Indians are famous for spicy food and for non-spice food cultures it must be amazement how kids get used to this hot taste palate. One such curious person took to Reddit to ask Indian users how they get used to spices.
In the subreddit called r/india, this question was posted- “How do Indian families introduce spicy food to children? (An honest question from an American).”
He went on to describe his query as to how Indian food is notorious for being spicy and he as an American is terrible at handling them. He says his little brother is even worse who cannot even tolerate something like black pepper. “But I can't imagine an Indian avoiding spicy food their entire life. So how is it introduced?” he asks.
He wonders if children are fed spicy food as soon as they start eating or it’s a gradual process where they are first introduced to mild spices and later level-up to more hardcore stuff. He adds that he is genuinely curious and doesn’t want to annoy anyone with this naïve question.
People quickly jumped in the comment section to satiate his curiosity. The responses came from a variety of Indians, both spice-lovers and spice-haters. Lucky for him, no one seemed particularly annoyed by his question.
The most upvoted answer came from a user called Moosemaniam. They said it’s a gradual process as babies are generally given bland foods like porridge and pulses with salt and the mildest of spices. As they grow up, they move on to regular home-cooked food. “For example. As a kid, I used to get a less spicy/watered down version of Chutney compared to what the grown ups would eat,” they added.
Another user responded, “It's a myth that Indian food is too spicy. If steam coming out of your ears on the first bite, it's probably made wrong.” However, most people contradicted this claim as “spicy” is a relative term and has different standards for everyone.
One user joked and commented the most loved Indian parent retort: “Eat what we provide or get out of our house."