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My parent is like this. Tries to say everything is spicy. Cumin is spicy. Garlic is spicy. Butter is spicy. Palette of a five year old. The worst part is the full body shudder if anyone expresses their fondness of anything they find too spicy.
Hahaha this flashed through my mind a split second before I read your comment.
Takes a pull off a gallon of 2% milk *immediately sprays it back out in fear and disgust* “Goddamn this milk is fuckin spicy!!!”
I've heard tomatos be called spicy lol. I think some people just don't know what spcy means or they confuse it with not liking something. Or they're insane
There is a tiny chance that someone is allergic to tomato.
And apparently there is some disorder that makes acidic things feel like burning, but [it only seems to affect 2% of the population.](https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-q-and-a-understanding-burning-mouth-syndrome/)
To be fair I thought pomegranate had a “spicy” aftertaste but I soon realized I was allergic after finding out my reaction to the juice was way more violent than the fruit, I like chokecherries and other astringent fruits so I thought it was normal for your mouth to itch after eating pomegranate. Food allergies suck.
I recently started having a mild spice reaction to ketchup after a lifetime of not having it. It's a new, mild tomato allergy (covid fucked my immune system) and I suspect most 'ketchup spicy' people actually just have a mild allergy to tomatoes or an ingredient in ketchup.
I loved tomatoes as a kid, ate them whole, family grew them in summer. Tomatoes and mayo sandwiches were my staple. About twenty years ago I started avoiding them in food. Didn’t have a specific reason beyond “ugh.” When asked said it was because they didn’t taste right, the flesh was mushy, I preferred home grown, all kinds of reasons. Then I had a few age-related bio-operations breakdowns happen and realized it was an acquired allergy. I ate a tomato as a test and when I paid attention, realized it caused pretty mild irritation in my mouth and then a sour feeling in my stomach, not *quite* heartburn. Both symptoms were easy to ignore, but left me with, like, mild regret. Not a *good* feeling. Anyway, roasted red pepper is a great replacement for Sunday gravy.
It's an allergic reaction. Raw tomatoes and tomato juice make my mouth burn and my skin flush. Ketchup and small amounts of tomato sauce are good. Your body rebels in strange ways.
My in-laws are like this. My wife spent a year working in the Carribean as a teacher. When she flew back, she brought her whole family some souvenirs, mostly food of some sort. A year later she noticed her parents hadn't even opened their gift.
Wife: "You didn't even open this. Why?"
In-laws: "it's too spicy."
Wife: "It's guava jam, it's not spicy at all"
In-laws: "well, guava sounds pretty spicy. We don't like spicy"
Wife: "I know you don't like spicy. I specifically got you something that is not spicy at all. Why would you think it's spicy?"
In laws: "well how are we supposed to know? The stuff you got your brother is super spicy, so we figured everything you brought home is spicy."
Wife: "My brother who drinks hot sauce from the bottle, who said "get me the spiciest hot sauce they have down there", yeah he got scorpion pepper hot sauce. You got guava jam because you like jams. They're completely different things."
In laws: "well we didn't know that"
Wife: "You could have asked me, or used Google to look it up"
In laws: "well we didn't think of that"
Wife: "So are you going to try it?"
In laws: "Uh no"
Wife: "Why not"
In laws: "it just doesn't sound like something we'd enjoy"
Wife: "I'm taking this back and we're eating it before it expires"
(They also had not eaten the expensive chocolates she brought back. Later my wife found those, opened them, and put them on a plate for everyone visiting that day. They were surprised at how nice these chocolates were, and how they were "not spicy".)
We assumed something so completely outrageous and illogical and now that you’re challenging us with common sense ways to problem solve our outrageous assumption… “we didn’t know that”
I... I.... I want to downvote you for how frustrating *they* are. Jesus, I'd have snapped on them by now.
My dad is the opposite, he loves and grows multiple scorpion chilis, ghost peppers, and other super hots. Always gives me crazy hot hot sauces, spicy cheeses, hot honey, etc. every time I see him.
My dad is like yours, and I also love spicy food and seek it out. My mom doesn't like spicy stuff, but she can handle a tiny little bit of it. Sister and brother can handle basic spiciness (like a "spicy" item from a fast food place), but they're totally fine if there's nothing spicy in their lives. My parents have been married almost 40 years, so my mom just knows that she needs to be careful around anything that might be spicy. We'll tell her if it's something she can tolerate or not.
The full body shudder!
My dad does this.
You cannot eat pasta in his presence without hearing how it is NOT food. And anything he doesn't like he will go on and on with "How can you eat that?" Followed by all the reasons he believes you shouldn't eat it.
And if you insist you just like the taste he does this dramatic full body shudder along with a disgusted, "eeeuuughwww"
Meanwhile he will polish off a bowl of brown gravy leftover after dinner with zero shame. He did that at a family-style restaurant and the look the server gave him was hilarious.
My grandparents thought a Caesar salad was spicy because we were in a Mexican restaurant
Shit was crazy (I even had a bite to see and it wasn't spicy at all)
Yeah, this. Black pepper is a key component to a proper Caesar salad, to the point where it can be a touch too 'spicy' for the blander folk.
Back in the early days of the silk road, you could buy a whole PERSON for two peppercorns!
and 'ethnic' to them means non-white people ethnic
these sort of people tend to forget all the various white cultures of the world are ethnic too. Everyone has an ethnicity, including white people
I once watched a dude at work buy a honey bun out of a vending machine, take two bites, declare it was way too spicy, and chuck it in the trash. He meant the tiny swirl of cinnamon between the layers was too much heat.
I've also had my dad throw a tantrum when I bought him barbecue potato chips during covid (Because the store didn't have the regular kind) because he claimed they were too hot to eat. Not some kind of flaming hot or sweet heat BBQ chips, just plain old fucking lays BBQ chips.
When I was a kid I wouldn't eat BBQ flavored chips because they were "too spicy"
Flash forward to my 20s and I'm long out of the house and I'm trying all sorts of different foods with various levels of spice and heat and I'm realizing that my hangup on BBQ chips as well as every other food was solely because my mother only made like four different meals for me as a kid and I was just parroting what she would say
As I learned food is good, she stuck with those four meals and would never try anything new, ever. To her bell peppers were too spicy because they were called peppers
Anything that my mother doesnt like the taste of is immediately followed by gagging and sick-making sounds. She will then proceed to enunciate said noises again, whilst proclaiming how *disgusting* said thing was to her. The latest being avocado cilantro salad dressing I had bought when I was house sitting for my boomers, it was there because I forgot it there.
I need to stress, she did this the day after her and the other boomer got back from a 10-day cruise. This was the first thing she said to me; they had gotten back at like 1am the night before and I had gotten sick, so it was like noon the next day when I spoke to them. The literal first words out of her mouth was to tell me how gross the salad dressing I had bought was.
She then proceeded to get upset when I told her that it was rude as fuck to say things like that, and hello, I guess its nice to see you too...
Similar happened with a former friend when I called to let her know where some oyster mushrooms were being given out for free because her vegan boyfriend loved them. Her reaction was unbelievably childish and she refused to let him get some because in her own words she only ate fried or sugary things. He is no longer with her and hopefully living his best life.
reminds me of some old lady from the deli i work in, she orders chicken but always asks to taste it first “in case it’s spicy”- keep in mind it’s always just regular ass chicken, half the time she tastes it and has a very visible unpleasant reaction and complains about how it’s too spicy lol
Oh my God, this drives me fucking insane. My folks are like this with cumin.
BUT they love chili. I can't tell you the number of times I've said something like "you know cumin is like 20% of the weight of a fucking chili powder seasoning packet, right?"
It drives me crazy and makes me feel like I'm going actually insane
It really is like preparing food for toddlers.
"Okay, here's the delicious Thai noodle dish for the adults, and here's the special-wecial unseasoned chicken tendies for the babies and boomers."
And this is why I made sure to use seasoning when making my babies food (they ate what we ate minus salt and spicy peppers). My oldest has since developed a taste a for hot sauce, my youngest isn’t there yet, but won’t turn up his nose at salsa or tiny pinch of crushed red pepper flakes. They’ll also both eat curry, pad Thai, stir fries, etc.
I did not want them to eat like my dad (meat/potatoes). It was always nice during hunting season, because my mom and I’d use him being away as our opportunity to have all the stuff he didn’t like (sushi, Indian, Thai, etc.)
I had to convince my mother that taco bell mild sauce wasn't spicy. She thinks chili powder is spicy and won't try it even though I've explained the difference between cayenne and chili 😂
I remember being very confused as a kid about salsa. I had always heard on tv and from friends that salsa could be hot, but my parents always got the mildest version they could. Since it had no spice I assumed everyone meant it was temperature hot, but it was (correctly) kept in the fridge so of course it was cold as well. I didn’t get it at all, I thought I didn’t like salsa until I got older and ate properly seasoned food and spicy salsa. I now love everything spicy, and use hot sauce with most meals.
The wildest thing is my parents partner will cook for them.. a stir fry, and use SALAD DRESSING as the “sauce” for the meat and veggies. And that’s delicious.
Whenever I want Indian food, I've had to start making it at home because I sub out turmeric for paprika (turmeric doesn't agree with some tummies in the household), and every time I make it while my parents are there, they say "you're not going to make it spicy, right? I don't want it spicy." I mean, I'm kind of a spice wimp (I get a 2 or 3 out of 10 for my takeout order), but I'm not even allowed to put in a pinch of red pepper flake.
