Spicy foods, especially hot sauces, have long had one big problem: They were treated more as daunts, as tests of one’s macho meddle, than anything else.
Pungency was everything.
The only question was whether you liked it hot or not (you wimp!), whether hotter was never hot enough or you were not strong enough.
Social media dynamics probably had their own pernicious influence on all that.
Chile peppers and spicy foods, in reality – in their diversity around the world, their local cultivars and traditional uses and combinations – are not about the burn, certainly not as pain and punishment.
Spicy foods are made and meant to be eaten and enjoyed.
Of course, they give a certain burn that one has to be used to. However, they are also a taste experience with flavors that are right for the meal and good in the terms of the respective cuisines and their eaters.
Complex heat finally gives recognition to this fact.
In doing so, you get permission to give spicy foods a try as they should be, according to the cultures and people at their origins and according to your own taste preferences.
You don’t have to say that everything is just not spicy enough for you to feel like you are giving the chile peppers their due and fitting into the world of chileheads.
Become a connoisseur of complex heat, enjoy the depth of flavors, aromas – and pungencies!
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