This isn’t about flavour. It’s about sending a message

It has an endorphin release and people get addicted.

1. you are baby

2. once you leave the state of baby behind, there is a new world of technique available for you to explore, and it’s creating spicier and spicier food without destroying flavor. It’s an art and few chefs I’ve seen can do it. Anyone can throw in bhut jolokia and say “it’s incredibly spicy now” but it takes skill to carefully balance and blend that flavor into their dish such that it accentuates and enhances the other flavors while still making your nose run and eyes water.

There’s a Thai place by me that can do this (not with pad thai, though, with green curries), and I’ve eaten at an Indian restaurant in St. Louis capable of this, too.

It’s a transcendent experience, merging flavor, pain and pleasure into a potent concoction that opens the sinuses and the doors of perception.

Edit: it’s also totally okay to be baby, don’t force yourself to try things you know only hurt you.

Also, pure capsaicin, using capsaicin extract, that always sucks. You gotta show off the unique flavor of the pepper itself. That’s the expertise.

It can be a bit of a high. Mouth in pain but mind is like woah.

In my 20s I thought I was a strong chilli eater, then I tried some local spiced food and found my limit, it’s not fun when you shudder and get cold sweat from eating.

Now I add chilli until it’s a bit hot and I can enjoy the flavour of the pepper fruit, and the food.

From the “make him regret being born” instructions, I’m guessing this is someone ordering for some fool who was either bragging about thier spice resistance or talking shit about Thai food not being spicy.

The cenobites from hellraiser lovingly made all of my school lunches growing up, and now mouth-numbing pain makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

I’ve been to Thailand. One time I was in a restaurant that catered to tourists, and two of the tourists at a table near me told the waiter they wanted the food to be really spicy, because they weren’t like those other tourists who couldn’t handle the heat. They told the waiter to prepare it like it was for Thai people.

So, the food arrived and they thought it was a joke. They couldn’t manage to down a spoonful of it. So, they called the waiter back and tried to call him on the bullshit by having him try it. The waiter tried it, said “yep, tastes good” or something, and asked if they needed anything else. They sheepishly said no, and he left. I think they just left their food uneaten and left.

Point being, if you really eat spicy food all the time, you develop a certain tolerance. What might seem like incredibly spicy food for someone (even someone who likes spicy food) might seem like nothing to someone else. If you’re used to something crazy hot, you need all that capsaicin just to make the dish interesting.