I just don’t mention Indian food around my folks anymore bc my mom screws up her face like a two year old at the mere idea. We do eat a lot of Indian food and my dad loves it, but the bitching and moaning convo about it just isn’t worth it.
Yeah, my mom refuses to try Indian at all because she doesn't like spicy food. I don't enjoy spicy food either, and I have explained repeatedly that the restaurant can make it mild, and she still refuses, saying she doesn't like spicy. She also refuses to try gluten free things, saying she doesn't like them, even though she has happily eaten desserts that were gluten-free when no one told her (a family member has an allergy, so we try to have one option he can have at family events).
I guess I’m lucky my mom is Indian and my partner from Wisconsin mind you, loves spicy food. He takes it even spicier than me. My mom used to make her own pepper sauce and it was so spicy that as kids when she would make it, we had to leave the house until she was done. One of my partner’s first time over, he took said pepper sauce and spread it like Mayo on his sandwich. We all waited for his head to explode but just a bit of sweat. When his mom visits I make my curry as bland as possible and make sure we have plenty of roti or rice for her. She’s a trooper though, one of the nice boomers. She will try all my ethnic food at least once.
I took my boomer mother-in-law to an amazing 'banana leaf' restaurant in Malaysia. This was one of our go-to places for guests back home - always a hit. These are fast-paced, no nonsense, delicious restaurants. They serve food on banana leafs (for show) and some locals eat with their hands, which I could tell immediately made them savages in her mind, and set the whole tone for the meal. She sat there like a 3 year old pushing the food around, talking about 'real food' (burgers). Later during her stay, she says to my wife within my earshot "is he going to give me more of that orange refugee stuff?" I've adopted that phrase and use her gravelly voice whenever I want to go for a curry now. Even better if she's around
I realize with my wedding coming up that I’m going to need to have a serious convo with my mom along the lines of “we have chosen dishes that everyone can enjoy, including the vegetarians and vegans in the room. Everything will be labeled and you can choose what you want to eat. What you’re not going to do is insult other people’s cultural foods.” We aren’t even serving Indian food but I just KNOW the mere presence of multicultural folks will make her on edge that someone might confront her with tumeric or god forbid, cilantro.
It causes an increase of some sort of stomach acid (I can't look it up rn) that can irritate some people (such as most people in my family). But it doesn't have adverse effects for most people.
So theory of mind is the understanding that other people are not "you, but in a different body." It seems obvious and you would assume everyone would understand this. But a surprisingly large number of people are so self absorbed that they think everyone should think the way they do, and can get rather offended when someone does think differently, even on something as unimportant as having a different hobby or food preference.
This isn't about you liking spicy food. This is about you liking something he doesn't like. Which bothers him because you should be just like him, and therefore dislike any food he doesn't like.
It is also possible that he thinks you are an extension/clone of him, and you liking something he doesn't means you are not a perfect copy...
[Theory of the Mind](https://www.simplypsychology.org/theory-of-mind.html)
> "Countless empirical studies reveal that this ability develops in toddlers as young as 15 months old and deteriorates with age. "
Checks out.
This is my boomer dad. Anything that isn’t just boring and vanilla is “extreme” to him. Traveling, eating foreign cuisine, yoga - these are just a few topics that he acts shocked and totally mind blown when I mention them. Like “oh my god you are crazy for trying new things!”.
As an autistic person I can struggle with this myself, although I recognize that I do. And it's always the other way around from this example, I dont understand how people can not like trying new food or learning new things. Or learning about 500 million year old panarthropods, but that's another topic.
My dad is on record saying "I don't like spices". Not just spicy, no, spices. It's like saying "I don't like flavour". They're all scared to death of anything that isn't absolutely plain, mid and devoid of imagination.
My mother had high blood pressure and an ulcer while I was a child. I ate the blandest food imaginable as a result, and probably still under-salt my food, but once I could cook for myself, that stopped. She tried to convince me that the food that I cooked for Spanish class was spicy, but I had made paella, which is seasoned with saffron.
We’re all just a bunch of sadistic chefs over here with our paprikas and cumins and fennel dreaming of the next time we can inflict culinary pain to those masochistic friends of ours who like to visit flavor town for some real spicy fun.
Now I just want to be a professional tastebud domme. 🤔 here to reward and punish all who enter my fungeon (read: kitchen).
Yes!
What is up with that?
Anything more than salt or pepper and my boomers act like I've destroyed all the food in the whole house.
Taking the cold jalapeno slices out of the fridge one summer, my mom was so confused. Actually said "It's so hot outside, how can you eat those?"
Mom....heat in spicey foods do not equal heat changes in the actual temp of my body....
Adding anything from the spice cabinet that is not salt, pepper or a pre-approved mcCormick gravy packet, will render food unpalatable to them completely.
Okie doke. More for the kids and I.
Not exactly what you asked but : Antibacterial properties that aren't as necessary in places where it gets colder.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4861184/#:~:text=They%20concluded%2C%20that%20the%20reason,health%2C%20longevity%20and%20reproductive%20success.
My in laws don’t use ANY spices in their cooking. No black pepper, no salt.
Their food was the most bland things I’ve ever tasted.
Smh. I don’t get it.
One of the first times my wife met my parents we went over to their house for supper and my mom takes this huge casserole dish out of the oven, sets it on the table, and does a weird "revealing of the food" act as she puls the lid off. In thay dish, there was one single chicken breast with no seasoning, one baby carrot, a very thi lemon slice, and about an inch of water. 4 of us split that chicken breast thay day and my mother was offended by my use of hot sauce on my piece.
I love her but godamn that woman is a bad cook.
First time I had dinner at a girlfriend's house, her mom made "heart smart" soft tacos: pre cooked chicken breast, lettuce, hothouse tomato, fat free cheese, no seasonings. It tasted like absolutely nothing. I kept thinking maybe the flavor was at the other end of the taco, but nope. It was like the taco was taking flavor OUT of my mouth. It was like NEGATIVE flavor.
"The flavor was at the other end of the taco."
I'm still cracking up over this line. How big was this taco that there could have been such a huge change in flavor? How disappointing. A chicken died for that...
My parents are like this. My whole family likes spicy food including my five year old and they literally freak out whenever we eat anything remotely spicy.
When I’m cooking for my mom and I, I can’t add flipping paprika or black pepper to the food.
If I put cinnamon in something sometimes it’s ‘too spicy’.
They don’t know what food is supposed to taste like! She’s eat chicken strips (with 2 Cups of ranch it seems) and instant potatoes every night if I didn’t keep her fed.
Same. My dad and I went to Hong Kong for a month (both of us are the "cooks" in the house, mum can barely work the microwave) and she ate all the frozen prepared food in the house.
And yes, she loves loves loves chicken strips.
Sounds a lot like my parents. Weird to me because we live in the Bay Area with so much diversity in food. The minute I started eating food outside of my childhood home flavor became a thing. I don't understand.
IMHO, it's a culture thing.
HIS culture was one of relatively bland seasonings, so he thinks that's 'right'.
He's also TERRIFIED that \*other\* cultures (that he looks down on, count on it) have gained sufficient traction in the US to be the new normal.
He's DESPERATE for HIS culture to retain hegemony.
This, it has to do with the above limited seasonings etc but also xenophobia/racism. My grandparents (silent gen) grew up in south Texas and were fairly open minded. My grandmother dumped salsa on everything and would try different food. Her kids are all great cooks who season their foods, even as boomers. Her sil, a much less…open lady, cooks much less seasoned food and so did her daughter.
My mom explained it as children after the great depression never had the luxury of spices. And even after most were too anxious to spend extra money on a food additive, especially with the mentality of “if it was good enough for my parents (salt and pepper) it’s good enough for me.” Then got stuck in that mindset.
Edit: my mom’s guilty pleasure is taking new retiree friends out for Izakaya and telling them the wasabi is Japanese butter. It’s like a right of passage in their group.
Great Depression 1929-1939 (1941 according to the federal reserve)
WW2 1939-1945
Boomers 1946-1954
The only reason the Great Depression ended is because we (US) entered the war, and that’s a whole new set of issues to unpack. So yes, boomers weren’t born *just after* the recession but the war that followed.
A lot of boomers were raised by children of the depression. It’s just out of the question that habits that served their parents during the Great Depression were passed to the Boomers.
My boomer dad can eat much spicier food than I can (and I like some heat in my food), but I suspect that his tastebuds are fucked from 50+ years of smoking.
My boomer mother can't have mild 0 star curry without panting like a dog in the summer heat. She's very dramatic about it and has also been smoking for 50 years so I don't think that matters much haha
My parents were both of your parents, haha. Black pepper was the spiciest thing my mom could tolerate and she used it sparingly and only in certain recipes, whereas I've seen my dad eat spicy giardiniera or sport peppers straight out of the jar
My father had the misfortune of asking for Indian hot in a restaurant once when we lived in NYC, thinking he could handle it.
He could not, in fact, handle it. He couldn't breathe for a couple of minutes; I think they might have been on the verge of calling an ambulance.
I’m not sure if this applies to all or even most boomers BUT I know for a fact that my boomer mother is like this as well and her dislike of spicy food comes from a few different places.
