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Comment by _a_a_a_ | Hacker News Reader

Is known in a wider area eg. ajver in Turkey. It's okay, the texture can be a bit glooey sometimes. (Sidenote: in Turkish they have different words for heat from temperature and heat from hot peppers - anyone chip in here?)

On heat tolerance, do some genetic thing where people get one, two or three receptors[1] which give different sensitivity to different people. I had a GF who would struggle with the level of capsaicin I literally wouldn't even notice. I knew a guy who would snack on scotch bonnet peppers straight, which would be impossibly agonising for me.

[1] from memory, doubtless incorrect as well

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Turkish word for heat when related to temperature is "sıcak", when related to peppers is "acı".

But "acı" can also mean bitter. You have to look at the context to understand. However things can both be spicy and bitter. In that case it gets complicated :)

English has hot, spicy and piquant.

The problem is all of those can be ambiguous. "Hot" can mean high temperature, "spicy" can mean e.g. lots of garlic or cumin, or any other spices, and "piquant" can mean tart like citrus.

Perhaps the lack of a dedicated mapping to "capsaicin sensation" stems historically from England's reputedly bland cuisine...

The Turkish word is also ambiguous. Chili peppers were only brought from South America in the 16th century.

England's bland food is a relatively recent development, much more recent than the language.

https://edmundstanding.wordpress.com/2020/05/28/hot-peppers-...

>England's reputedly bland cuisine...

Thank goodness for immigration.

Okay, in light of recent UK events I get the subtext :-)

But I don't think it's fair to call UK food bland. Done properly it's very good, but what it's not (usually) is heavily seasoned. In no way does that require it to be tasteless, and done properly it isn't.

My understanding is that UK food was on a par with other European countries in medieval times. By the 1950s to 1970s, it was pretty bad though. No doubt some of this was down to wartime rationing. Perhaps some of it was due to protestant fear of anything too enjoyable.

There is a reason there are thousands of Indian restuarants in England and approximately zero English restaurants in India. ;0)

Thankfully, food has improved vastly in the UK since the 70s.

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