this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2025
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I'd be quite surprised. The USA and Aus have quite a bit of spicy influence. India for UK, Thai for aus...sure many people don't like spicy food but most do.
I loved in UK for a bit and remember being quite surprised that fàst food, like burger king, had proper spicy food.
I swear there's probably more Indian restaurants in the UK than there is in India. Where I suppose they are just called restaurants.
the entire spiciness of the world is concentrated along a single road in Balham
Fun anecdote: I had an indian colleague who could not handle spicy food. He just doesn't come from that one single region that shoves chilli onto everything.
Opened my eyes to the idea that indian food being spicy might be as misleading as english food adding mint to everything (blame: Asterix comics in europe)
The south Indian is where the spice is. North Indian is where the partying is.
hell yeah it is
sudo bring me dosa masala myore
Spicy food has a history, particularly in the US, of being associated with masturbation and hypersexuality. Puritans wants food as bland as possible.
In Europe, after the colonial era started, spices became more widely available and were no longer a status symbol (as they were previously only available to the wealthy). This led to the elites turning their noses up to spices and a belief system that the base ingredient should not be defiled in flavor by spice which eventually bled over into the rest of European culture.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/03/26/394339284/how-snobbery-helped-take-the-spice-out-of-european-cooking
Cooking with spices is different from spiciness specifically but I think the same principles apply (with regard to perceptions at the time).
Huh. So that's why.
Also, this sounds like some old school Kelloggs shit. That guy was an absolute freak.
Yeah corn flakes were invented to bland you out of jerking it.
Fun fact: Kellog was proud to say he never consummated his completely celibate marriage. Also, he had multiple intense enemas every day that blasted pressurized water against his prostate at rate of 17 gallons a minute (or slower when it was the more viscous yogurt enema).
The same also applied to no-dancing, no fancy churches or too ornate clothes, being stoic, too tasty food. You werent supposed to find joy in excess and be a wastrel.
Me too, me too...
I'm unsurprised about Australia. The food culture there is pretty great but somehow good Mexican cuisine is almost entirely absent.
Yes, it’s getting better, but it’s pretty poor. It’s not due to an aversion to spicy food though. It’s due to a lack of knowledge of how to make good Mexican food. There are not a lot of Mexican immigrants, especially compared to China, Thailand, Vietnam etc. Indian food is also surprisingly poor here, given the large Indian population, but many are recent migrants, so it is improving.
Aussie here. I was in Bangkok this week and currently on a TGV hurtling across EU towards London.
The Thai food in Australia is not as spicy as the stuff in Thailand. It's otherwise authentic.
The hottest Vindaloo I ever had was in a London pub. I haven't been in the last 12 years, so I'll measure this again. I also haven't seen Foster's beer on tap since my last London visit. Go figure.
Yes, but it's spicier than a mild salsa from old El Paso.