I saw someone claim food in Europe is spicier, but I disagree. What do you guys think?

43 comments

  1. Yes without a doubt. I usually bring my own hot sauce when I’m traveling through Europe because it’s rare for a restaurant to even have something as basic as Tobasco.

  2. I lived in Europe for 5 years. American food is absolutely spicier. It’s rare to encounter anything spicy in Europe.

  5. I haven’t had a chance to have spicy food in Europe besides curry worst, but judging by certain cultural traits I would assume America has Spicer food.

  6. UK here: It is true for the most part. Americans DO like and can tolerate spicier food when it comes to “Working class White British food”, which consists of mostly boiled meat and veg with not much flavour. Most of the flavour comes from Bisto gravy. However we do have our curry lovers over here for sure.

    Sad to say but I have to be fair here, apart from the curry lovers (and even most of them won’t go near a freshly made vindaloo and would consider a ready meal curry from Tesco as “spicy”, the white American Pallette is far more refined. End of.

    The truth hurts, I know. Believe me, I feel it. But I gotta be fair.

    EDIT: This goes for all euro foods. For instance, I know that Italians and Eastern Europe in general, for the most part, don’t like dishes like curry, and use chilli VERY sparingly in their food, if at all. They don’t see it as “sophisticated” enough for them. Bunch of goddam pussies. Points to the US, you got Euro’s well and truly beaten here, hands down.

  7. Not American or European but I’ve heard some Europeans purpose spicy food as “a way for Americans to cover up bad food quality” (ridiculous) more than once so I’m going to guess we like spicier food here in North America.

  8. US tastes have been heavily influenced by Mexico. It’s pretty common for people in the US to have developed a taste for hot-spicy food. I’ve only been to Europe once but I didn’t see any hot-spicy food on the restaurant menus.

  9. The spiciest food I think I have ever eaten was Indian food the UK. Chicken Phall.

    That said on average food is spicier here in the US.

  10. Saw an official Italian recipe for arrabiata (angry pasta sauce) and their idea of spicy was a chopped tiny chili instead of a squirt of sriracha

  11. >food in Europe is spicier

    Europe may have invented the ‘spice trade’ but they didn’t (and still don’t) actually use any of the spices.

  12. I’ve housed many a plate of patatas bravas, and while they’re delicious, “bravas” is a *real* generous term for the spice level–and that’s about as spicy as it gets on the European continent. The UK, of course, has significant West African and Indian populations who can bring the heat, but for the most part there is zero capsaicin zip in Eurofare, while America invented Hot Ones.

  14. I saw a video where a Russian PoW was being fed some sort of Hungarian hot sauce on a chip, Eros Pista.

    Well… “certain” news outlets called it “torture”, claiming that the sauce is known for its “spiciness”. And the Russian PoW did react like the Foreign Legionnaire had just shoved a habanero down his throat.

    The problem is… It uses paprika as the base ingredient… And from what I have been able to find, though the numbers seem to differ because I can’t get a proper read on the ingredients, I believe it would rate somewhere around 1,000 on the Scoville unit scale.

    In comparison, Tabasco (a very beloved American hot sauce that is typically considered a mild heat) is 5,000 SHU… Taco Bell’s Diablo (from the numbers I can dig up) appears to hover around 15,000-20,000 SHU (I know these numbers are going to piss spice lovers off, chill it. I know you don’t think Diablo is spicy.) A habanero is going to hit about 150,000 SHU.

    From what I have seen, yes. Generally speaking, American cuisine tends to lean to the spicier side than European cuisine. This makes sense due to our proximity with Mexico and the mixing of various cultures, which includes many cultures that adore spice.

  15. I would say yes. Everyone I’ve met from Europe always comments our food is spicy and they seem to have very low tolerance for spice.

  17. The only comparison I have is that at one point I was getting a snack crate subscription of junk food from Europe and every single thing that said extreme heat, super spicy, or HOT! were most definitely absolutely lacking any spice whatsoever. Do what you will with this information, but it is not enough data to make an assumption. It is just my experience.

