Benign Masochism

That's why I couldn't believe the FDA's attribution of Salmonella infections to serrano peppers. If the bacteria can survive in THAT environment, well, then, maybe we should think about quietly moving to another planet.

Capsaicin causes depletion of substance P, a pain neurotrasmitter, in peripheral sensory neurons when apllied topically. As I recall, there was once a school of thought that substance P played a role in the central nervous system as regards mood, and thus that drugs that modulated substance P elaboration in the brain might treat depression. I think these drugs died in development, however.

I've heard that a shellac made from capsaicin is excellent at preventing barnacle accumulation on boats.

Greetings:  First, a warm welcome to austensibly and gradgirl.  Come aboard, it will be a fun ride.   I like hot, spicy food.  Tabasco on eggs, pizza, almost everything.  Habenero (or Scotch Bonnet) is great for cooking, a little to hot to eat raw.  "Daves Insanity Sauce" is just plain painful.  I can't possibly see how you could use it for anything, execpt to really P somebody off. 

I like chilies, but I don't like chocolate.  Go figure.....

Downed a Habenero on a dare once, 45 minutes of pure hell. I loved it and have been eating hot stuff ever since. Perpere(the spelling is wrong I'm sure) from Ethiopia is a personal favorite.

Mark swaim:  Yes, I have seen many people dump quarts of cayenne pepper into antifouling paint prior to applying to boat hulls.  Everyone said "they heard it inhibits growth, so might as well try it".  Shellac, no; antifouling, yes.  Curious, I wonder if it works.

Capt Neptune---Thanks. Interesting, really. I've had Dave's Insanity Sauce, and it really pushes the envelope. Matter of fact, it's just darn unpleasant.

I remember a mail catalog, called Mo' Hotta Mo' Betta, that reminded me nominally of the J. Peterman catalog. It was a bazaar of hot sauces, with drawings of bottles and very engaging ad copy. Wonder if they are still around.

If you ate chocolate after eating chilies, well that would explain something, but I am sure that's not what you meant.

Olivia: Please officially wassail gradgirl.

When I lived in Thailand, we used to grade 'hotness' into five levels: (1) burn the inside of your mouth, (2) make your nose water also, (3) make the outside of your mouth burn, (4) make your eyes stream also, and (5... the hottest), make everything including your fingers burn.  (I've been told Thai peppers rate right up there with the habaneros...).  I always found, and still find it odd, to think that the hot peppers are native to South America and -- therefore -- Thai and Indian food must have been VERY different in the year 1508 as opposed to 2008. But then I consider the variety of foods I eat and realize 'globalization' is pandemic (heh, heh).  I can well remember ... not that many years ago ... buying squid at ridiculously low prices in the bait department of a New England grocery and being asked by the checkout girl where I was going fishing.  She was SHOCKED to discover I was going to 'eat bait'.  And my Italian-American father could not really comment following one of his tirades about 'I'm not an Italian-American; I'm an American' when my sister astutely commented, 'But Dad, Americans don't eat squid!'  And now they call it calamari, folks... 

Now, gonna log.... For those who have wondered, I'm in Houston in a house without any electricity, water, etc. and it ain't half bad (though I'm typing this on my laptop at 3:30 am in a dark living room with the sound of generators outside my wide-open windows).  Anytime someone wants advice on eating in a post-apocalyptic world, they can either check in with my camping addicted Eagle Scout brother, or with 'camping-in' me....  No, I havent't been eating any hot peppers from the refrigerator -- but I do have a bottle of tabasco sauce in there somewhere... (behind the bag of ice?)

First I must nitpick the subject. Unless I'm misunderstanding what I just read with my morning coffee (always a possibility), it was put forth that taste buds have to do with lactose intolerance. I am certain that the current knowledge relating to lactose intolerance indicates that the affliction is all about the lack of lactase enzyme in the digestive system, resulting in the inability to process lactose. This is not necessarily a bad thing, and may even be an evolutionary defense mechanism. I present several lectures on the unsuitability of milk as provender for humans in my nutrition class, and I'm trying really hard now not to get on my soapbox, but the Dairy Council, to me, rates right down there with tobacco companies with regard to misleading the public about any benefits from milk intake. Condiment, okay; food, no way...

So, now, I'll leave off that, and just say that over time I seem to be liking my food hotter and hotter, such that now I won't even look at the mild salsa in the shops. I put the hot stuff on everything but ice cream (hmmm...), and often add chipotle sauce when the hot isn't hot enough. My chicken soup just isn't right without a shot or two (or four) of salsa verde, and when I discovered Thai and Vietnamese cuisine (HI DOC!!), well YUMMY was all I could get out while scarfing in a most unladylike manner. I do better now.

Wassail and frolic, revelry and salutations to our new members, and we hope you'll entertain and be entertained by your and our postings high and low. We are vulgar, and sublime, we're even right some of the time!