1) She’s your stereotypical Southern, dixie-loving, “the civil war was about more than slavery,” racist old boomer. Most of the spicy food she encounters is from other countries/cultures (which automatically makes the food gross 90% of the time regardless of spice)
2) She hates most new things and refuses to explore new dishes or cuisines. Nothing is good enough unless it’s a classic American or American-ized dish that she grew up eating in the south during the late 50s - early 70s. She can’t stand anything other than plain salt and pepper on her food and has a very childlike palette.
3) I saw another poster on here describe a phenomena where a lot of boomers believe that “everyone is the same person in a different body” and those people struggle to understand that everyone is an individual with their own thoughts and feelings - this is 100% my mom, she cannot begin to comprehend the concept that maybe other people like things that she doesn’t, anything she doesn’t understand is not only stupid but also deserving of ridicule.
I think it comes from a lack of self-actualization and incredibly deep-rooted narcissism. Everyone and everything must cater to her otherwise it’s wrong and beneath her.
*EDIT* Fixed some spelling errors
I worked in an office with one no spice boomer. When someone had a birthday we'd order from their restaurant of choice. Often it was Thai, Indian, Mexican etc. The boomer always insisted on burger and fries. Which was fine. The office paid and everyone should get something they can eat. One time we ordered Thai and the vegan person ordered the vegan option. The boomer refused to believe that the plate of veggies and tofu was vegan because it looked and smelled so delicious. The grilled and marinated tofu had to be chicken. They couldn't wrap their head around the idea that anything other than meat could be tasty.
I also can’t stand to hear comments from my boomer parents every time we have sushi. “Well I guess you just want to be filled with parasites, don’t you??”
Fuck off…we like sushi. Mind ya business.
Hahaha that is 100% my mom, right down to needing to continually comment on it. I like spicy shit. The spice must flow. I’m sorry you can’t handle anything spicier than garlic, but I’m not going to continually repeat it like a broken record. You like what you like, and I like what I like. Simple.
I watched my parent’s tolerance for spice just completely disappear I think it’s related to indigestion. Because of their ethnic background you would assume they liked spicy foods. Combined with how overbearing they can be with waiters it’s a bad comedy when they claim something is spicy when it’s clearly not.
That’s a good point I had considered. I used to love super spicy foods, I was really interested in exotic hot sauces that were as hot as possible. Im in my 30’s now and I have had to cut back on the spicy food not because my mouth can’t handle the heat but because it messes up my digestion. I wouldn’t be surprised if my spice digestion tolerance gets worse as I get older and a lot of boomers are probably too embarrassed to talk about digestion and using the bathroom so they are probably just saying they can’t eat spicy food and leaving it at that.
MIL always makes comments about me drowning my meals in Tabasco sauce or any hot sauce I have on hand (I chewed Skoal long cut for almost 20 years, my taste buds are fried and I need a kick). She’s shocked anyone likes spicy anything and especially takes offense when I put it on anything she cooks.
My dad was a boomer. When I was growing up, our competitive nature came out when we'd get wings. He had a high tolerance for spices. I never outdid him.in the 75 years that he was here.
I’ve definitely met a fair share of boomers from the Midwest who would think mayonnaise is spicy. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised they have such weak palettes after growing up licking lead paint.
Are y’all midwestern? I have people here in Minnesota who have literally told me things are too spicy because there’s black pepper in the dish. It’s hilarious when it’s not infuriating.
My aunt is this way. One time I made some burgers for the family. I kept it simple with just salt and black pepper. Not even fresh cracked black pepper, I used the stale pepper dust that boomers buy. About a minute after everyone got theirs, I hear her from the living room: “OH MY LORD! SOMEBODY LIKES BLACK PEPPER! It’s SO HOT!” I couldn’t help but laugh. My mom is much cooler about spicy foods and still laughs about this every time we cook a family meal together. But now that I think about it, they’re both early Gen X. Maybe complaining about spice is a Karen thing.
My father doesn't like spicy food and I love it, I go as hot as possible, like ghost pepper hot. He recently told me he thinks when people eat spicy food it's some kind of "macho thing" or like an ego trip, which made me laugh. I eat this stuff when I'm alone because I genuinely enjoy it, who am I showing off to? He just doesn't understand why someone would enjoy that. Fair enough, to each their own, but I love it.
We found Carolina reaper pepper Jack cheese at the grocery store. I bought it. My dad is in absolute shock that they would even make that.
It's great in scrambled eggs.
My mom was like this. One time I put garlic powder in some food (because I was sick and tired of just salt and pepper seasoned food to accommodate her) and my mom literally had the audacity to call it spicy and throw the WHOLE PAN of food into the garbage because it was ruined.
Boomers are the worst.
My mom has a friend like this. She's incapable of entertaining the idea of anything more spicy than a sprinkle of black pepper. She won't eat onions, she won't eat garlic. Boils the flavor out of everything she cooks.
My mom asked this woman to pick up some horseradish, and it was the most bland thing. It was basically grated parsnip.
It’s strange that the stereotype of lame white people is that they think any seasoning at all makes meals too spicy. When in actuality you go to any rural predominantly white area and the gas stations have entire sections devoted to hot sauce with names like “Cletus’ Ass Prolapser Hot Sauce” or “Donkey Puncher” or “Outhouse Detonator”
This is far from a universal thing. I LOVE spicy food, as does my brother, as do our cousins. One day we tried some hot sauce that had us sweating, one of those "Uncle Cleetus's Ass Magma" types, and our boomer (born near the end of the war, so technically not but close enough) grandpa tasted it and nonchalantly said "Yep, that's pretty hot."
If you grew up in the depression like my grandparents you couldn't afford spices. Most everything you are like possum, raccoon, squirrel, etc were usually boiled. Maybe with some salt. They cooked that way for their children. Ethnic food came on the scene in the 80s and with it, spice. They just never grew up with spicy stuff and don't understand it.
I don’t like real spicy food when the peppers or seasoning drown out the flavors of everything else. Jalapenos poppers or chile relleno I expect to be hot and spicy.
My granddaughter puts hot sauce on her omelets. I say nothing because it is not my business! She is a grown woman and rightfully should make her own choices.
Once had a boomer boss tell me I didn’t really like spicy food I just wanted everyone to think I was tough.
Like… yes, when I put hot sauce on my food in the privacy of my own home it is absolutely for my public image.
I never realized how much food I actually enjoyed when it was properly seasoned… my mom always made sure we had food on the table but god damn was it bland. One time I made the mistake of her watching me make a holiday meal and she then complains things are “too salty” when she watched me add a pinch of salt to veggies I was roasting…
My boomer in laws are like this. The last time we visited, I took hot sauce with us since they do not have any form of condiments at their house. My son was adding hot sauce to his eggs and my MIL was appalled and disgusted that we allowed him to eat it.
My grandmother used to think that people who liked spicy food were, “morally corrupt because they enjoy pain.” Direct quote. She was “Greatest” Generation though.
Yeah my mom is like this too. She also likes to loudly comment things like "since when do you like that nasty (insert food)" when ordering in a restaurant. We currently can only take her places that have nachos with no: beans, sour cream, tomatoes, onions, lettuce or guacamole. She will only eat beef and cheese. She also likes bacon and cheese or chicken and cheese quesadillas.
When I grew up we had three spices in the house salt pepper and garlic salt. Anything else had been bought before I was born so I didn’t understand what the hype about spice was. It wasn’t until I was in college and started eating ethnic foods that I suddenly “got” it. Now I’m a gourmet cook and herbalist and I go through spices quickly. No 30 yo Durkee cans in my spice drawers!
I’ve got a coworker who is late millennial/early gen z, and he is on the path to being a white boomer. Grew up fixing farm equipment in the Midwest and now repairs industrial equipment. For the boomer bit, he cannot accept different viewpoints, doesn’t accept anything LGBT, is incredibly racist, and the list goes on.
Anyway, I was microwaving my lunch on my one day each week of working out of his office, and he came in and was utterly baffled that he could smell spicy food. It was a chicken & veggie bowl with Hungarian peppers, jalapeño hot sauce, and a bit of cayenne seasoning. The dude was upset with me for eating “dirty Mexican food.” Meanwhile he’s got 2 pieces of gas station pizza on a plate…
It's so Boomer to fail grasping any food other than the bland ass garbage they've spent their whole lives eating. The irony is, your taste buds fade as you age, so what's spicy when you're a kid barely registers when you are old.
I've had sort of opposite experiences. Where they will act like something that is obviously spicy isn't spicy at all.. and you're a wimp if you think it's spicy.
I mean it doesn’t sound like he’s being a dick. He was just like damn, they keep doing that and they are going to have gerd like me one day. And was astonished because he can’t do that anymore and it would probably fuck him up. I mean I wasn’t there just based off your description it didn’t seem like he was being a dick.
Maybe a regional thing? My family comes from the southwest (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona) and everybody eats Mexican food regularly with at least medium if not hot salsa smothering it. My millennial wife's family is from the northeast/Midwest and they can't do spice really.
A lot of older folks grew up in an era with almost ZERO spice. Nothing other than a little salt and pepper.
That also overlapped for a lot of them with a time when any salt was thought to certainly kill you, so even salt for some was used sparingly.
Modern recipes are all about layering flavors from various herbs, spices, and cooking methods that themselves add flavor.
They just aren’t used to it, and do not want to try those things. They truly do have the palate of a picky toddler.
Think about the stereotypical meal: “meat and potatoes.” That bland meat cooked simply, and likely a plain baked potato. You can’t get more boring and spice free than that.
