15 Nov 2020

In our house, there’s always a bit of judgment happening about how some people cook.

Mainly the others judge me, on my lack of enthusiasm when chilli needs to be added to a dish. If the recipe calls for two teaspoons of chilli, I’m quite convinced that one is more than enough.

Call me a wuss, call me lily-livered, call me what you like. But when it comes to whether I like spicy food or not, the answer is quite emphatically….. no.

Personally, I like food that I can sit and enjoy, noticing the gentle flavours, and embracing the joy that comes with sitting with family and friends sharing a pleasant meal.

I do not enjoy facing an experience akin to being trialled as a witch. A pleasant meal is not one where you immediately start sweating, grabbing frantically for water, milk, bread or a fire extinguisher, and hoping for a quick death to put a stop to the meal.

When my youngest son makes chilli con carne, sour cream is a must have. When I make the same dish, the meal is greeted with benign amusement from the sturdy stomached individuals who don’t mind a bit of spice in their sustenance. Maybe they enjoy the near death experience that certain spicy food brings you.

I guess for a lot of people, your ability to handle spicy dishes is a result of your upbringing. If you were brought up on curries and chillies, it’s how you want your food to taste. And people like this then tend to add those spicy elements to all sorts of things. I vividly remember while travelling seeing chocolate coated jalapeños. I mean – why would you do that? Why ruin perfectly good (I’m assuming, I did not of course taste it) chocolate with chilli???

Are you a spicy eater? Does normal human food taste way too bland for you? What normal human foods do you like to add chilli or curry to?

Can you tell that I’m a non-spicy?