My name is This Square Peg, I am an African Woman, and I cannot eat spicy foods.
{Moment of silence}
It’s weird, right? That when I eat anything spicy I see my life flashing before my eyes? It’s been like this since I was a wee lass. (Apparently, I’m also Irish.) I have memories of my mother cooking milder versions of the same foods because some of us (read: me) couldn’t take the peppery heat. One time, in my haste to inhale the Chinese food in front of me, I accidentally swallowed an entire red pepper. I was in bed for the rest of the night. There may have been hallucinations. Seriously.
So why am I able to cover my egg white omelets with Sriracha sauce and
eat with abandon? Even when my lips burn after eating, as they now are, I typically am able to withstand the heat after a bit. Am I building some kind of resistance, finally, to spiciness?
No. I can only handle Sriracha. Nothing else. So, so strange. In the end, I add my inability to largely eat spicy foods to the list of other things that I, as an African Woman, was denied:
- Discernible hips
- An actual derrière (although, thanks to squats, something might be growing back there)
Just unfair.
Are you like me? Or can you handle the heat?
This Square Peg. 
Hi Lady Square Peg,
Lmao… This post is hilarious, your list of things denied really killed me. XD
And everyone assumes that all Africans like their food hot and spicy.
I can handle the heat considerably well, nothing to boast about though, I have friends who can pop hot chilli raw into mouths like candy and not even flinch.
@ “thanks to squats, something might be growing back there” Ah! I have to step up my squats game, thus far, spicy foods haven’t helped at all. Lol
Lol!! Even my dear mother looked “back there” and pronounced that a derriere was being born. So I’m going to just keep squatting. Hahaha. Yes, I long for the day when I can eat spicy foods and not have sad tears rolling down my face from the pain of it all, but it’s all good. Being mild is still fun. Lol