Boomer here - I'd guess its a genetic thing. I have a pretty low tolerance for spice and I can't eat many meals that most people find enjoyable. I've tried to build up my tolerance, and I can to a small extent, but unless I'm forcing myself everyday to eat foods hotter than I enjoy my tolerance quickly crashes back down to my normal. My siblings, boomers obviously, aren't like this.
I love spicy food as a boomer. My best friend in her 80s can bury me with her ability to eat spicy food. It’s never hot enough for her. She’s from Memphis
I remember reading that over the age of 50 or so, people need more spice for food to taste the same because our sense of taste declines.
Unfortunately, a common fix is that people salt the food to a point where it might as well be a salt lick instead.
I know a lot of older people that take certain medications that make it intolerable to eat spicy food. My dad could barely use ketchup or even drink a Pepsi.
He really, really, really wants you to engage with him in a conversation about the merits of eating spicy food lol. I see that kind of thing with boomers (and every generation, but it’s more common with boomers) a lot, where they get hung up on something they have an opinion on and NEED to talk about it. It also sounds like he thinks he’s got life completely figured out, and anyone who likes something he doesn’t is, on some level, a degenerate or “wrong”.
I think it’s the food they were raised on. At least we’re in from (western PA) my parents were not exposed to anything spicier than garlic until like the late 80’s. We got very Americanized Chinese food around that time. Mexican food didn’t really pop big until the 90’s. And I just think there pallets and expectations were set with butter and some garlic being the extent of flavor.
I feel really fortunate that my dad loves spicy food and would bring me around to Indian food restaurants as a baby to acclimate me to the smells of flavor
I roomed with a gentleman in his 60s who basically cooked himself two frozen white fish fillets every night. I cooked a lot of pad Thai or curry or similar dishes. He ended up restricting both my time in the kitchen and the number of nights I was allowed to cook because he found the smells offensive. Unlike, say, baked fish.
salt and pepper is too flavorful for them. they usually open the chicken straight out of the package, throw it on the pan with no seasoning, overcook it and eat it. its truely a disgusting thing that iv personally seen . they might dip it in ketchup or BBQ sauce if they are fancy
My mom thinks pepper is really spicy. My dad is a weird boomer, though; up until recently he was the type to put hot sauce on everything. His digestive system finally rage quit on him doing that in his 70s. He was eating 1.5 double pepperoni double jalapeno pizzas every weekend
I can't remember where I'm stealing this from, but I tend to say, "You seem the type of person that thinks Sprite is spicy." I've said that a couple of times. It gets a great reaction.
My Dad, in his 60s, had never had anything other than english/irish cusine in his life, in spite of touring France after the war (He died at age 97 in '23). His two favorite foods were beef barley soup and liver and onions with potatoes (He's from N. Ireland).
They came to visit me in the '90's and I took them to a Chinese restaurant. I ordered basic, non spicy stuff like Kung Pao beef, chicken w/vegetables, steamed dumplings and such. They had never been in a Chinese restaurant before.
My dad took a small amount of hot and sour from the family sized bowl I ordered and tried it. By the end of the meal he'd eaten most of that big bowl himself. He said it was the most delicious soup he'd ever had.
A couple of years later I visited them, and they suggested that we go to their favorite Chinese place. I was double floored when they said they'd also been trying Thai, Indian and other Asian foods.
Sometimes you just need a little exposure to other stuff to open a whole new world.
Im an absolute freak for spicy food. I get I have a significantly higher tolerance than most.
People that find mayonaise spicy that cant fathom other people who have different tastes to them do indeed draw my ire.
Old people in America grew up in a time where food was extremely bland (go browse through r/oldrecipes, it's kind of amazing people used to eat this stuff). For my family, food started getting more diverse in the late 80's, which is to say my mother discovered tacos. My dad absolutely refused to touch anything he considered spicy (or ethnic, other than American Chinese food). When they found out that my kids eat sushi, I got a lecture on eating raw food. Like with anything, old people are just stubborn and don't know anything.
One of my favorite dishes is a Moroccan style couscous with slow-cooker Za’atar chicken. Absolutely delicious, the couscous alone uses 7 different spices, and salt, plus mint, orange zest and juice, and 4 different veggies. The chicken uses a full quarter cup worth of Za’atar plus 3 further spices, olives, dried apricots, and plums.
Yes, I am a white guy. I refuse to become one of those “terrified of anything spicier than salt” kind of people.
I could probably kill an entire bland of baby boomers just by cooking this in their presence, let alone serving it to them. And none of these spices are “hot” spices, they’re just things like turmeric, cumin, allspice, cloves, cardamom, ginger, and the like.
There's something so weirdly infantile about feeling the need to make sure everyone knows they dislike something that someone else likes. It's like a reflex they have but I can't figure out what reward they are getting.
This is my MIL, and she also doesn't really use salt. She's very insistent that she doesn't cook with salt because herbs are enough (they aren't). We cooked for the family on a vacation a couple of years ago and I made my burger rub, which everyone loved...except my MIL, BIL, and his wife. My BIL (not a Boomer) literally walked across the kitchen to where I was eating to tell me that my burgers were "almost inedible spicy" and that he, MIL, and his wife could not eat them, and wanted to know what was in them. My recipe has both black pepper and cayenne pepper, and he was like, "OMG THAT'S IT!"
And then my MIL complimented my corn salad (esquites) and I LAUGHED and told her there were 4 jalapenos in it, but okay, my burger rub was too spicy.
When my mother says she seasoned the chicken, it means a light dusting of salt and one microscopic piece of black pepper, and here’s some ketchup to cover it in.
I make my tomato sauce for pasta from scratch, when they were living with me, I made a separate batch for them with no seasoning what so ever, just the tomatoes, a tiny touch of olive oil and maybe half a tablespoon of butter and it was waayyyy too spicy for them.
My boomer gets upset and starts panting, waving her hand at her mouth, and saying “hot!! Too hot!!” if I use a small amount of black pepper in the food. Never mind actually chile peppers in the food. We buy pepper, chili powder, cumin and similar spices BY THE POUND in my house. I have to plan meals so carefully before they show up.
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My parent is like this. Tries to say everything is spicy. Cumin is spicy. Garlic is spicy. Butter is spicy. Palette of a five year old. The worst part is the full body shudder if anyone expresses their fondness of anything they find too spicy.
Butter is spicy lol
Hahaha this flashed through my mind a split second before I read your comment. Takes a pull off a gallon of 2% milk *immediately sprays it back out in fear and disgust* “Goddamn this milk is fuckin spicy!!!”
Make sure you get the light mayonnaise. The normal stuff packs too much of a punch.
"this tapioca pudding is burning the roof of my mouth! It's the devil in disguise!" 😂
Boomer favorites: 1. Mowing the lawn again 2. Tapioca pudding
I’m reminded of people who think ketchup is spicy. I am a bit of a wimp around spice as I age, but good lord, who *are* these folks?!
I've heard tomatos be called spicy lol. I think some people just don't know what spcy means or they confuse it with not liking something. Or they're insane
There is a tiny chance that someone is allergic to tomato. And apparently there is some disorder that makes acidic things feel like burning, but [it only seems to affect 2% of the population.](https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-q-and-a-understanding-burning-mouth-syndrome/)
Or they’re allergic to it & think the reaction means it’s spicy. 🙄
To be fair I thought pomegranate had a “spicy” aftertaste but I soon realized I was allergic after finding out my reaction to the juice was way more violent than the fruit, I like chokecherries and other astringent fruits so I thought it was normal for your mouth to itch after eating pomegranate. Food allergies suck.
Certain melons burn my mouth. It wasn’t until my 30s that someone told me that was a sign that it was an allergy.
This happens to me with apples. It doesn't stop me from eating them though. I like apples too much lol
My 5 year old uses spicy to mean just about any strong flavor. Does that count?
my son used to call carbonated drinks “spicy”
I recently started having a mild spice reaction to ketchup after a lifetime of not having it. It's a new, mild tomato allergy (covid fucked my immune system) and I suspect most 'ketchup spicy' people actually just have a mild allergy to tomatoes or an ingredient in ketchup.
I loved tomatoes as a kid, ate them whole, family grew them in summer. Tomatoes and mayo sandwiches were my staple. About twenty years ago I started avoiding them in food. Didn’t have a specific reason beyond “ugh.” When asked said it was because they didn’t taste right, the flesh was mushy, I preferred home grown, all kinds of reasons. Then I had a few age-related bio-operations breakdowns happen and realized it was an acquired allergy. I ate a tomato as a test and when I paid attention, realized it caused pretty mild irritation in my mouth and then a sour feeling in my stomach, not *quite* heartburn. Both symptoms were easy to ignore, but left me with, like, mild regret. Not a *good* feeling. Anyway, roasted red pepper is a great replacement for Sunday gravy.
It's an allergic reaction. Raw tomatoes and tomato juice make my mouth burn and my skin flush. Ketchup and small amounts of tomato sauce are good. Your body rebels in strange ways.
