmark was declared the country which uses the least spices, although a lot of Scandinavia gave them stiff competition.
And the UK?
Why so bland?
As the saying goes, Britain invaded and colonized over half the world for spices, but decided not to use any of them.
Imported spicy dishes are extremely popular in some of these regions—tikka masala and various other curries are takeout favorites in England.
But somehow the spices they enjoy from Asian foods, African foods or foods of the Western Hemisphere were never incorporated into their own traditional recipes.
This is interesting given chilies originated in the Western Hemisphere—along with other European staples like potatoes and tomatoes—then spread around the world and into multiple cuisines within only the last 500-600 years.
Maybe those regions have more people on average who can't tolerate spicy foods? Because for some people even a speck of chilies is excruciating.
Reddit user corgiman3000 asked:
"What's the lowest spice tolerance you've seen in someone?"
Was it at least whole wheat?
"My brother-in-law complained dinner was too spicy and, upon questioning, it was because he'd seen me dredge the chicken in flour before frying it."
"Flour."
"Flour was too spicy for him."
- purplhouse
Ketchup's the limit.
"Mom can’t eat anything spicier than ketchup. I grew up on very very bland food"
- -Firestar-
"Same, discovering spice changed it all"
- SculptedSoul
"I'm certainly making up for it. Indian, Thai, whatever I can get my hands on. Anything with super flavor. And heat. Husband taught me how to eat spicy food and now I'm a heat fiend and must make up for lost time before I get too old to enjoy true spicy."
- -Firestar-
Phantom Garlic
"My dad tastes garlic in everything, even if it doesn’t have garlic in it."
"An example: I offered some of my macaroni salad to him. He takes a bite. 'I can’t eat this, it’s too garlicky.' No garlic."
- Old_Army90
"I once cooked for a couple of hundred university students who were on a get-to-know-eachother trip. We made a curry with lots of garlic and a little bit of green Thai curry. A kid would have eaten it with no trouble, but one of the students - a grown man - rushed out into the kitchen with tears in his eyes, shouting at us that we were insane."
"He was the type of person who thinks that garlic and black pepper is way to spicy to add to food.
It was a blast"
- KosmonautMikeDexter
Then why go to Nando's?
"Lemon and herb chicken at nandos was too spicy for them, they had to have plain."
- ambigulous_rainbow
"One of my friends did this. I was so dissapointed in him after that. wHat a waste of money"
- cutdownthere
"When Nando’s came out with their new 'Plain-ish' flavour that’s below Lemon and Herb, I was wondering why anyone would order that. I guess I know now…"
-TjMoore
Literal Ranch Dressing
"When I worked at Tim Hortons a guy complained that out ranch dressing was 'too spicy' and it 'burnt his tongue'"
- FunkyKong147
"I wonder if he was just allergic to something in the ranch. I’m always wary of spicy foods bc biting into something that I’m allergic to often results in it tasting spicy. So if idk it’s supposed to be spicy, I get anxious."
"I once bit into a chocolate protein bar that tasted very spicy. It was not spicy, I was simply allergic"
- InsomniacAcademic
Bell Peppers
"I’ve seen someone argue that bell peppers are spicy. Not black pepper. Bell pepper. Which are a kind of sweet pepper with zero Scoville units. They aren’t even tart or acidic."
- TerribleAttitude
"My spouse and I have a bizarre ongoing argument over this. He is always trying to tell me to be careful when I collect seeds from the bell peppers. I'm like, uh, why? Because of the capsaicin, he says. I say, there is none in here."
"We have this conversation over and over. I could literally stick my finger in my eye, that's how zero spicy bell peppers are. Also I'm deathly allergic to capsaicin so I would know as soon as I ate the dang pepper. (We didn't know I was allergic when he started this weird argument.)"
"I don't know why he continues to think there's spicy anything in sweet peppers, and why he will never ever believe me! I guess it keeps marriage...spicy."
- KiloJools
Tartar Sauce
"I CAN ANSWER THIS."
"I was married to this guy for awhile. His parents were VERY spice-adverse. I had never seen anything like it. I only actually visited their home once, because they lived in a state far away from us, and they usually visited us instead."
"My ex-MIL was always going on about how many spices I had in my collection and how unnecessary it was. When I went to their house I found out she had a spice collection of: dehydrated onions, pepper, salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. That was literally it. I didn't even see cinnamon."
"Iwent to pick up some fried fish once when we were there. Got the tartar sauce on the side."
"His mother tried the tartar sauce and then said, I sh*t you not, "Oh my, that has some kick to it".
"IT ABSOLUTELY DID NOT. IT WAS F**KING TARTAR SAUCE."
- DoomDamsel
"Hooo boy. If she thinks tartar sauce has a kick she is gonna lose her mind when she learns about mustard."
- Fimpish
Low spice tolerance shouldn't be your whole personality.
"My aunt thinks having a low spice tolerance counts as a personality trait. It's so integral that as a goof my spouse once started to describe a chicken soup they were all having at a diner as 'really peppery' and despite my aunt having already ate like half her bowl suddenly couldn't eat it anymore."
- Ralfarius
Plain avocado
"Had a kid immigrate from Poland to Colorado. We were making guacamole for a school class and he tasted it and immediately said it was too hot."
"It was only avocados at that point, we hadn't added anything else."
"He ended up LOVING spicy food, but we never stopped giving him sh*t for that.... good dude, hope he's doing well for himself."
- DETRITUS_TROLL
Even half is too much
"I bought one of those curry sauces that come in a jar for my father who 'loves a good curry'. Knowing my father, I bought the mild version and used half the sauce recommended, figuring I could pepper my own plate up."
"He tucks in, but sure enough, half way through 'It's nice but maybe we could only use half the jar next time?' I looked him in the eye and said 'I did. Do you want me to maybe just wave the jar over the pan?'"
- joalheagney
Doritos
"Probably me from a long while back. Let's put it this way.. even nacho flavored Doritos used to be hot for me."
"Not anymore at least! Not sure why I used to be so sensitive to spices.. oh well lol."
- WispyCiel
Creative Vengeance
"I grew up mostly in Asia, my mother used to take the British executives who came for meetings who were disrespectful or misogynistic to her to the local places she loved."
"As the only person who spoke Bahasa she’d order the spiciest dishes (which she loved) and watched them sweat and struggle through the meals because losing to her would have humiliated them. They often spent the next day locked in their hotel suites"
- RxDuchess
Raw Onion
"Onions, f**king onions. once went to get lunch with a manager I worked with and we went to quiznos and I ordered a sandwich and got jalapenos on it.
he was like 'whoa you can eat those?'
'...yeah you can't?'
'no, even raw onion is too spicy for me.'"
- BronchialChunk
Do you love, hate or have a mixed reaction to spicy foods?
Or is there another flavor profile you can't tolerate, like sweet or sour?
Let us know in the comments.
