From bland to spicy (by K2)

[Deleted]

Children do not like spicy food, although there are always some odd exceptions. I remember that I have loved hot horseradish for as long as I can remember, and I am the only person in my family who did -- the jar of horseradish was for my exclusive use. I don't know how that happened.

Little by little we are exposed to spicy items, and most of us learn to like some of them. Sharp French mustard was probably the second 'hot' item that I learned to like, followed by harissa, the hot spice served with couscous.

I would say that by the time we like perhaps three diverse spicy items, it opens us up to wanting to taste others -- from Thai cuisine to wasabi to jalapenos to mythological Ethiopian doro wat. Even chili con carne. And then there's no going back until old age or ill health and the doctor's orders.

How did you get into spices?

[Deleted]

I can't eat food that is too bland. I always have to add something else to it to spice it up a bit. I think it's an acquired taste. Being Indian, I've been eating spicy food since a baby and am very used to it. As a kid I didn't always fancy it, but had little choice, so ate was ever was there or presented to me. Now I just love it, but can't eat the tooo spicy stuff.

I still remember my sister, when in India as a kid, eating fresh chillies, just like that.

[hwinpp]

I get along well with it and I get along well without it.

I find it has its time and place.

[Deleted]

Same for me, actually. I can eat without spices for weeks if I am eating dishes that do not call for them. But I know lots of people who will add chili sauce, chili powder, Tabasco or whatever to just about everything they eat.

[Don Cuevas]

I vote spicy, although I have to take a break from it now and then. At least a day.

[Deleted]

Yes, but were you born that way?

[bixaorellana]

Hmmm. Since my mother (the cook in our family) comes from a background of well-seasoned food, I think my palate was always tolerant of and curious about new flavors. I was acquainted with hot sauce and hot vinegar as a table seasoning from a young age, but never really craved or sought out "hot". When I was in my early twenties, I was introduced to Indian cooking, but I don't think what I ate then I would consider hot now. It wasn't until after visiting Mexico for the first time in my mid-twenties that I became really interested in hot as part of the flavor spectrum. It's a constant companion now.

[existentialcrisis]

Hmmm... I have some theories.

The people I see that are adding hot sauce to everything they eat are generally immigrants to North America that aren't used to our bland food. I worry about them. I feel that they don't have full functioning taste buds, growing up their whole lives eating spicy foods, it's like they killed them.

I also heard that spicy foods developed in warmer climates where the heat would make food decay faster, so spices were needed to mask the rotten taste. Up here in the cold, our food was well preserved so we ate it bland.

When I was a kid, I used to love going to the Mexi Cali joint and eating the hot and spicy food to the point of experiencing pain. Now that I'm older, I enjoy a degree of heat but in moderation. After all, I'm not trying to be a hot shot anymore.

I guess I sympathize equally with people who eat too blandly and those who NEED heat. Though I find myself more and more requiring my rooster sauce, tabasco sauce, or some other source of heat.

[Deleted]

I have pulled back on the spices also, except when I go to Thailand.

[lagatta]

I had to pull back quite a bit a few years ago, when I had an accident that left me with a painful "frozen shoulder". With the strong analgaesics I was taking, I couldn't bear hot food.

But I did have some drops of a rather mild (but flavourful) sambal oelek on a savoury multigrain porridge this morning. I never know quite what to do with porridge, except grate fresh ginger into it and add some aromatic spices.

existential, I have no problem at all with non-hot food that is flavourful, such as many French or Northern Italian dishes that are more herbal than spicy. But tasteless stodge has me reaching for the hotsauce bottle. (I was in Netherlands and Flanders recently, fortunately did not have too much inflicted on me in Amsterdam but the Flemish food, while well-prepared, was dreadfully bland)

[Don Cuevas]

I no longer snack on a bag of freshly picked, raw chiles jalapeños.

All that is behind me now.

[existentialcrisis]

My good American friend brought me a jar of pepperoncinis once and I loved them. Then I fed one to a friend of mine and it couldn't have been any more hilarious watching him run to the kitchen for some water!



Anyone know what exactly these are?

[hwinpp]

Mar 21, 2010 9:28:01 GMT existentialcrisis said:

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I also heard that spicy foods developed in warmer climates where the heat would make food decay faster, so spices were needed to mask the rotten taste. Up here in the cold, our food was well preserved so we ate it bland.

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Not so sure about that one. I don't think people, normal people that is, ever cooked habitually too much. The spices would not only mask a foul smell, they'd also preserve and keep the food clean. I prefer to believe the latter

I've noticed I eat generally less spicy here than elsewhere. Cambodian food isn't that spicy anyway as it was already well developed before the chilli came sailing over the Atlantic

[fumobici]

The gateway spice for me was garlic. My mom made her salads with enough garlic to make one's eyes water and I can't remember not savoring it. Then I discovered the pairing of beef and freshly cracked peppercorns, followed by hot horseradish. Hot chilies came later and gradually, but now when I am eating something that is complemented by chili pepper, I don't stint on it. If my nose is on the verge of running a bit and a little sweat beads on my brow, then that's perfect.