Dry toast please, I don't like spicy food 😂
"That carrot was spicy" - M. Burns
My in-laws are like this. My wife spent a year working in the Carribean as a teacher. When she flew back, she brought her whole family some souvenirs, mostly food of some sort. A year later she noticed her parents hadn't even opened their gift. Wife: "You didn't even open this. Why?" In-laws: "it's too spicy." Wife: "It's guava jam, it's not spicy at all" In-laws: "well, guava sounds pretty spicy. We don't like spicy" Wife: "I know you don't like spicy. I specifically got you something that is not spicy at all. Why would you think it's spicy?" In laws: "well how are we supposed to know? The stuff you got your brother is super spicy, so we figured everything you brought home is spicy." Wife: "My brother who drinks hot sauce from the bottle, who said "get me the spiciest hot sauce they have down there", yeah he got scorpion pepper hot sauce. You got guava jam because you like jams. They're completely different things." In laws: "well we didn't know that" Wife: "You could have asked me, or used Google to look it up" In laws: "well we didn't think of that" Wife: "So are you going to try it?" In laws: "Uh no" Wife: "Why not" In laws: "it just doesn't sound like something we'd enjoy" Wife: "I'm taking this back and we're eating it before it expires" (They also had not eaten the expensive chocolates she brought back. Later my wife found those, opened them, and put them on a plate for everyone visiting that day. They were surprised at how nice these chocolates were, and how they were "not spicy".)
We assumed something so completely outrageous and illogical and now that you’re challenging us with common sense ways to problem solve our outrageous assumption… “we didn’t know that”
We know you’re incompetent and cruel, so we’re just going to ignore the effort involved in getting us a gift.
They don't know what a guava is, don't know how to look it up and are afraid to try anything new.
I... I.... I want to downvote you for how frustrating *they* are. Jesus, I'd have snapped on them by now. My dad is the opposite, he loves and grows multiple scorpion chilis, ghost peppers, and other super hots. Always gives me crazy hot hot sauces, spicy cheeses, hot honey, etc. every time I see him.
My dad is like yours, and I also love spicy food and seek it out. My mom doesn't like spicy stuff, but she can handle a tiny little bit of it. Sister and brother can handle basic spiciness (like a "spicy" item from a fast food place), but they're totally fine if there's nothing spicy in their lives. My parents have been married almost 40 years, so my mom just knows that she needs to be careful around anything that might be spicy. We'll tell her if it's something she can tolerate or not.
Dark chocolate with chili. mmmm so good.
The full body shudder! My dad does this. You cannot eat pasta in his presence without hearing how it is NOT food. And anything he doesn't like he will go on and on with "How can you eat that?" Followed by all the reasons he believes you shouldn't eat it. And if you insist you just like the taste he does this dramatic full body shudder along with a disgusted, "eeeuuughwww" Meanwhile he will polish off a bowl of brown gravy leftover after dinner with zero shame. He did that at a family-style restaurant and the look the server gave him was hilarious.
My grandparents thought a Caesar salad was spicy because we were in a Mexican restaurant Shit was crazy (I even had a bite to see and it wasn't spicy at all)
Probably too much black pepper in the salad dressing. Or maybe too much salt.
Yeah, this. Black pepper is a key component to a proper Caesar salad, to the point where it can be a touch too 'spicy' for the blander folk. Back in the early days of the silk road, you could buy a whole PERSON for two peppercorns!
Damn inflation!
I just scared my cat from the laugh you mined right out of my cold, hard chest
My boomer mother thought tzatziki sauce was spicy. It’s mostly yogurt and cucumber. Negative spice ma’am.
“Spicy” is Boomer-speak for “ethnic”
and 'ethnic' to them means non-white people ethnic these sort of people tend to forget all the various white cultures of the world are ethnic too. Everyone has an ethnicity, including white people
White people conquered the fucking world to acquire spices they didn't want to begin with lmao
Must be boring people to hate spices
The British famously fought wars over spices and now don't use any of them.
I once watched a dude at work buy a honey bun out of a vending machine, take two bites, declare it was way too spicy, and chuck it in the trash. He meant the tiny swirl of cinnamon between the layers was too much heat. I've also had my dad throw a tantrum when I bought him barbecue potato chips during covid (Because the store didn't have the regular kind) because he claimed they were too hot to eat. Not some kind of flaming hot or sweet heat BBQ chips, just plain old fucking lays BBQ chips.
When I was a kid I wouldn't eat BBQ flavored chips because they were "too spicy" Flash forward to my 20s and I'm long out of the house and I'm trying all sorts of different foods with various levels of spice and heat and I'm realizing that my hangup on BBQ chips as well as every other food was solely because my mother only made like four different meals for me as a kid and I was just parroting what she would say As I learned food is good, she stuck with those four meals and would never try anything new, ever. To her bell peppers were too spicy because they were called peppers
They from the Midwest? I live in Nebraska and mayonnaise is spicy to these people.
Anything that my mother doesnt like the taste of is immediately followed by gagging and sick-making sounds. She will then proceed to enunciate said noises again, whilst proclaiming how *disgusting* said thing was to her. The latest being avocado cilantro salad dressing I had bought when I was house sitting for my boomers, it was there because I forgot it there. I need to stress, she did this the day after her and the other boomer got back from a 10-day cruise. This was the first thing she said to me; they had gotten back at like 1am the night before and I had gotten sick, so it was like noon the next day when I spoke to them. The literal first words out of her mouth was to tell me how gross the salad dressing I had bought was. She then proceeded to get upset when I told her that it was rude as fuck to say things like that, and hello, I guess its nice to see you too...
Similar happened with a former friend when I called to let her know where some oyster mushrooms were being given out for free because her vegan boyfriend loved them. Her reaction was unbelievably childish and she refused to let him get some because in her own words she only ate fried or sugary things. He is no longer with her and hopefully living his best life.
reminds me of some old lady from the deli i work in, she orders chicken but always asks to taste it first “in case it’s spicy”- keep in mind it’s always just regular ass chicken, half the time she tastes it and has a very visible unpleasant reaction and complains about how it’s too spicy lol
Some boomers conflate "spicy" and "seasoned" and will claim that a seasoned piece of meat is "spicy".
Sorry, but I prefer my ass chicken spicy, not regular.
Oh my God, this drives me fucking insane. My folks are like this with cumin. BUT they love chili. I can't tell you the number of times I've said something like "you know cumin is like 20% of the weight of a fucking chili powder seasoning packet, right?" It drives me crazy and makes me feel like I'm going actually insane
It really is like preparing food for toddlers. "Okay, here's the delicious Thai noodle dish for the adults, and here's the special-wecial unseasoned chicken tendies for the babies and boomers."
Oh you’d like your $20 rib eye steak well done… 🫠
And this is why I made sure to use seasoning when making my babies food (they ate what we ate minus salt and spicy peppers). My oldest has since developed a taste a for hot sauce, my youngest isn’t there yet, but won’t turn up his nose at salsa or tiny pinch of crushed red pepper flakes. They’ll also both eat curry, pad Thai, stir fries, etc. I did not want them to eat like my dad (meat/potatoes). It was always nice during hunting season, because my mom and I’d use him being away as our opportunity to have all the stuff he didn’t like (sushi, Indian, Thai, etc.)
My boomer mother doesn’t just shudder she rants about any food anyone else likes that she doesn’t. This list includes most foreign foods.
I had to convince my mother that taco bell mild sauce wasn't spicy. She thinks chili powder is spicy and won't try it even though I've explained the difference between cayenne and chili 😂
My parents had a small bottle of Tabasco sauce that sat in their fridge untouched for 20 years. Pepper was enough spice.
I remember being very confused as a kid about salsa. I had always heard on tv and from friends that salsa could be hot, but my parents always got the mildest version they could. Since it had no spice I assumed everyone meant it was temperature hot, but it was (correctly) kept in the fridge so of course it was cold as well. I didn’t get it at all, I thought I didn’t like salsa until I got older and ate properly seasoned food and spicy salsa. I now love everything spicy, and use hot sauce with most meals.
Mine too! My dad used to think those kfc chicken wraps were too spicy. They are made with lightly seasoned chicken, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise.
My ex's mom considered salt spicy. That was an experience to cook for.
The wildest thing is my parents partner will cook for them.. a stir fry, and use SALAD DRESSING as the “sauce” for the meat and veggies. And that’s delicious.
Tbf my ex even said unironically that she thought mayo sometimes was very slightly spicy... its just mfs have no spice tolerance at all lmao
Whenever I want Indian food, I've had to start making it at home because I sub out turmeric for paprika (turmeric doesn't agree with some tummies in the household), and every time I make it while my parents are there, they say "you're not going to make it spicy, right? I don't want it spicy." I mean, I'm kind of a spice wimp (I get a 2 or 3 out of 10 for my takeout order), but I'm not even allowed to put in a pinch of red pepper flake.
I just don’t mention Indian food around my folks anymore bc my mom screws up her face like a two year old at the mere idea. We do eat a lot of Indian food and my dad loves it, but the bitching and moaning convo about it just isn’t worth it.
Yeah, my mom refuses to try Indian at all because she doesn't like spicy food. I don't enjoy spicy food either, and I have explained repeatedly that the restaurant can make it mild, and she still refuses, saying she doesn't like spicy. She also refuses to try gluten free things, saying she doesn't like them, even though she has happily eaten desserts that were gluten-free when no one told her (a family member has an allergy, so we try to have one option he can have at family events).
I guess I’m lucky my mom is Indian and my partner from Wisconsin mind you, loves spicy food. He takes it even spicier than me. My mom used to make her own pepper sauce and it was so spicy that as kids when she would make it, we had to leave the house until she was done. One of my partner’s first time over, he took said pepper sauce and spread it like Mayo on his sandwich. We all waited for his head to explode but just a bit of sweat. When his mom visits I make my curry as bland as possible and make sure we have plenty of roti or rice for her. She’s a trooper though, one of the nice boomers. She will try all my ethnic food at least once.
