Think of what ground black peppercorns, on every table and in nearly every meal, do for your food - they wake up your tastebuds. It’s hard to imagine something bland like macaroni & cheese without a ton of black pepper in it. Or soup - you don’t put a lot of pepper in canned soup to make it taste better?
So the same goes for hot chili peppers. Even the crazy hot ones have a taste - it’s like a lot of foods, you get used to the hot over time.
And like a lot of foods that are on the “why do people eat that?” list, chili peppers are very good for you as long as you don’t overdo it. Cayenne, which as most of us know is muy caliente, is given in capsule form for some types of gastric complaints. I worked for a GI doctor who did recommend it to some patients. (I think it’s recommended for some lung ailments as well, but I’m too lazy to look it up right now.)
So it’s not as much of a mystery as, say, why people eat whole pickled ducklings or whatever. Yeah, there is a macho component to saying you like stuff that’s so hot it burns a hole in the roof of your mouth. Be patient. Guys like that always get their comeuppance.
—” you get used to the hot over time.”
I worked with an Indian guy, he said that each time he went home, he complained that his mother’s cooking had become too hot!
He also developed a liking for cheeseburgers!
Another told him to be very careful about going home with cheeseburgers on his breath, could be BIG TROUBLE.