The Spice of Rebellion

This........doesn't seem very scientific at all. Spices add to and modify the flavour of food which I would say would be the main reason they are used, not because people are trying to prove they are more 'alpha-male' or rebellious.

Well most, not all (Early Saturday morning in London after a hard nights drinking for example).

This seems more like people asking leading questions and using statistics to prove a personal (biased) hypothesis.

Now I am not saying this couldn't have developed in certain parts of certain countries as a cultural thing, but cannot see this as relevant for the majority of people who like spicy food now-days.

If it were (for hypothetical example) spices would probably have been banned in certain countries because they helped promote or allowed people to express rebellious attitudes which could be directed at the government. World history proves this statement isn't so far fetched.

Try telling that to a bandolier wearing revolutionary in Pancho Villa's army (we are over 100 years late on this one) while he stares you down, while chomping on a ghost chili.

not because people are trying to prove they are more 'alpha-male' or rebellious.

Are you living in the same world as I am? Ever been to Texas? First thing the good old boys down there do, when a "Yankee" gets placed in a company down there, is take him to a restaurant and see if he can eat the Diablo burger, or what ever the hottest food is they serve. If he can, then he'll be accepted as a co-worker. Well, he still has to drop the Yankee accent, then things will be fine.

Even up north here, the men in my company (NO women ever became involved) went through a couple of weeks of "testing" to see who could deliver the hottest food, and who could handle it. It all ended when someone brought in a bottle of pure capsaicin oil. Dip in a toothpick and touch to a potato chip, and most couldn't stand to eat it. Those who did, wished they hadn't as that "fire" stays with you for most of a day.

Or Rocky Mountain oysters. But that is more of a culture acceptance.

It all goes back to "How much can you drink?" But, since you can't do that at work, we find challenges similar but acceptable at work.

Problem with the Rocky Mountain oysters is someone immigrated or first generation from England has an unfair advantage, since they eat any part of anything that moves. Only group that even comes close to them is the central Pa. farmers, as in the past (1950's and earlier) we ate most any part of anything that moved. Intestines, brains, gizzards, stomachs, and so on were acceptable as food. I never saw the oysters show up on my plate as I was growing up. However, I can't say for sure what all was in sausage, Lebanon bologna, or panhaas (scrapple).

There was a farside cartoon about an Indian chief saying they eat everything on a buffalo,... Except this. I'll find it. It's funny.

I love Farside!

I think I remember what was in sausage, as I remembered my mother used to say we ate everything from a hog but the squeal. I guess that means I've eaten "oysters".

Yes, my dad used to accuse the local rancher who had his own slaughter shack and who ran the local grocery store back then of making pork sausage out of horse meat.

They were friends but it would sure get Mr. McGinty's goat every time!

Yeah, and that "goat" may have been in sausage at times. Both, by the way, are common European fare. I was "schooled" by a division of Dresser in my oil field job, and in my class were many Europeans, all of whom were quite upset that they couldn't find goat meat in a large Texas city. My French friends enjoy a bite of "Old Paint" every now and then.

I know this, because there at least used to be a horse packing plant in Morton, Texas, called Great Western.

Not such a great western for the horses, I think. They string them up like they do cattle, but the cows are dead by the time they are skinned. The horses seem to be still alive while being skinned. I hate those horse killers with a white hot hatred. Especially the ones from BLM that chase down baby colts with their damned black helicopters and wear them out or get them to break a leg in a box canyon. Then they drag them out while alive, and finally shoot them.

I say equal treatment for the savages, and I am not referring to native Americans.

Hard to pull into a "Chili's", or a "Texas Roadhouse", and find goat steak on the menu, but if you know someone who knows someone having a Cabrito BBQ and beer bash in his back yard, chances are good.

Just don't go there and say stupid crap like I would and get shot (at).

That's one of those local culture things I mentioned in post #1, but it is an exception rather than the general rule in my opinion.

Ever been to Texas?

No, but in Chicago they took me out so I could try their local 6 (or was it 7) cheese pizza (cheese of which I am slightly allergic to but didn't mention), does that count?

Being in Chicago would only count if you ate a whole carton of Ranch Style Beans.

I had this crazy brother-in-law when I was a kid that could eat a whole quart bowl of jalapeno peppers, and I would well up with tears after only one bite.