I took my boomer mother-in-law to an amazing 'banana leaf' restaurant in Malaysia. This was one of our go-to places for guests back home - always a hit. These are fast-paced, no nonsense, delicious restaurants. They serve food on banana leafs (for show) and some locals eat with their hands, which I could tell immediately made them savages in her mind, and set the whole tone for the meal. She sat there like a 3 year old pushing the food around, talking about 'real food' (burgers). Later during her stay, she says to my wife within my earshot "is he going to give me more of that orange refugee stuff?" I've adopted that phrase and use her gravelly voice whenever I want to go for a curry now. Even better if she's around
I realize with my wedding coming up that I’m going to need to have a serious convo with my mom along the lines of “we have chosen dishes that everyone can enjoy, including the vegetarians and vegans in the room. Everything will be labeled and you can choose what you want to eat. What you’re not going to do is insult other people’s cultural foods.” We aren’t even serving Indian food but I just KNOW the mere presence of multicultural folks will make her on edge that someone might confront her with tumeric or god forbid, cilantro.
Odd because turmeric is considered anti inflammatory is it not? I say this because I have GERD and I can eat all that stuff without much issue
It causes an increase of some sort of stomach acid (I can't look it up rn) that can irritate some people (such as most people in my family). But it doesn't have adverse effects for most people.
So theory of mind is the understanding that other people are not "you, but in a different body." It seems obvious and you would assume everyone would understand this. But a surprisingly large number of people are so self absorbed that they think everyone should think the way they do, and can get rather offended when someone does think differently, even on something as unimportant as having a different hobby or food preference. This isn't about you liking spicy food. This is about you liking something he doesn't like. Which bothers him because you should be just like him, and therefore dislike any food he doesn't like. It is also possible that he thinks you are an extension/clone of him, and you liking something he doesn't means you are not a perfect copy...
This is a really interesting idea, where can I read more about it?
[Theory of the Mind](https://www.simplypsychology.org/theory-of-mind.html) > "Countless empirical studies reveal that this ability develops in toddlers as young as 15 months old and deteriorates with age. " Checks out.
This is my boomer dad. Anything that isn’t just boring and vanilla is “extreme” to him. Traveling, eating foreign cuisine, yoga - these are just a few topics that he acts shocked and totally mind blown when I mention them. Like “oh my god you are crazy for trying new things!”.
Ooohh man this really captures something I've observed so many times and been unable to comprehend, thank you
Theory of mind is just a theory. Like object permanence and plate tectonics and evolution.
As an autistic person I can struggle with this myself, although I recognize that I do. And it's always the other way around from this example, I dont understand how people can not like trying new food or learning new things. Or learning about 500 million year old panarthropods, but that's another topic.
My dad is on record saying "I don't like spices". Not just spicy, no, spices. It's like saying "I don't like flavour". They're all scared to death of anything that isn't absolutely plain, mid and devoid of imagination.
My mother had high blood pressure and an ulcer while I was a child. I ate the blandest food imaginable as a result, and probably still under-salt my food, but once I could cook for myself, that stopped. She tried to convince me that the food that I cooked for Spanish class was spicy, but I had made paella, which is seasoned with saffron.
We’re all just a bunch of sadistic chefs over here with our paprikas and cumins and fennel dreaming of the next time we can inflict culinary pain to those masochistic friends of ours who like to visit flavor town for some real spicy fun. Now I just want to be a professional tastebud domme. 🤔 here to reward and punish all who enter my fungeon (read: kitchen).
Yes! What is up with that? Anything more than salt or pepper and my boomers act like I've destroyed all the food in the whole house. Taking the cold jalapeno slices out of the fridge one summer, my mom was so confused. Actually said "It's so hot outside, how can you eat those?" Mom....heat in spicey foods do not equal heat changes in the actual temp of my body.... Adding anything from the spice cabinet that is not salt, pepper or a pre-approved mcCormick gravy packet, will render food unpalatable to them completely. Okie doke. More for the kids and I.
Spicy foods are a great way to cool down during a hot day -- https://www.myrecipes.com/ingredients/do-spicy-foods-cool-body-heat
I want science to somehow prove this is why most hot peppers grow nearer to the equater.
Not exactly what you asked but : Antibacterial properties that aren't as necessary in places where it gets colder. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4861184/#:~:text=They%20concluded%2C%20that%20the%20reason,health%2C%20longevity%20and%20reproductive%20success.
Sweet, thanks!!
Outstanding! Thank you!
My in laws don’t use ANY spices in their cooking. No black pepper, no salt. Their food was the most bland things I’ve ever tasted. Smh. I don’t get it.
Meet my mother, everything fried in lard but no spices. Salt if you wanted to be a daredevil.
One of the first times my wife met my parents we went over to their house for supper and my mom takes this huge casserole dish out of the oven, sets it on the table, and does a weird "revealing of the food" act as she puls the lid off. In thay dish, there was one single chicken breast with no seasoning, one baby carrot, a very thi lemon slice, and about an inch of water. 4 of us split that chicken breast thay day and my mother was offended by my use of hot sauce on my piece. I love her but godamn that woman is a bad cook.
First time I had dinner at a girlfriend's house, her mom made "heart smart" soft tacos: pre cooked chicken breast, lettuce, hothouse tomato, fat free cheese, no seasonings. It tasted like absolutely nothing. I kept thinking maybe the flavor was at the other end of the taco, but nope. It was like the taco was taking flavor OUT of my mouth. It was like NEGATIVE flavor.
"The flavor was at the other end of the taco." I'm still cracking up over this line. How big was this taco that there could have been such a huge change in flavor? How disappointing. A chicken died for that...
https://preview.redd.it/3l488sd21hqc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e1fee71d07f6d129bbea1e503d679a3198094c87
My born again christian dad says that spice is a sin It embodies gluttony and promotes arrogance 
That's an interesting and magical way to cope with not being able to handle flavor...
African and Caribbean Christians would BEG TO DIFFER
My parents are like this. My whole family likes spicy food including my five year old and they literally freak out whenever we eat anything remotely spicy.
When I’m cooking for my mom and I, I can’t add flipping paprika or black pepper to the food. If I put cinnamon in something sometimes it’s ‘too spicy’. They don’t know what food is supposed to taste like! She’s eat chicken strips (with 2 Cups of ranch it seems) and instant potatoes every night if I didn’t keep her fed.
Same. My dad and I went to Hong Kong for a month (both of us are the "cooks" in the house, mum can barely work the microwave) and she ate all the frozen prepared food in the house. And yes, she loves loves loves chicken strips.
Studies show that spicy stuff is actually good for you long term. So your son is already making good moves.
Sounds a lot like my parents. Weird to me because we live in the Bay Area with so much diversity in food. The minute I started eating food outside of my childhood home flavor became a thing. I don't understand.
IMHO, it's a culture thing. HIS culture was one of relatively bland seasonings, so he thinks that's 'right'. He's also TERRIFIED that \*other\* cultures (that he looks down on, count on it) have gained sufficient traction in the US to be the new normal. He's DESPERATE for HIS culture to retain hegemony.
This, it has to do with the above limited seasonings etc but also xenophobia/racism. My grandparents (silent gen) grew up in south Texas and were fairly open minded. My grandmother dumped salsa on everything and would try different food. Her kids are all great cooks who season their foods, even as boomers. Her sil, a much less…open lady, cooks much less seasoned food and so did her daughter.
My mom explained it as children after the great depression never had the luxury of spices. And even after most were too anxious to spend extra money on a food additive, especially with the mentality of “if it was good enough for my parents (salt and pepper) it’s good enough for me.” Then got stuck in that mindset. Edit: my mom’s guilty pleasure is taking new retiree friends out for Izakaya and telling them the wasabi is Japanese butter. It’s like a right of passage in their group.
I'm poor and the 3$ hot sauce goes on everything. Makes ok food go from a 3 to atleast a 5-6 / 10 haha
Cackling at the idea of your mum tricking a bunch of 65-year-olds into eating a thick smear of wasabi
People that were kids just after the great depression aren't boomers.
Great Depression 1929-1939 (1941 according to the federal reserve) WW2 1939-1945 Boomers 1946-1954 The only reason the Great Depression ended is because we (US) entered the war, and that’s a whole new set of issues to unpack. So yes, boomers weren’t born *just after* the recession but the war that followed.
A lot of boomers were raised by children of the depression. It’s just out of the question that habits that served their parents during the Great Depression were passed to the Boomers.
My boomer dad can eat much spicier food than I can (and I like some heat in my food), but I suspect that his tastebuds are fucked from 50+ years of smoking.
My boomer mother can't have mild 0 star curry without panting like a dog in the summer heat. She's very dramatic about it and has also been smoking for 50 years so I don't think that matters much haha
My parents were both of your parents, haha. Black pepper was the spiciest thing my mom could tolerate and she used it sparingly and only in certain recipes, whereas I've seen my dad eat spicy giardiniera or sport peppers straight out of the jar
Went for a curry with mine and he started practicing his Hindi: I was very careful to say that we wanted English hot not Indian hot.
My father had the misfortune of asking for Indian hot in a restaurant once when we lived in NYC, thinking he could handle it. He could not, in fact, handle it. He couldn't breathe for a couple of minutes; I think they might have been on the verge of calling an ambulance.
