#heat #flavor #SpicyFood #SeasonedFood #cooking #eating
Some people like spicy food.
The hotter, the better.
Others prefer food that is seasoned, but not spicy.
Seasoning adds flavor. Heat is NOT flavor.
Eating should be a decadent pleasure. Your taste buds should thoroughly enjoy what you are eating, with other parts of the body mostly unaffected.
When eating overly spicy food, other parts of the body can react in unpleasant ways.
Your lips and tongue may tingle. Your nose may run. Your ears may get hot. That’s not to mention what may be happening, or will happen, in your gut.
In an Amazon TV ad, the lady who makes the spicy sauce for chicken wings tells the eater: “Don’t touch your face” with the sauce on his hands. After all, his face might burn.
If you take pleasure in eating, it should not be an endurance test.
Many of those who enjoy spicy food don’t get the reactions listed above. Or, if they do, they relish the displeasure.
Some even want to make EVERYTHING they eat spicy. Some chefs even put spicy peppers or pepper flakes in chocolate, or other sweet things.
For those not expecting heat, it can take pleasure out of enjoying something sweet.
Certainly, different people have different tastes and tolerances.
But, let’s not confuse heat with flavor. Heat is, well, just heat. Flavor is the proper mix of tastes and seasoning that turns bland food into something very tasty.
Those who cook or serve need to warn diners of heat in certain dishes. Chinese and other ethnic restaurants often do that.
But, if you are a cook who loves heat, don’t presume everyone does.
Don’t presume that something you may think of as “mild,” or, with a very gentle “kick” that everyone will react the same way when eating it.
If you are sensitive to heat and you visit places like New Orleans, ask a lot of questions before you order food.
In general, cajun food is spicy and creole food is not.
So, if are among those who consider spicy food flavorful, other people don’t see heat as flavor.
If you cook for others whose tastes you may not know, season the food as needed without the heat.
Those who like the heat will add hot sauce to it, while those who don’t like heat will enjoy the food as prepared.
Heat should be used FOR cooking, not necessarily in cooking.
Peter
Tag Archives: heat
CLIMATE CHANGING THE WAY WE LIVE
#ClimateChange #weather #floods #heat
There are fires in places that almost never burn.
There is extremely hot weather setting records in places that don’t usually get hot.
There are floods in places that don’t usually flood.
There’s even cold weather in places that never get cold.
No matter how you cut it, our climate is changing. We have to figure out exactly why, and what we can do to fix it. Science points to fossil fuels and industrialization as a cause. We want to keep being industrious, but we need to find different ways to do it.
If we don’t, peril will persist. Life as we knew it will be gone.
Weather, once unpredictable, is now pretty predictable. Still, no one could see the unexpected weather in many parts of the world. It’s not just the unexpected. Expected, predictable events are becoming worse than predicted.
For example, one can predict wildfires in California. But recent fires have been far more frequent and devastating, and less seasonal, than in the past. (If only we could move water from places that have too much of it, to places that don’t have enough.)
Also, one can predict triple-digit heat in Texas in the summer. But one never expects triple digit heat in Canada, forcing a British Columbia town to burn up.
Think of what triple-digit heat would do if it reached as far north as the Arctic. Even the final round of the Open golf championship in England saw record warmth for that locale (though it was actually a pleasant 80 degrees).
These changes may force people to rethink careers, where they live and how they should prepare for the unknown.
There are some disasters for which there is no possible preparation. But, for many, doing the right thing beforehand can mitigate damage, injury or loss of life.
Most important of all, we must act soon to determine the long-term global actions that will need to occur. As individuals, we can prepare as best we can to save our own lives and possessions. But, as a world, we have to take large-scale measures to mitigate these changes.
Some will sit back and let nature take its course. One does that at his or her peril.
If our actions as humans contributed to these events, our actions as humans can mitigate them.
Just as we can prepare as individuals to protect ourselves and our things, we can also prepare to change things that either aren’t going well in our lives, or are not sustainable in our lives for the long term.
Is what you are doing the thing you want to be doing? Have you thought about what might be if you did something else? Are you looking for something that would change your circumstances potentially exponentially for the better?
There are many programs that can help you do that, even without having to give up – at least for now — what you are already doing. No specific education, background or experience is required. As a bonus, they can be done regardless of the climate you live in.
To check out one of the best such programs, message me.
In summary, prepare for what you can predict. Presume what you predict will be worse than you believe. Throw in some preparedness for things you don’t expect to happen. Engage with the world to mitigate nature’s changes.
Don’t sit back and wait for things to get better. They probably won’t, unless you (and we) act.
Peter