Agreed. Sichuan and Hunan China I believe have the hottest food in general for everyday consumption. Not a good country to mention any type of anti-government activity.

I was with Chinese friends in Hunan province in China, also known for their spicy food. Men and women eat spicy food there. The 'mild' was warm; the 'medium' was hot; and the 'hot' was some sort sadistic experiment.

When one of the group came to visit in the mid-west USA, she commented that the food was basically bland here. She is a spicy one.

That one thing about food they eat, it also after a their 'smell' or perspiration. When I was growing up 9-16 years old. As well as today, I had garlic salt on everything, and a lot of it. Working with my dad, my day would frown on my. He hated it.

one day a neighbor of ours needed to get some logging done, but he didn't want skidders, because they injured too many trees, so he wanted us to do it with our team of Belgians. This was late June, and the mosquitoes were thick. They attacked everyone... Except for me. I owed that to garlic.

btw, at 16 years old, I refrain from garlic as much as I could when I started dating. Met a girl she love garlic too, but not as much as me.

one more thing, I love the new CR4 format for my iPad, I just noticed I have a menu bar, I can't want to use it.

Well I would think that in countries that eat mainly rice that a spice that stimulates digestive juices and adds flavor would be more popular than a country where tasty foods are the status quo....add to that increased energy, appetite control and other benefits, and you got a winner....

http://www.naturalnews.com/039468_hot_peppers_weight_loss_metabolism.html

i can understand how cheese was made was an accident, when your hungry, but Who was the first to make head cheese or pick through the coffee beans after it passed through a cat and brew a cup of coffee with it.

I had always thought that spices were originally used to disguise the taste of meat that had gone rancid, but apparently this is not true.

http://www.culinarylore.com/food-history:spices-used-to-cover-taste-bad-meat

Interesting blog post! Here's a factoid I picked up listening to an interview with Jacky Colliss Harvey, author of Red: a History of the Redhead: redheads have a higher tolerance for spicy foods. Any redheads out there who'd can corroborate or refute this?

That's is interesting, I mentioned it to my girlfriend and she heard it on an interview on the author on NPR

Exactly where I heard the interview -- twice, because I was driving from NY to TN last December, switching between multiple NPR stations along the route. Each station aired the same program at different times. Quite an interesting interview so not too bad to hear it twice.

I have to admit to likely most of the stories on NPR, even if the news part has Liberal written all over it. If you are what you listen to, then I am a Libertarian!

"And now, for the rest of the story" from Paul Harvey was also great.

The word chili from the Aztecs, I thought it was interesting when I was about 10 years old, I think I may have read it from 'Ripley's Believe kit or not', that they mix chilies or peppers with chocolate and drank it, that's how they had chocolate, as a drink.

Most chilly are grown and consumed in India/South East Asia. The main question is where did Aztecs come from? Rest of the world existed before Columbus Discovered New World.

Are we going to start in with:

• The lost tribe of Israel set sail from somewhere near Oman and ended up west coast of South America (see the narrative in the first few chapters in the Book of Mormon), and yes I read that.
• Indians setting sail from Asia (with a shipment of chili) for the New World about 10,000 years ago?
• Chinese sailing their junk all over the world (maybe plausible)
• Vikings landing and settling in the New World (and bringing chili peppers)? Why else would you call him Erik the Red.
• By the way, the rest of the world before Columbus did not have cell phone GPS, compass, or Garmin navigation service
• Are you sure that hot peppers culture is older in Asia, or in South America? How do you know? Where are peppers growing wild?

You mean to sit there and tell me there was a time before TEXAS? Damn.

The things that get me thinking are those foodstuffs that need a lot of preparation before they are edible, they can't have been discovered by accident?

Cashews come to mind that are poisonous when raw, who was the first person to survive eating a prepared puffer fish. And how many times did it take for success. I'm sure the failures are lost to history as a last meal.

I'm sure a lot of recipes were discovered by accident, mistake, miscommunication, joke, crazy people, scammers and con men, starving necessity, misguided innovators....yes there are many potential explanations...

Don't ask....

Hey you wanna put a comma on that can title?

Here in Texas we say about our steaks: "Just knock off his horns, wipe his arse, and put him on a plate."

??????

Without the horns what are you supposed to hold on to when you eat it? Wait, you don't use a fork do you?

Nah, we have Bowie knives. You call THAT a knife?