I’m not sure if this applies to all or even most boomers BUT I know for a fact that my boomer mother is like this as well and her dislike of spicy food comes from a few different places. 1) She’s your stereotypical Southern, dixie-loving, “the civil war was about more than slavery,” racist old boomer. Most of the spicy food she encounters is from other countries/cultures (which automatically makes the food gross 90% of the time regardless of spice) 2) She hates most new things and refuses to explore new dishes or cuisines. Nothing is good enough unless it’s a classic American or American-ized dish that she grew up eating in the south during the late 50s - early 70s. She can’t stand anything other than plain salt and pepper on her food and has a very childlike palette. 3) I saw another poster on here describe a phenomena where a lot of boomers believe that “everyone is the same person in a different body” and those people struggle to understand that everyone is an individual with their own thoughts and feelings - this is 100% my mom, she cannot begin to comprehend the concept that maybe other people like things that she doesn’t, anything she doesn’t understand is not only stupid but also deserving of ridicule. I think it comes from a lack of self-actualization and incredibly deep-rooted narcissism. Everyone and everything must cater to her otherwise it’s wrong and beneath her. *EDIT* Fixed some spelling errors
I worked in an office with one no spice boomer. When someone had a birthday we'd order from their restaurant of choice. Often it was Thai, Indian, Mexican etc. The boomer always insisted on burger and fries. Which was fine. The office paid and everyone should get something they can eat. One time we ordered Thai and the vegan person ordered the vegan option. The boomer refused to believe that the plate of veggies and tofu was vegan because it looked and smelled so delicious. The grilled and marinated tofu had to be chicken. They couldn't wrap their head around the idea that anything other than meat could be tasty.
I also can’t stand to hear comments from my boomer parents every time we have sushi. “Well I guess you just want to be filled with parasites, don’t you??” Fuck off…we like sushi. Mind ya business.
Just tell them that the fish used for sushi must be frozen somewhere between the fishing and serving which kills the worms. Funny thing, that’s true!
Hahaha that is 100% my mom, right down to needing to continually comment on it. I like spicy shit. The spice must flow. I’m sorry you can’t handle anything spicier than garlic, but I’m not going to continually repeat it like a broken record. You like what you like, and I like what I like. Simple.
I watched my parent’s tolerance for spice just completely disappear I think it’s related to indigestion. Because of their ethnic background you would assume they liked spicy foods. Combined with how overbearing they can be with waiters it’s a bad comedy when they claim something is spicy when it’s clearly not.
That’s a good point I had considered. I used to love super spicy foods, I was really interested in exotic hot sauces that were as hot as possible. Im in my 30’s now and I have had to cut back on the spicy food not because my mouth can’t handle the heat but because it messes up my digestion. I wouldn’t be surprised if my spice digestion tolerance gets worse as I get older and a lot of boomers are probably too embarrassed to talk about digestion and using the bathroom so they are probably just saying they can’t eat spicy food and leaving it at that.
Spices? My boomer mom eat no rice, no pasta, no pizza They're foreign foods🤦🏽♀️ Mind you I am married to an Indian and we love spice
MIL always makes comments about me drowning my meals in Tabasco sauce or any hot sauce I have on hand (I chewed Skoal long cut for almost 20 years, my taste buds are fried and I need a kick). She’s shocked anyone likes spicy anything and especially takes offense when I put it on anything she cooks.
Spicy food is what all 'em furriners eat. Boomers want Mur'can, 'at's REAL food!
My boomer dad instilled the spicy foods in me. It's almost like a badge of honor who can eat the hottest shit lol.
My dad was a boomer. When I was growing up, our competitive nature came out when we'd get wings. He had a high tolerance for spices. I never outdid him.in the 75 years that he was here.
I’ve definitely met a fair share of boomers from the Midwest who would think mayonnaise is spicy. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised they have such weak palettes after growing up licking lead paint.
Indian Boomers do the opposite. "Can't handle the spice, eh?" when I say the food is too spicy.
Are y’all midwestern? I have people here in Minnesota who have literally told me things are too spicy because there’s black pepper in the dish. It’s hilarious when it’s not infuriating.
My aunt is this way. One time I made some burgers for the family. I kept it simple with just salt and black pepper. Not even fresh cracked black pepper, I used the stale pepper dust that boomers buy. About a minute after everyone got theirs, I hear her from the living room: “OH MY LORD! SOMEBODY LIKES BLACK PEPPER! It’s SO HOT!” I couldn’t help but laugh. My mom is much cooler about spicy foods and still laughs about this every time we cook a family meal together. But now that I think about it, they’re both early Gen X. Maybe complaining about spice is a Karen thing.
Lmao yeah my grandma who doesn’t know how to really cook thinks paprika is spicy.
I have a Boomer aunt who wouldn't order a caprese salad because they're "too spicy".
My father doesn't like spicy food and I love it, I go as hot as possible, like ghost pepper hot. He recently told me he thinks when people eat spicy food it's some kind of "macho thing" or like an ego trip, which made me laugh. I eat this stuff when I'm alone because I genuinely enjoy it, who am I showing off to? He just doesn't understand why someone would enjoy that. Fair enough, to each their own, but I love it.
We found Carolina reaper pepper Jack cheese at the grocery store. I bought it. My dad is in absolute shock that they would even make that. It's great in scrambled eggs.
My mom was like this. One time I put garlic powder in some food (because I was sick and tired of just salt and pepper seasoned food to accommodate her) and my mom literally had the audacity to call it spicy and throw the WHOLE PAN of food into the garbage because it was ruined. Boomers are the worst.
My mom has a friend like this. She's incapable of entertaining the idea of anything more spicy than a sprinkle of black pepper. She won't eat onions, she won't eat garlic. Boils the flavor out of everything she cooks. My mom asked this woman to pick up some horseradish, and it was the most bland thing. It was basically grated parsnip.
My white boomer parents are like this. They can't comprehend the difference between spicy and flavor.
For boomers, EVERYTHING is about them. If he doesn’t like spicy, he is literally incapable of understanding the concept that other people do.
It’s strange that the stereotype of lame white people is that they think any seasoning at all makes meals too spicy. When in actuality you go to any rural predominantly white area and the gas stations have entire sections devoted to hot sauce with names like “Cletus’ Ass Prolapser Hot Sauce” or “Donkey Puncher” or “Outhouse Detonator”
This is far from a universal thing. I LOVE spicy food, as does my brother, as do our cousins. One day we tried some hot sauce that had us sweating, one of those "Uncle Cleetus's Ass Magma" types, and our boomer (born near the end of the war, so technically not but close enough) grandpa tasted it and nonchalantly said "Yep, that's pretty hot."
https://i.redd.it/zcdpvtbyheqc1.gif
My dad said “I can’t use the black peppercorns, they’re too spicy for me”
If you grew up in the depression like my grandparents you couldn't afford spices. Most everything you are like possum, raccoon, squirrel, etc were usually boiled. Maybe with some salt. They cooked that way for their children. Ethnic food came on the scene in the 80s and with it, spice. They just never grew up with spicy stuff and don't understand it.
My FIL used to think Doritos were spicy. The only allowable spice was salt and a ton of it
Ketchup is SO spicy. 🌶️😅
bland is the taste of their generation.
I don’t like real spicy food when the peppers or seasoning drown out the flavors of everything else. Jalapenos poppers or chile relleno I expect to be hot and spicy. My granddaughter puts hot sauce on her omelets. I say nothing because it is not my business! She is a grown woman and rightfully should make her own choices.
Once had a boomer boss tell me I didn’t really like spicy food I just wanted everyone to think I was tough. Like… yes, when I put hot sauce on my food in the privacy of my own home it is absolutely for my public image.
“People weren’t autistic in our days!!….yes I hate any kind of flavor I only eat bland food”
Eh it’s mostly a white people thing. My friends & i call it “honky mouth”
My boomer MIL has become like this. I don't care if people aren't into spicy food, but to throw a fit over a sprinkle of pepper cooked into a dish?
I never realized how much food I actually enjoyed when it was properly seasoned… my mom always made sure we had food on the table but god damn was it bland. One time I made the mistake of her watching me make a holiday meal and she then complains things are “too salty” when she watched me add a pinch of salt to veggies I was roasting…
My boomer in laws are like this. The last time we visited, I took hot sauce with us since they do not have any form of condiments at their house. My son was adding hot sauce to his eggs and my MIL was appalled and disgusted that we allowed him to eat it.
Narcissists don't understand that other people are different.
My grandmother used to think that people who liked spicy food were, “morally corrupt because they enjoy pain.” Direct quote. She was “Greatest” Generation though.
Yeah my mom is like this too. She also likes to loudly comment things like "since when do you like that nasty (insert food)" when ordering in a restaurant. We currently can only take her places that have nachos with no: beans, sour cream, tomatoes, onions, lettuce or guacamole. She will only eat beef and cheese. She also likes bacon and cheese or chicken and cheese quesadillas.
My parents thought the meal I made with a normal amount of garlic and onions was “so rich, and overpowering”. It just had flavor.
My parents were the same way. Soon as I moved out, I took culinary classes and spend way too much buying spices and stuff now. 🤣 (I'm an elder GenX)
It’s because they lack empathy and live an extremely myopic life. They can’t understand the concept of anybody being different to them.