Welcome to our forum civil, you are among gentlefolk.

Some years ago, our Pakistani psychiatrist neighbor was working on hot peppers in his kitchen while a plumber was working on the pipes in his house. The water had been turned off and somehow (he didn't explain), the doctor's pepper tainted fingers had come into contact with his (own) genitals and we found him at our door in deep distress begging to use the garden hose.
A lot of guys, probably without stopping to ask, would have simply jumped in the pool. He ran to the little gate yard under the kitchen window right below where I stood watching and listening to his woeful moaning as he rinsed his delicate bits with gallons of very cold water.
It wasn't that sad scene that had me wishing that we'd owned a video camera: No, but what did was the fact that the yards and yards of pastel silk making up his voluminous, flowing pantelones acted as several giant water balloons anchoring him to the spot.
In the end, he solved the problem by stabbing at his garment with a little three foot forked weed digger that had leaned nearby.
Nothing was ever mentioned and they've moved away a decade since but the bright side is: No matter what goofy, awkward or witless pickle I have found myself in, I know- it could have been worse.

I love anything HOT!  Try tabasco on fried green tomatoes, YUMMEEE!  Actually I love any kind of hot sauce.  I once went to a hot sauce bar!  It was a blast.  I tried about 30 different hot sauces.  I did learn one important thing...don't drink water after eating hot sauce, it only intensifies the heat.  You have to drink MILK!

I'd like to say welcome to our newest members.  Olivia is right, we may be a little spontaneous but the folks here are delightful.  I hope you enjoy the posts as much as I do.  I can honestly say that my fellow members have taught me a lot!  ENJOY!

Around here (northern New Mexico) the best time of year is autumn where roadside vendors roast chiles from Hatch in large bins 30 lbs at a time (you aren't local unless you have at least 30 lbs of roasted chiles in your freezer). The air is filled with the smell, and the mouth waters constantly as you ride through town.

Eggs aren't eggs unless they are mixed with minced chile. Chicken casseroles, salsas, chimis and tacos -- all are are lifeless without bits of green waiting to surprise and enliven the mouth. The dullest of foods, the most bland and unpalatable are all made exciting by the addition of chiles. It isn't just about eating -- it's about zip and zing and zest and zowie!

I fear I'm rather pedestrian when it comes to spicy foods. And I think overspicing is usually a sign of an insecure cook and has ruined many a dish.

That being said, I can't have a cold roast beef without Coleman's English mustard. (Get the powdered kind) and naturally sushi is impossible without wasabi.

Maybe I have to move to the southwest to get that adrenal rush. 

Some years ago, my husband was extremely fond of all things hot.  Then he had both knees replaced...at the same time... and now he really is not at all tolerant of hot foods.  Obviously, his arthritic knees were telling him that he wanted and needed that capsaican and afterwards, not so much. An interesting scientific experiment. And as to how the heat was felt, he always got a very itchy scalp.  That was when he felt he was getting enough of the stuff.

Not real big on Hot Tex Mex Foods. Knew a guy in the Job Corps that was Puerto Rican & put Tabasco Sauce on Pizza, had a dormate that was Mexican that pured HOT HOT sauce on her Cheetos & popcorn will admit I have at times done only the HOT Sauce on the Cheetos & Popcorn. (it is good ~ really it is)

But I happen to LOVE Kim Chee last week drove down to my favorite Korean & Sushi Bar establishment & had some Kim Chee & Korean BBQ.  Hot level on the BBQ ALWAYS a 3. Tread a 4 once, my stomach decided a few hour later that it couldn't take it.    

one word......HAGGIS !

Do we have a Scotsman in our midst? How does one eat haggis? Kim chee is rather lethal. I had it once, never again. Although I would love to see an eating contest with the Bhut Joloka chili. Water on the side is acceptable.

Stoney, you have me laughing aloud, here in my office, at lunch, passersby looking in quizzically. Thanks!

Scotty, you are SO RIGHT! My brother used to live in Albuturkey, and the chilies, mmmmm good. I need a ristra!

Oh, rings, kim chee smells SO BAD. I worked with a Korean nurse, she was the sweetest person, but I could NOT do lunch with her when she was having kim chee. Smells like ripe road kill to me.

Haggis? The Scottish equivalent of chitlins, both are the ultimate in gross, IMHO. But that's just me, I suppose it's good that SOMEONE likes it. Even though I was raised Suthrin, just can't do chitlins. Again, the smell during cooking, OMG.

"In England there are over 60 different religions and one sauce." I think that was Voltaire.

PPV for the chili pepper eating contest, with all chili measured by Scoville units just to have an equal playing field? I think it's a natural. I concur on Kim chee.

Stoney!

Funny. Very funny.