[lagatta]

But garlic is a vegetable!

[Deleted]

Some vegetables have treachery in their heart.

[joanne28]

As a child, I had very conservative tastes & didn't like much of anything. No onions for instance. I preferred my pasta with butter only on it, no sauce. I really liked starchy food and it's still a comfort thing for me.

Gradually, I started expanding my horizons. Now I enjoy a nice bit of zing & spice. I love Indian food. French food always works, as does Chinese.

I think the first really spicy food I ate was Szechuan and I fell in love with it. I would have been around 20 at the time. I had already started trying new things but a friend took a bunch of us to this fabulous Chinese restaurant in Montreal. It used to be on St. Catharine's close to Peel & then moved to Bishop St. I haven't been back for years now - it's probably gone. I used to eat there at least once a week. It was downstairs in the basement level with that horrible flocked red velvet wallpaper. I must try to find it again....

[lagatta]

If it is the one I'm thinking of, it no longer exists, but there are many others.

I liked a lot of spicy and unusual food as a child. I was denied much traditional "comfort food" as I was severely allergic to cow's milk.

[Don Cuevas]

There's an article today in the NY Times on Pimentón de La Vera, one of my favorite and most used spices.
www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/dining/14power.html

[gertie]

I like variety, myself. Sometimes I like what I term "plain food" because it's comfort food. Then other days I want the spice and vavoom of Mexican, Tex-Mex, Thai, or Szechuan. I can't really remember when I didn't like occasional spicy, though I doubt I encountered much of it before about 8 or 10, coming from a midwest family as I do, although raised in Texas. I remember as a kid sitting and watching tv with my best friend, eating pickled jalapenos from the can when we ran out of chips. Another friend's father had been in Korea some years and made what my mother termed "Flaming homemade kimche" which I recall enjoying very much.

My husband's got a sensitive tum. It isn't that he can't stand heat, more that he can't stand too much oil, so hot pepper oil is right out. The daughter who is still living with us is still at the can't stand spicy stage pretty much, though she will try anything. Recently I tried an enchilada recipe that involved stewing chicken breasts in broth, yogurt, and chipotles. She ate a few bites but then set it aside saying she just could not take any more of the spicy. The fact she eats a few bites keeps me hopeful she will learn to eat more spicy as time goes on.

[Deleted]

A new French advance in Mexican food: sans piments!

[imec]

Nice to see the French can F' stuff up with the best of 'em.

[lagatta]

Even though that is pseudo-Mexican (via the US southwest, via the worst of corporate blandness), it could go in our not-yet-started "bad French food" thread. I was thinking of France and perhaps other "Romance" Europe countries as it would be overkill to also start one about bad Italian, Spanish or Portuguese food. Odd, because normal Old El Paso anything is no hotter than the couscous and harissa French people eat.

I know a couple of Mexicans in Paris - wonder if they are able to find fresh tortillas anywhere, or if they wind up making their own from masa harina they bring back? Idem certain chiles. There are quite a few hot peppers in Paris, but mostly Maghrebi, West African or Southeast Asian. Obviously derived from Mesoamerican peppers, but many Mexican peppers seem unavailable.

What I'm eating tonight is not spicy at all, except for a bit of dijon mustard - I heated precooked chicken-herb sausages (a bit like Weisswurst, but chicken) and Mildessa tinned wine sauerkraut. And I'm quite happy with the plain little dish. But for breakfast I finished off a bit of Muhamara, a somewhat spicy dip from Syria.

[mickthecactus]

I have 2 grandsons, 11 and 9.

The 11 year old only likes spicy food and has for some years now. Also likes all things seafood, mussels, oysters, shellfish etc. etc. does not like vegtables much other than tomatoes which he would almost die for and spinach. Not a big eater.

The 9 year old will only eat plain but lots of it and all vegetables other than tomatoes.

[Deleted]

Actually the television commercials for the non-spicy fajita mix are quite intelligent, because not only do they promise you no spices, but they also show all of the different ingredients you can put in them besides the standard ones. And then they show the whole family, especially the little kids, enjoying the meal.

Knowing how frustrated parents get at having one or more children who don't like "anything," it got the point across that the whole family can pretend to be enjoying the same meal, even though they have all put something different in their fajitas. They didn't quite show a french fry filled fajita, but it was pretty clear that Old El Paso doesn't care what you put in your fajitas -- just buy the product!

[kerouac2]

I thought this was a charming introduction of British schoolboys to some spicy dishes.