All my life, I have hated spicy-hot foods. If something made my tongue or mouth burn, I didn't figure it was going to do much for my stomach. I never even spiced homemade foods with pepper. In fact, pepper shakers in my house went un-refilled for many years due to lack of use.
My once-husband, however, put hot sauce on everything. One time, when I was still married to Mr. Tabasco himself, I laughed uproariously inside when he put so many red pepper flakes on a pizza at Chuck E. Cheese that even HE couldn't eat it. When I cooked, I cooked to make things taste good and was sometimes offended when what I fixed wasn't good enough without adding flakes and drops and sauces. Finally, I decided that it wasn't about my cooking; it was about his tastes.
Over time, as more and more restaurants, etc., have taken on the HOT flavors, I've tried more. I'm still not crazy about things that make my mouth burn, but I've come to accept a little "tang"...a little spicy-hot...to enhance a flavor. Shrimp cocktail sauce, for example, needs to have some zing. So does salsa with chips. My fried potatoes now are always seasoned with lots of pepper. And my homemade chili is now just a little bit warmer than it used to be.
My daughter is now married to a man who puts sauces on EVERYTHING. I think it's a Russian thing, to overcome the flavors of bad meat. But there is no bad meat here. We are all learning to give up complaining about the need to dress even good foods with things that take away from original flavors. Give me a steak, cooked medium, with a little garlic and a little salt, and I'm happy! It won't be spicy-hot, but it will work for me! Still, I am more tolerant of spices now. Is that good?
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