near zero. Besides that, I just don't like it.

Medium by Texas standards. The old digestive tract can't handle the truly hot like it used to.

When I was working in North Carolina, there was this little Asian restaurant I visited from time to time. First time in there, I asked the old guy running it to fix me something really spicy, but not too spicy. He smiled and said "I fix you something good!"

I said "Don't hurt me."

He came back with this little bowl of chopped red peppers in this flaming red oil and he said "Put a little bit of this on your food."

Man, it was right on the bleeding edge of pain, but surprisingly, really tasty. Delicious. I miss that place and that old guy.

I probably never ate anything hot until I was probably 25 or so. Now I would same I’m on the same team as the guys saying I enjoy some heat in most dishes and over the years my tolerance has gone up. So what I think is moderate and tasty would have probably been way too hot when I was starting out.

I typically use jalapeño’s to kick things up and Serano’s if I’m feeling brave.

I used the advice of a Sig forum member for some BBQ sauce which was too expensive with shipping but I ordered 4 different spices from the same company and they have been excellent. When I get home I will edit this to give the name of the company. Great for people watching their salt because they have several with no salt added which seems rare dry spices.

https://alpinetouch.com/

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 1s1k,

Very high. My friends are always trying to find something that I can't eat, the latest being the Lil' Nitro Gummy Bear. I can almost always eat it, but I don't always enjoy it. Somewhere between habanero and ghost pepper is where I draw the line on what is enjoyable.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
He came back with this little bowl of chopped red peppers in this flaming red oil and he said "Put a little bit of this on your food."

Man, it was right on the bleeding edge of pain, but surprisingly, really tasty. Delicious. I miss that place and that old guy.

That reminds me of a chili paste that I had in India. SUPER flavorful, but with a lot of kick. I'd eat grass clippings with that stuff on it.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

quote:

Originally posted by dking271:


I think tolerance builds over time as you eat spicier and spicier foods.

It's not tolerance. As you age, your tastebuds and tongue age as well and you aren't tasting things as well or strongly as you did when you were younger. Your sense of heat (temperature) also diminishes with age which is why you have the classic trope of the old man complaining that his soup isn't hot enough. Because to him, it isn't.

Now that makes sense to me. I am 57 and like many I don't want hot just for hots sake, it has to be flavorful. Ate Chicken Biryani at an Indian restaurant. It was the lowest and while not really hot, had a good burn and flavor was intense. Gonna try the goat next time with a bit more curry in it.

I like spicy stuff in the 15,000 to 50,000 Scoville range. Cayenne peppers and sauces based on them are my favorites. Real Chili heads would regard my preferences as “weak sauce” though.

I've never been able to enjoy hot spicy food at all.

I love it hot and spicy, the stuff they call hot in restaurants is never hot enough. My parents both liked it too, so I grew up with it. The family traveled internationally the first 15 years of my life (Govt. service) so I was exposed to many cuisines which may account for my predilection.

Thai food ordering pro tip: Order “Thai hot“ rather than the highest number. Your food will come looking rather red. Smokin’!

My oldest son orders all his Thai food that way… We have a huge Asian community around us.

I love spicy food, up to and including raw Jalapenos, but that's as far as my tolerance goes.

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:
Oh I can tolerate the hot stuff pretty damn good. It's the next morning's physiological event that gets dicey...

+1

quote:

Originally posted by slabsides45:

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:
Oh I can tolerate the hot stuff pretty damn good. It's the next morning's physiological event that gets dicey...

+1

Calluses help.

quote:

Originally posted by Krazeehorse:
I'm going the other direction as I age. I don't even eat jalapenos much past dinner time or else I don't sleep well.

This. I used to eat burritos with the "Special Under the Counter By Request Only" sauce.

Now Subway Jalapeños kick my ass.

Higher than it used to be. There was a Thai restaurant walking distance from where I used to work, so some of us went there a couple times a month. Over time I worked up from "mild" to "medium-hot". There were, I think, two more steps above that. I never even tried those. I used to use jalapenos in my homemade chili, now I use serranos and like it. I'm not in any great hurry to move to habaneros. My roommate finds even the jalapeno version too spicy.

One guy I used to work with grew his own peppers because he "can never find ones in the store that are hot enough." He made his own salsa and brought some of it into the office one day. Several of the people there loved it. I couldn't even be in the same room with it without my nose and eyes burning.

For me hot, capisation, is something I like and can tolerate to med, med high levels. No ghost peppers but red pepper flakes, cayenne peppers and the like It drives my wife nuts because I can put this stuff on just about every savory dish and enjoy it, but onions and too much garlic sends me for the Tums.

Not for me. I love the taste of some heat. But the last few years since I’ve developed IBS even moderately spicy foods tear me up on the back end so I’ve had to give it up.

I love it when I'm eating it--if it just didn't make my asshole itch...

Mine is a 9 coming out of the gates.

Probably a 2 the following morning.