Does EVERYTHING have to be spicy?

[charming23]

I agree that places need to specify on menus if it is spicy or not. Now I can handle spicy and love spicy but my mom and Grandma can not and they make sure to ask. Although I never would have thought to ask about mashed potatoes.

 

[C.Ann]

There are only certain spicy (as in "hot") foods that I like, but one thing is for certain... Do not mess with my mashed potatoes!! I will season them with salt and a bit of black pepper myself, thank you..

 

[Wishing on a star]

Do not mess with my mashed potatoes!!

Ummmm.... Tag Fairy!!!

 

[cassiez76]

i'm from new orleans. home of spicy. i HATE spicy food.with.a.passion. HATE IT! so many ruined crawfish and shrimp boils because they've put too much spicy in it. *gag*

i always get funny looks when i don't want spicy. i've sent stuff back. we have local companies that do seafood gumbo's and a lot of local food t.v. dinners... love them, but they have gotten so hot that i refuse to buy them now.

i don't understand why places can't just have tabasco or some type of hot sauce on the tables or a packet shoved in the box if people want to burn their butts off with hotness.

and if it's too spicy, i hand it over to my hubby who happily eats it.

if it's seasoned, that's fine, just not spicy.

 

[bumbershoot]

Nope. A liberal springling of Cayenne. If it said Cayenne Mashed Potatoes, fine, it just said mashed potatoes.

Definitely sounds like they made a mistake in the kitchen. Did you send it back?

If a restaurant is adding hot-spice to their dishes, it really should find a place in the menu description. Especially with fett alfredo and mashed potatoes. I mean, those have a traditional sort of taste...changing them up deserves a mention.


I was at Karl Strauss Brewpub in San Diego last week...the people at the table next to us had to leave about a third of their meal on the table b/c of the overwhelming heat. For whatever reason, they didn't say anything to the server during their meal, but he noticed when he came by to pick up the plates. And it took about 10 minutes for him to FINALLY start to talk about comping them part of it, because the spice that was in the dish was NOT on the menu, and should not have been on it. And, frankly, even if it had been described with the spice, it was obviously something that their mouths couldn't stand, and I would have hoped for him to offer them something anyway...it's just polite. And with many people, that extra bit would go straight into the tip for the kind, caring server who was so kind.

 

[book_junkie]

Try being allergic to peppers. Yep. Not black pepper, not white pepper, but every other frakkin' pepper out there: bell, green, red, jalepeno, chili, paprika, sometimes even too much allspice. And not just ew, I really don't like them, or even gag reflex- along the lines of too much and we're off to the hospital for a few days.

Then move to TEXAS.

Makes life interesting. I have definitely learned to ask the waitstaff beforehand before eating ANYTHING that could possible have peppers in it- pizza and pasta sauce, BBQ sauces, steak rubs, stir fries, french fries, you'd be surprised where they sneak 'em in anymore....

That's one thing that I about Disney- they will go out of their way to work with you on a food allergy, at least at a TS. I still remember on our honeymoon trip how the chef took us on a walk-through of Boma, showing what I could and could not have, and then made up a special batch of Pha and Butternut Squash Soup ( we had hit the spicy night and she made us the sweet kind )... THAT was what won my hubby over from a humoring me about Disney World to a full out

 

[plutotek]

I love my spicy food. Yes, spicy alfredo is not something I would go for, as a PP said, there's a traditional expectation to it. However, I find that most of the 'hot' or 'spicy' dishes listed on a menu simply aren't. That experience has only cost me once; I tried a dip made w/the 'hottest sauce on the planet' not expecting it to live up to it's advertising, but it did and I spent the next 90 minutes recovering.

As for the PP who has an allergy to peppers, you have my sympathy, because they add so much to a meal, under the right circumstances. I'd never heard of that before a year ago, when I made some grilled peppers/onions and had a guest that couldn't eat them. Learn something new every day.

 

[Sparx]

I was eating at Popeye's Chicken and their mashed potatos are SPICY!

I was expecting the chicken to be spicy, not the mashed potatos.

 

[bicker]

But, other than that, I find it completely disrespectful to push that level of pepper and spices on every single dish to every single patron.

Well, do keep in mind that, at most more traditional finer restaurants, as well as many trendy finer restaurants, a diner seasoning a chef's food is considered completely disrespectful. That doesn't apply at places like Applebees, of course (but the explanation I provided earlier, applies there, i.e., they're masking their inferiority with spices, appealing to the target audience, and/or see no profit in incurring the added cost of giving control over to the cooks in each restaurant).

 

[bicker]

Bad side of that is, my doctor keeps telling me to cut the salt to get my blood pressure down....

This is going to be a big problem for many of us. People need to eat healthier, but when faced with the direct choice between a healthfully-prepared meal and a meal laden with excess sodium, fat and sugar, far too many of us will not only choose the less healthy meal, but will often consider the healthier meal clear indication of the chef's incompetence (even though the meal provided was excellent for the price paid, given the dietary restrictions accommodated). What good is it to placate a demand for healthier meals if the pervasive response for doing as asked is negative, especially at restaurants catering to the typical, price-conscious mass-market patron?

