this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2026
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I do lots of very spicy food. I think my tongue has literally been damaged over time by all the heat, so stuff I don't register as being even the slightest bit spicy are unbearably hot to others and I have to really ratchet it up to taste anything.
But what I've found at lots of Asian restaurants is that the staff assumes my pale, white ass can't take real heat. I ask for "5-peppers" hot and they're like "We'll start you with a 2." It's annoying. I've never been served food that's "too hot" in a restaurant, so I kinda understand these exaggerated descriptions people give on food orders.
On the other hand you have the bozos that order extra extra spicy and then whine that they can't eat it. That's likely something everyone who works in an Asian restaurant has experienced multiple times.
Reminds me of a time me and a coworker stopped for Indian food at a place neither had been before and he said he wanted a number 7. He's Korean so the server didn't blink , I said 1 please.
When the server walked away I was like man what the hell are you doing a fucking 7 !?, he said I like spicy food , I said ok sorry I mentioned it.
He needed a towel to dry his face , his nose had sweat beads dripping off it. He ate the whole dish , said it was way too hot. And he should have ordered a 2 or 3.
I don't play around in those places, store baught hot sauce is as far as I go and I like it just fine , got nothing to prove. I've tried sauces so hot my ears were ringing and I don't like that jazz
I have a good Sichuan place near me. Sichuan heat can sneak up on you, so people who pull this are liable to be leaving in an ambulance. Makes it difficult for me to get the authentic experience.
An ambulance because the food was too spicy? That is one expensive dinner
Being the only spice tolerant person in my family kind of sucks. Whenever I try to get a family member to try something new, the first question they ask is whether it's spicy. I literally cannot even detect mild heat anymore and have several times accidentally given the okay on things they then couldn't finish.
God I feel this. My mother told me once to be careful not to make my eggs too spicy by adding too much black pepper.
I’ve made food that I thought was literally flavorless and been told it was too spicy to finish. So, now when I cook for family I actually just don’t add any seasonings and I point them to the cabinet. “You’re not gonna like most of what you find in there, but there’s at least some butchers blend you should be able to handle”
There’s a Mexican restaurant by me where they keep the good hot sauce in the back.
You can ask for it.
You can purchase it.
They do not keep it on the table.
The guy will however come up to you all sketchy like and ask if you like spicy, then bring you a ramekin for your food and let you know you can take a jar home.
Lots of folks take the bait then struggle in their booth. Dinner and entertainment.
10/10
I once had to leave a negative review at the Thai place I go for lunch pretty regularly, because they got a new hostess and she kept trying to save me from my hubris multiple weeks in a row.
The owners finally had a conversation with her and now I get my Pad Thai at the appropriate spice level. I edited the review to 5 stars afterwords.
It's funny that this meme, and now you, mention spicy Pad Thai, as that was always one of the Thai dishes that I didn't think work as well with higher spice levels. I usually lean towards red or pannang curry when I want spicy Thai.
I like my Pad Thai spicy.
I usually get a 4 out of 5. I was getting a 1.
Maybe I should give it another try even if I have to spice it up myself.
When I was in the US with another Brit buddy we went out for a curry (Gaylord Chicago IIRC) and each ordered a vindaloo. The head waiter was dispatched to our table to warn us this might be too spicy. When we told him we were British he nodded, smiled, and said "I understand, I'll let the kitchen know."
It was still a bit on the mild side for a BIR vindaloo.
The fact is that even with just a bit of intentional spice "training" you can get your tolerance into the million scoville range, far beyond what your average Indian place can do to their vindaloo unless they are specializing in spicy food and have ghost peppers available.
You can lose that training too, ask me how i know. I had a phase of about 2 years where everything had to be spicy, in the end my sister couldn't eat from my plate anymore. Somehow I stopped eating spicy food - after a few months without training i made the mistake of cooking something spicy without reducing the intensity. Well, then i knew how my sister felt.
You need to do a Ron Swanson-style "I said I want all of the chilis you have" routine.
They do that to me nearly all the time too, especially with to go orders. When eating in person, I just always ask them to bring the spice tray out when ordering my food, that seems to sometimes get the point across.