I have essentially the same story, except it's two Americans visiting Bradford.

Australian chiming in.

My favourite Indian restaurant was this little hole in the wall place (for the first three years of operation, they upgraded when the word got out). The first time I went I ordered a Vindaloo, the lovely waitress/chef that took my order asked how spicy. I was a fool and said, I like spicy food, how about a 6 out of 10. I actually made it 3/4 of the way through but the owner/other chef came out to check on me, I think because he was worried I was about to combust. It was astounding, easily the best Vindaloo I have ever eaten.

The next time I went in I ordered a white guy 4, it honestly was still fantastic, but not as good. The owner came out to say hi, asked what I had ordered this time, and he said "Ah yes we make that without any chilli.", never been sure how I should take that. For a while I was hoping to gradually increase my tolerance but I think I am topping out at white guy 9.

Well then they were being stupid because obviously it's an actual authentic Indian restaurant they're going to do the spice properly.

TBF, I haven't fully appreciated an Indian dish if my scalp isn't sweating.

Had a friend try that with me in R'dam recently, his favorite Korean fried chicken place. Ordered their nuclear option (among a bunch of others), and was humiliated when he died after one and I ate the rest. TBH they were hot, but kind of hot for being hot's sake, didn't really add to the flavor/experience, which IMO is the whole point of heat.

I swear there's probably more Indian restaurants in the UK than there is in India. Where I suppose they are just called restaurants.

Spicy food has a history, particularly in the US, of being associated with masturbation and hypersexuality. Puritans wants food as bland as possible.

In Europe, after the colonial era started, spices became more widely available and were no longer a status symbol (as they were previously only available to the wealthy). This led to the elites turning their noses up to spices and a belief system that the base ingredient should not be defiled in flavor by spice which eventually bled over into the rest of European culture.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/03/26/394339284/how-snobbery-helped-take-the-spice-out-of-european-cooking

Serving richly spiced stews was no longer a status symbol for Europe's wealthiest families — even the middle classes could afford to spice up their grub. "So the elite recoiled from the increasing popularity of spices," Ray says. "They moved on to an aesthetic theory of taste. Rather than infusing food with spice, they said things should taste like themselves. Meat should taste like meat, and anything you add only serves to intensify the existing flavors."

"In Europe, meat was considered the manliest, strongest component of a meal," Laudan notes, and chefs wanted it to shine. So they began cooking meat in meat-based gravies, to intensify its flavor.

Cooking with spices is different from spiciness specifically but I think the same principles apply (with regard to perceptions at the time).

I loved in UK

Me too, me too...

I'm unsurprised about Australia. The food culture there is pretty great but somehow good Mexican cuisine is almost entirely absent.

Aussie here. I was in Bangkok this week and currently on a TGV hurtling across EU towards London.

The Thai food in Australia is not as spicy as the stuff in Thailand. It's otherwise authentic.

The hottest Vindaloo I ever had was in a London pub. I haven't been in the last 12 years, so I'll measure this again. I also haven't seen Foster's beer on tap since my last London visit. Go figure.

I find this to be the case for most "spicy" things targeting a western market. Firehouse Subs has a hot sauce bar where they rate the spiciness from 1 to 10. Normally I don't bother with it because the ones at the higher end tend to either be some spicy vinegar variation (ugh no thx), or pineapple based, which I'm usually not in the mood for.

Last time they had an 8 that wasn't either of those so I asked them to add a line to my sub as they made it.

It's like their 10 was targeted at jalapeno spiciness, maybe cayenne. The 8 did add some heat, but it was where I'd call it a medium, and a mild one at that.

Should use a logarithmic scale I guess. Just frustrating that spicy stuff always seems to be marketed for people who don't really like spice. The less generous side of me thinks it has to do with people wanting to act tough but are actually whiny losers who thinks it's the seller's fault they can't handle the heat they wanted to show off handling.

I know someone who can't stand spicy food at all. The other day a bunch of us ordered some Thai food and I thought the Penang curry I got was mild enough for her because I literally couldn't tell if there was any spice in it. There were definitely some nice flavours, but no bite that I could detect at all. It was still too spicy for her.

I refuse to believe you don't know someone like that, no matter where you're from.

And quite right. I had a friend who'd get the sweats eating sour candies and couldn't do anything even remotely chili.

My dad: Tumeric on potatoes is as "hot" as he can stand. Me, it's 5 Thai chillies ground up in the curry sauce, and since the coconut milk smooths out the heat I really could add a few more

I do know someone like that. Their mother was born in the UK and they grew up eating very English. They had zero tolerance for spice and I frequently had them whine that something I made was inedible because it was too spicy.

What's upf?

My mother has complained that saffron is too spicy. Yes we are melanin deprived why do you ask?

For anyone wondering, if you can get them, these are your ticket to flavor town, especially the dried🌶️ pods you can grind yourself

https://www.fiestaspices.com/product/fajita-seasoning

My mum won’t eat onion, but since we moved out she stopped eating vegetables in general - or at the least the ones that have any flavour.

I took my Polish sales rep to eat Ethiopian with me about a month ago, dude loved it, even put extra mitmita on his kitfo ^which I suddenly realize to anyone who doesn't know about Ethiopian food that's gonna sound pretty weird....^

What not having any5hing spicy grow in a place naturally does to cusine.