 

[bicker]

Well, I'm 53, and my tolerence for spice has DECREASED as I have gotten older.

Okay there are two different things we're talking about here, and two different dynamics. First, we're talking about tolerance and preference - two different things entirely. Second, when we talk about spice, there are really two different sets of ingredients that apply: The first set are things like onions, garlic, fruit-peppers, and such; the second set are things like seed-pepper, chiles and such.

Generally, us older folks lose tolerance for onions, fruit-peppers, garlic, and such, but we don't lose tolerance for seed-pepper, chiles and other spices like that (at least in the comparatively small quantities that such things are used, as compared to the first set of ingredients - no one would ever put in 4 oz of habaneros per serving, but 4 oz of onion per serving is not an impossibility).

Again, preference is a different issue: As we age, the impact of spices is depressed - our senses degrade, so for those things, we need more that we used to need, as children, to have the same effect.

 

[bicker]

I don't know how she does it, but in every bite you get a fresh tomato taste with a hint of cilantro, then the garlic comes on, with a hottish finish.

Almost surely, she uses superior ingredients, and takes care in what she's doing (which takes longer than doing things less carefully).

 

[goofyernmost]

We are in the era of spicy food. Since men can't be men anymore there has to be some way to show just how tough we are so they came up with the "hot" foods thing. This was done mostly because it is well known that women, as a group, don't like overly spiced food.

So...it's your fault ladies. If you would have let us keep the hair on our backs we wouldn't have this need to display our manliness. Simple as that. In the mean time all of us must no longer actually taste the food we are eating since it has been replaced by fire.

The upside is that the cost of eating will go down just as soon as everyone realizes that if you shape rice cakes into the form of whatever your favorite spiced food is, you can use that instead of the more expensive beef and poultry entries. What the heck, you can't taste it anyway, might as well go the savings route.

This too shall pass...somewhat uncomfortably, but it will pass.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

We are in the era of spicy food. Since men can't be men anymore there has to be some way to show just how tough we are so they came up with the "hot" foods thing. This was done mostly because it is well known that women, as a group, don't like overly spiced food.

So...it's your fault ladies. If you would have let us keep the hair on our backs we wouldn't have this need to display our manliness. Simple as that. In the mean time all of us must no longer actually taste the food we are eating since it has been replaced by fire.

The upside is that the cost of eating will go down just as soon as everyone realizes that if you shape rice cakes into the form of whatever your favorite spiced food is, you can use that instead of the more expensive beef and poultry entries. What the heck, you can't taste it anyway, might as well go the savings route.

This too shall pass...somewhat uncomfortably, but it will pass.

Sorry, I beg to differ. My dh has bad heartburn issues and he was the cause of "bland house" here.

You should see him order in a restaurant. Have you seen "When Harry Met Sally"? It used to be just him and now it is all of us.

Oh and bicker we have been eating bland forever now. So we are at the point where we don't use salt or butter.

Basically you steam the veggies and that is how you eat them...NEKKID.

The one thing that I can't stand after 20yrs is the plain spaghetti. They add butter and a dash of salt and eat. GAG....

 

[Nancy]

I'm another old person who can't stand spice..whether it is heat or just the basic salt and pepper. I hate over peppered food...if I can see it then there is too much. Salt is another biggie. I use salt very sparingly when I cook...for me a little goes a long way.

Husband used to like spicy stuff but as he is getting older he now doesn't like it so much. No more onions and peppers on the subs, no more hot wings...but he goes with the mild version. He has also cut down on his salt and pepper use. He used to add some to his food all the time, now he doesn't.

 

[DisMN]

There's a huge huge difference in what people call "spice".
Outback steakhouse puts cayenne pepper in everything. Cayenne is a spice that has no taste...the only purpose is to cause burning of the tongue and a lingering loss of taste. There's cayenne in the salad dressings, cayenne on the steaks, cayenne in the potatoes, there's cayenne on the onion blossom thingie AND in the onion blossom dip, there's so much cayenne in all of their menu items that we joke that they have it in their chocolate cake. (which wouldn't actually surprise me)
Many restaurants now put that spice in every single thing they make. We went to one place that had cayenne BUTTER. Are you kidding me?

Now, the difference is when you call something spicy but it's really just horseradish or wassabi. HUGE difference when you make something with either of these things. Horseradish and wassabi don't linger on your palate and they themselves actually have a distinct taste. After one bite of either you can usually taste your next bite. Yep, wassabi clears the sinuses bigtime but after a minute or two you can eat something and still taste it.
These are *spices* I can easily handle and look forward to seeing them in various recipes.

Keep the horseradish and wassabi but get rid of that silly cayenne stuff. I agree with others that the only reason they put so much cayenne in things is to cover up poor quality or a crappy taste.