Too Hot Too Handle

I like spicy food. It’s fun. Even my Mom who’s palate is delicate can enjoy horseradish, the zing of ginger, the bite of some black pepper, or a good sweet and sour dish.

I have delved into the spice rich world of Indian, Taiwanese and Vietnamese foods. I have not conquered the hottest dishes, but I can still enjoy the moderately hot ones.

When it comes to sushi I really like the wasabi. I don’t need to put it on the spicy tuna rolls, but I do anyway.

It is about enjoying all that food has to offer from the subtle to the spicy. Which brings me to the behavior  I see every once in a while when dining.

I am currently invited to the Federal Hill Chili Cook Off. It came in an email. Here is a quote from the heading;

‘”It can only truly be Texas red if it walks the thin line just this side of indigestibility: Damning the mouth that eats it and defying the stomach to digest it, the ingredients are hardly willing to lie in the same pot together.” – John Thorne, Simple Cooking”.

That is fun? That is dining? Is it me or is this waste off good ingredients only a challenge to people, (mostly men), who think they can tolerate more spicy chili than others? I hear the talk, “What, you can’t eat that chili pepper, boy?” I now have a reply instead of a shameful bowing of my head. “Why yes, I can eat it, but then I would deprive you of ruining your taste buds for the rest of the day”.

How is it that eating food so hot you sweat and disrupt you bowels is cool? I can’t get macho about food. I held my own with mountain biking, but eating as a sign of manliness is just stupid. I eat to enjoy and by golly-gosh, I will continue to protest that eating food has anything to do with manliness.