Have definitely been known to treat a masochistic bent with mild bouts of benign masochism!

Love spice. Love it. Especially in horseradish derivatives like wasabe and spicey mustard, etc.

As a distance runner, I have to call that spade a spade, too. I am addicted to beginning every day by hitting the pavement, dirt, rocks, felled tree limbs, etc. until my lungs are bleeding and I'm only half aware of my surroundings. 

It offers quite the endorhpine rush afterward. Always have to have some symphonic music blaring over and over on my iPod, too.

Last Sunday I went out and it was raining, as it had been all weekend. I was rounding this very tight corner that spits me out onto a narrow sidewalk lining Main St, our downtown drag. I was in such a 'raptured' state that when I crashed headlong into another runner who was rounding the corner at the same time in the opposite direction, I screamed—blood-curdling. 

Luckily he grabbed my arms and kept me from stumbling into the traffic. We both had speakers in our ears, but he mouthed the question, "Are you okay?"

I just started laughing and couldn't stop. He did, too. Any other runners out there who get that crazy trance? Love it. Love it. I think I need protective padding! 

Mr. Peterman certainly has a pulse as to what is going on in today's world this was the human interest story done on our Noon Newscast today:  http://www.wfrv.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?articleID=42218 

There's a content box on the left side of the screen, click on the one that says "New Mexico Residents Go for World Record.

I always wondered how they did that...

Love the hot sauce!! The hotter the better. It's true about the adrenaline rush, but also spicy peppers bring out more flavor, in addition to heat.

It's funny how once you start eating something spicy, such as chips and salsa, you have to keep eating or else your mouth starts burning.

ZackChange: I totally agree.

I know when I eat spicy buffalo wings or hot salsa, my lips burn and my mouth feels aflame, but the only thing I want to do is eat more!  It's a love/hate thing.

Heat is good, but I always follow the mantra "More isn't always better, sometimes its just more".  If I can't taste the flavors it isn't worth eating.  Luff thai, tex/mex, wasabi, indian, etc.  A friend once expostulated for over an hour that not only was spicey food a natural antiseptic but that it helped cool one off in hot climates by producing sweat.  To me, if you have to explain it, you haven't spent enough time enjoying it.

Nasty cold in the head right now, going to cook some chicken in chile sauce and see if the fumes can clear my sinuses.

a chef in our family has developed a Hatch Pepper Popper that is quite lo cal - (nothing like the Jalepeno poppers in the sports bars around here) - but he has lost 115 pounds in the last 10 months and invents tastes from his former lifestyle that will keep him in the style to which he has become accustomed.

As for me, I love hot salsa on cheese omelets - and also all manner of Thai food.  I think they use "cloth" napkins in Thai restaurants because the paper ones won't do - 

 when my mother developed shingles (at age 92) , her doc suggested capsacin as a means to divert attention from the pain - I recently had shingles however "they" seem to have developed more humane ways of relieving the pain these days -

Back in the day when I ate meat, hot wings were my favorite thing in the entire world, although I do remember throwing up on two seperate occasions when I ventured to the extreme ones.
I love peppers, but I tend to stay wimpy when it comes to the actual fruit [vegetable? I mean the physical pepper.]
I guess it's the texture or something, it makes me gag. I'm not one for raw onions either, but I like the taste.
As for spice, however, I drown everything I eat in delicious a red chilli sauce purchased at an asian market.
It makes tofu delicious.
You guys make me sad, because our jar just got used up yesterday by none other than myself, and I have no way to enjoy food until we get a new one.
Anybody eat those hot cheetos?
They're even more delicious dipped in enchalada sauce.

[Helloandwelcome to the newcomer.
I'm the child of the group.]

Almost forgot - welcome to all of the "new" folks - this is a very loving and literate group of people - a wide range of experiences and all willing to share - I am the village elder - but I don't wear white gloves much.

My basket of chilis is growing on a plant hook right now.  I'm not sure they will get integrated into my Irish wife and her daughters diet but I love them.  They clear head colds, ward off disease, vampires and werewolves (though I have no empirical evidence) and go great with garlic in a hundred meals.  I have been told to bottle them with garlic in vodka for a great taste, but usually end up eating them before they make it to the vodka, maybe this year. 

I used to go for super hot, but now prefer under 5000 shu's.  After a night of chili eating I was warned by a friends wife that excesses could cause a heart attack (myth), but the heart burn that night caused me to loose interest in raw scotch bonnets.

I'm a New Mexican and agree with drdgscott-- have to get my sack of roasted chile every fall, and love that smell.

I like all hot cuisines. I supect (and there is some evidence of this) that there are levels of addiction and tolerance to capsaicin and you come to "need" it for the endorphins. I also have an arthritic shoulder and I'm sure it helps that too. But I do know thatwhen i spent several moths in New England back in "86 I had to have friends send reds and greens! 