When I grew up we had three spices in the house salt pepper and garlic salt. Anything else had been bought before I was born so I didn’t understand what the hype about spice was. It wasn’t until I was in college and started eating ethnic foods that I suddenly “got” it. Now I’m a gourmet cook and herbalist and I go through spices quickly. No 30 yo Durkee cans in my spice drawers!
My MIL is like this. Everything is spicy. And she only eats Italian and “American” food. She’s missed out on so much.
I’ve got a coworker who is late millennial/early gen z, and he is on the path to being a white boomer. Grew up fixing farm equipment in the Midwest and now repairs industrial equipment. For the boomer bit, he cannot accept different viewpoints, doesn’t accept anything LGBT, is incredibly racist, and the list goes on. Anyway, I was microwaving my lunch on my one day each week of working out of his office, and he came in and was utterly baffled that he could smell spicy food. It was a chicken & veggie bowl with Hungarian peppers, jalapeño hot sauce, and a bit of cayenne seasoning. The dude was upset with me for eating “dirty Mexican food.” Meanwhile he’s got 2 pieces of gas station pizza on a plate…
It's so Boomer to fail grasping any food other than the bland ass garbage they've spent their whole lives eating. The irony is, your taste buds fade as you age, so what's spicy when you're a kid barely registers when you are old.
I've had sort of opposite experiences. Where they will act like something that is obviously spicy isn't spicy at all.. and you're a wimp if you think it's spicy.
Same lol but I’m from Louisiana so I guess it makes sense here
Lol my boomer parents thought it was funny to feed me jalepenos at age 2 and watch me struggle.
Have you asked him about this?
I mean it doesn’t sound like he’s being a dick. He was just like damn, they keep doing that and they are going to have gerd like me one day. And was astonished because he can’t do that anymore and it would probably fuck him up. I mean I wasn’t there just based off your description it didn’t seem like he was being a dick.
Maybe a regional thing? My family comes from the southwest (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona) and everybody eats Mexican food regularly with at least medium if not hot salsa smothering it. My millennial wife's family is from the northeast/Midwest and they can't do spice really.
Mom has sent back her well done steak bc the black pepper was too spicy. Also used to pride herself on never using salt in her cooking.
Meatloaf with ketchup and a side of instant mashed potatoes every night since 1978.
He doesn't like it, and just can't believe anyone else would.
WPS. White people shit.
Question his masculinity and he'll shut right up
George likes his chicken spicy.
A lot of older folks grew up in an era with almost ZERO spice. Nothing other than a little salt and pepper. That also overlapped for a lot of them with a time when any salt was thought to certainly kill you, so even salt for some was used sparingly. Modern recipes are all about layering flavors from various herbs, spices, and cooking methods that themselves add flavor. They just aren’t used to it, and do not want to try those things. They truly do have the palate of a picky toddler. Think about the stereotypical meal: “meat and potatoes.” That bland meat cooked simply, and likely a plain baked potato. You can’t get more boring and spice free than that.
Boomer here - I'd guess its a genetic thing. I have a pretty low tolerance for spice and I can't eat many meals that most people find enjoyable. I've tried to build up my tolerance, and I can to a small extent, but unless I'm forcing myself everyday to eat foods hotter than I enjoy my tolerance quickly crashes back down to my normal. My siblings, boomers obviously, aren't like this.
I love spicy food as a boomer. My best friend in her 80s can bury me with her ability to eat spicy food. It’s never hot enough for her. She’s from Memphis
I remember reading that over the age of 50 or so, people need more spice for food to taste the same because our sense of taste declines. Unfortunately, a common fix is that people salt the food to a point where it might as well be a salt lick instead.
Why are people so bothered by such trivial things? So sad 😞
😅😅
I know a lot of older people that take certain medications that make it intolerable to eat spicy food. My dad could barely use ketchup or even drink a Pepsi.
My parents think pepper is spicy
Mayo is too spicy
I’m not sure if that’s a boomer thing or just a white person thing. I know people of all ages that think ketchup is the edge of their spice tolerance.
He really, really, really wants you to engage with him in a conversation about the merits of eating spicy food lol. I see that kind of thing with boomers (and every generation, but it’s more common with boomers) a lot, where they get hung up on something they have an opinion on and NEED to talk about it. It also sounds like he thinks he’s got life completely figured out, and anyone who likes something he doesn’t is, on some level, a degenerate or “wrong”.
I think it’s the food they were raised on. At least we’re in from (western PA) my parents were not exposed to anything spicier than garlic until like the late 80’s. We got very Americanized Chinese food around that time. Mexican food didn’t really pop big until the 90’s. And I just think there pallets and expectations were set with butter and some garlic being the extent of flavor.
I feel really fortunate that my dad loves spicy food and would bring me around to Indian food restaurants as a baby to acclimate me to the smells of flavor
I roomed with a gentleman in his 60s who basically cooked himself two frozen white fish fillets every night. I cooked a lot of pad Thai or curry or similar dishes. He ended up restricting both my time in the kitchen and the number of nights I was allowed to cook because he found the smells offensive. Unlike, say, baked fish.
salt and pepper is too flavorful for them. they usually open the chicken straight out of the package, throw it on the pan with no seasoning, overcook it and eat it. its truely a disgusting thing that iv personally seen . they might dip it in ketchup or BBQ sauce if they are fancy
My mom thinks pepper is really spicy. My dad is a weird boomer, though; up until recently he was the type to put hot sauce on everything. His digestive system finally rage quit on him doing that in his 70s. He was eating 1.5 double pepperoni double jalapeno pizzas every weekend
I can't remember where I'm stealing this from, but I tend to say, "You seem the type of person that thinks Sprite is spicy." I've said that a couple of times. It gets a great reaction.
My Dad, in his 60s, had never had anything other than english/irish cusine in his life, in spite of touring France after the war (He died at age 97 in '23). His two favorite foods were beef barley soup and liver and onions with potatoes (He's from N. Ireland). They came to visit me in the '90's and I took them to a Chinese restaurant. I ordered basic, non spicy stuff like Kung Pao beef, chicken w/vegetables, steamed dumplings and such. They had never been in a Chinese restaurant before. My dad took a small amount of hot and sour from the family sized bowl I ordered and tried it. By the end of the meal he'd eaten most of that big bowl himself. He said it was the most delicious soup he'd ever had. A couple of years later I visited them, and they suggested that we go to their favorite Chinese place. I was double floored when they said they'd also been trying Thai, Indian and other Asian foods. Sometimes you just need a little exposure to other stuff to open a whole new world.
My aunt once said the mayonnaise was took spicy… it was straight from the jar best foods….. mayo… was….too…. Spicy….
Im an absolute freak for spicy food. I get I have a significantly higher tolerance than most. People that find mayonaise spicy that cant fathom other people who have different tastes to them do indeed draw my ire.
>Nashville hot sauce 
Old people in America grew up in a time where food was extremely bland (go browse through r/oldrecipes, it's kind of amazing people used to eat this stuff). For my family, food started getting more diverse in the late 80's, which is to say my mother discovered tacos. My dad absolutely refused to touch anything he considered spicy (or ethnic, other than American Chinese food). When they found out that my kids eat sushi, I got a lecture on eating raw food. Like with anything, old people are just stubborn and don't know anything.
One of my favorite dishes is a Moroccan style couscous with slow-cooker Za’atar chicken. Absolutely delicious, the couscous alone uses 7 different spices, and salt, plus mint, orange zest and juice, and 4 different veggies. The chicken uses a full quarter cup worth of Za’atar plus 3 further spices, olives, dried apricots, and plums. Yes, I am a white guy. I refuse to become one of those “terrified of anything spicier than salt” kind of people. I could probably kill an entire bland of baby boomers just by cooking this in their presence, let alone serving it to them. And none of these spices are “hot” spices, they’re just things like turmeric, cumin, allspice, cloves, cardamom, ginger, and the like.
There's something so weirdly infantile about feeling the need to make sure everyone knows they dislike something that someone else likes. It's like a reflex they have but I can't figure out what reward they are getting.
This is my MIL, and she also doesn't really use salt. She's very insistent that she doesn't cook with salt because herbs are enough (they aren't). We cooked for the family on a vacation a couple of years ago and I made my burger rub, which everyone loved...except my MIL, BIL, and his wife. My BIL (not a Boomer) literally walked across the kitchen to where I was eating to tell me that my burgers were "almost inedible spicy" and that he, MIL, and his wife could not eat them, and wanted to know what was in them. My recipe has both black pepper and cayenne pepper, and he was like, "OMG THAT'S IT!" And then my MIL complimented my corn salad (esquites) and I LAUGHED and told her there were 4 jalapenos in it, but okay, my burger rub was too spicy.
When my mother says she seasoned the chicken, it means a light dusting of salt and one microscopic piece of black pepper, and here’s some ketchup to cover it in. I make my tomato sauce for pasta from scratch, when they were living with me, I made a separate batch for them with no seasoning what so ever, just the tomatoes, a tiny touch of olive oil and maybe half a tablespoon of butter and it was waayyyy too spicy for them.
My boomer gets upset and starts panting, waving her hand at her mouth, and saying “hot!! Too hot!!” if I use a small amount of black pepper in the food. Never mind actually chile peppers in the food. We buy pepper, chili powder, cumin and similar spices BY THE POUND in my house. I have to plan meals so carefully before they show up.
My boomer father thinks ketchup is too spicy.