Culinary masochism

[bladespark]

I've been super into Thai curry lately. (Chao Pra Ya is my go-to, but there are a heap of great Thai places around town.) Today I decided to make the jump from "medium" to "hot" and maybe I wasn't quite ready yet, because yikes. And yet I found myself super enjoying it. The pain was actually not a deterrent at all, even though it was definitely painfully hot.

Guess I'm just a masochist all around, even when it comes to food.

Getting into spicy food has been quite an experience for me. I was raised on bland, midwestern casserole cooking, where the tiniest hint of spice was considered wild and crazy and out there. Now I'm to the point where on commercial/mainstream stuff like major brand salsas, I pick "hot" without hesitating, because mild will taste like no spice whatsoever and medium will be just barely there at all. Been a bit of a trip, and fueled mostly by Thai food, but occasionally by salsa and chips, because nom.

(Posting about trivialities to avoid dealing with heavy shit. Leaving for Utah tomorrow at stupid am. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA)

Comments

[hitokage]

... well now I'm craving coconut curry chicken again, thanks. XD
I am, to the shame of my Mexica ancestors, a spice wimp atm, but a lot of that has been a lack of routine access to higher spice level things over the last 15+ years. Some things I can take medium, but most things not so much, sigh. I should see about us getting peppers into the garden next year....

[chalcedony_starlings]

Aka “posting about spicy food to avoid the spicy topics”. :-9

Do you have a preferred hot sauce?

[bladespark]

I haven't tried hot sauces yet. I should!

[chalcedony_starlings]

Staples in our pantry are the El Yucateco habanero sauces (red and green) for hot and pretty straightforward, and Cholula for something milder and vinegar-based with a more complex flavor (though maybe still not complex in an absolute sense), FWIW. :-9

[bladespark]

That is good to know.

[thewayne]

Have a good time in Utah and a safe trip!

I make a chocolate mousse and I add about a half teaspoon of chili powder to it and it really activates the chocolate! It has the barest hint of heat. A woman who works for my wife at the observatory, born in El Paso, Texas, lived in the southwest her entire life, CANNOT HANDLE THAT MINUSCULE AMOUNT OF HEAT!

I'm amused.

[greghousesgf]

My family lived in Texas when I was a really little kid so I was eating stuff like chili and barbecue and Mexican food from day one. I'm a fire eater. :)

[general_radix]

(Have a safe trip!) I tried putting home-grown jalapenos on my pizza earlier this summer; that was a mistake. XD;;

[daryl_wor]

Nice to see this. I was raised with mild salsa and then my sweetheart showed up wondering what was wrong with all of us. Took me a while to find the delights in spicy food. One major uplift is discovering it is the ideal component in sobriety potions. Really does the trick!