We also notice we can cook Chinese, Indian, etc as hot as we like for fellow New Mexicans but must hold back for visitors from elsewhere. 

I thought you all should know that I just got back from the grocery store [with more hot sauce, of course] where I may or may not have taken a dried chili out of the main bin to shove under my tounge for the rest of the shopping...

Great, I thought we were all a pretty honest bunch, but it looks like we may have pushed Lovey over to the dark side...

Come Back Lovey, Come Back.....

As for the so called medicinal purposes of capsaisin, among the plethora of untruths lies several legitimate medicinal uses, but let's face it folks, we all like the taste and the rush that any hot substance provides.  If the theory on metabolism were true I would weigh about 75 lbs. (NOT!)  I eat hot sauce multiple times a day.  I put red chili peppers on almost everything.  I even tried cayenne pepper and the chocolate thing.  I saw it in a NYC candy shop, but I have to admit, it didn't satisfy my sweet tooth at all.  It was pretty disgusting.  But here in KY we definately love the stuff on fried green tomatoes and fried banana peppers!  We even boast a local product, called Beer Cheese which is loaded with hot spices.  If you ever make it this way, try it with Zesta crackers and celery sticks. Let's just say I never met a hot pepper I didn't like.      

rings90: I like the dark side. They have cookies.

mackdaddy1: I love the chocolate/cayenne combination. There's a local chocolate store [owned and operated by Matthew, a modern, fat, jolly and gay man who lives off of wine and chocolate] and they have these crunchy chocolate Buddahs with cayenne in them.

Friend, I believe this is the first time I have read Mr Bodio's name in this space, but he is, like the proverbial farmer. Out Standing in His Field. Reveal to us your true fame and talents, Mr. B, if you please.

But back to other things. My favorite way to get heat is barbecue. Here in the bible belt, we pity those benighted sinners who believe Barbecue is a verb or something you do to steaks, fish, etc.

I am sure there is no concidence to all  four North American poisonous snakes being native to my neighborhood ( Water Moccasin, Rattler, Copperhead, and Coral) and all four kinds of barbecue sauce ( Vinegar and pepper, mustard, light tomato, and  heavy tomato) being available, too. Just as you don't see a LOT of coral snakes, you don't see a LOT of "heavy tomato" barbecue sauce, unless you go to large chain grocery stres, where the buyers live far far away...  

But for the True Believers, vinegar and pepper barbecue sauce is IT.  

It is made almost entirely from those two ingredients ( sort of like Scotch and Soda or Gin and Tonic) and its chief function is to impart a subtly sweet heat that  has nothing to do with those molasses and goo things they blame on Kansas City.

My poiint? I was getting to it. As a child, eating barbecue and loving that heat buzz described above, I learned that the best thing to cancel it ( or at least moderate it, like one of those rods you poke into a reactor to keep from exploding) ( Watch it Olivia. I see you smirking)  ... anyway, the moderating anodyne is either sweet iced tea or fruitcake. Pound cake will do in a pinch...

Cap'n N, I actually have a chile and chocolate bar in my refrigerator. It is not as cool as it sounds, by the way...

elliptically y'all's

Willie T 

Lovey ~ Cookies Really they do?  WOW See you all later I'm going with Lovey to the darkside... (Didn't you all read it?  They have COOKIES!!)

Willllliiiiieeeee, how'd you suss me out so quickly, you bold thing? I AM smirking! Your references to ankes and 'cue make me wonder if you live around here, it all sounds so FAMILIAR!.

Lovey, you need the T-shirt. I have an 18 year old daughter, so I've seen it: Come to the Dark Side-We Have Cookies! You're so CUTE, and I'm not kidding.

*feminine Darth Vader voice* Lovey, I am your MOTHER! Join me, and we will rule the galaxy together!

Wait, be a Jedi-we have ICE CREAM!

Okay, no more champagne for me...

nachista, remember what Mae West said: Too much of a good thing is WONDERFUL!

ankes? Snakes, even!

Olivia you would like a local coffee shop's mexican hot chocolate.  Quality melted cocoa whipped with soy milk until frothy and blended with a pinch of pepper and a pinch of cinnamon...much more satisfying than a bland cup of swiss miss, even if it doesn't have mini marshmellows.

Who mentioned snakes?  You are on my "displeased with" list...I know its a childish and girly response but, EWWWWWWWWWW!!!  Now I have to check the sheets and under the bed before I turn in for the night.  You shall be forgiven in the morning. 

Willie Trask-- thanks.

I am just a writer of books about various odd things that I love-- New Mexico, falconry, pigeons, Mongolia, and more. I have even witten about chile (in an essay collection, On the Edge of the Wild.)

Ok, anyone have any home made remedies for colds that work to ease the symptoms?  I would really like to be able to breathe through my nose again.