  18. Hardcore yes. I made a dish for a german friend where the only spice was paprika and she was holding her mouth because it was so hot. I have never seen anything like it.

  19. 100%. At least compared to New Mexico, European foods are not spicy at all. Even in foreign foods I’ve had in Europe, like a spicy chicken sandwich, döner with a “spicy” sauce, or Asian food, the spice level is way lower than what I expect to get in the US. I think the spiciest “truly” European food I had was horseradish mustard, if you could even call that spicy.

  20. American food is particularly influenced by Latin America and the Caribbean

    The only place with spicier food is Asia and even then some of their spice has had an influence on our food

    At least with my family we have a high tolerance for spice so long as there’s flavor as well

  21. US hands down! I’ve been to quite a few countries in Europe, and they definitely can’t handle heat. The only place I got decently spicy food was at a chain called Vapiano. It’s fast Italian food, and wish we had it here! I ordered the arrabbiata sauce, and ordered it as hot as they could make it. People looked at me like I was crazy LOL.

  22. It’s always my biggest complaint about food in Europe. And there isn’t hot sauce to add onto it

  23. Yes, I’d say so. There are a significant number of Americans who’ve developed a taste for stupidity spicy food, my family among them.

  25. I would say it depends on the food and the locations in America and Europe.

  26. I lived in the Netherlands for 5 years. Saw a guy break out into a sweat from black pepper.

    Dutch food is some of the least spicy in the world.

  27. Absolutely, Americans love Mexican food which is spicer then most Western European foods.

  28. America does have a culture regarding hot sauce, which isn’t the case for Europe.

  29. Got back from Italy a couple of months ago and was shocked at how mild the food was. Don’t get me wrong, it was good but mild. And there’s the UK, nordics, Switzerland, and France. Most was fairly good, but all of it was mild compared to the spiciness back home in the SF Bay Area. To be fair I have six different types of peppers growing in my garden right now.

  30. The only food I had while I was in Germany (and France) that I would call spicy was from East Asian restaurants run by East Asian immigrants.

  31. I’m a Mexican-American who lives in Europe.

    Yes. Yes it is. The person making that claim has no clue.

  32. Go to any US grocery store and marvel at the huge selection of hot sauces!

  33. Definitely spicier in the States. Hot sauce is a way of life here. Hurts so good.

  34. I’d say American food is spicier. Our cuisine is heavily influenced by African-American/Southern and Hispanic culture when it comes to flavor and spices.

  35. Can’t speak about mainland Europe because I’ve never been there and don’t know that much about its cuisine

    Food in America is absolutely way spicier than the UK, however. The only hope of getting spicy food in the UK is from Indian or Pakistani immigrants

  36. >I saw someone claim food in Europe is spicier

    Aside from some spicy Italian sausages, your only spicy food in Europe is imported from Indian and African immigrants. We don’t have as many of those in the US, but we do have many Mexicans and South Americans, so I’d say it’s a wash regarding spiciness.

    The spiciest things on Earth are hot peppers like Habaneros and ghost peppers, which are native to the Americas.

  38. Let’s set an example, in the town I live in now there is an Indian restaurant and I order the Vindaloo fully spicy, and it gives a slight tingle. Back in America medium jarred salsa is often pushing my spicy limits.

    Traditional Austrian/Bavarian food is more hearty with meat, breads, potatoes , and cheese being the staples. At least in the more rural areas foreign foods (especially spicy) are relatively new and the people haven’t really gravitates towards them.

  39. As a NYer who travels Europe a bunch ABSOLUTELY. Not only is food in the US spicer, hot sauce as a table condiment is far more prevalent and Europeans don’t really have a concept of something that is comically hot….except Phall, I’ll give the Brits Phall.

  40. I mean, italy got some spicy dishes but europe in general nope. American food is spicier but I do think some european food is more flavorful.

  41. So, here’s a story. For context, I am from an Indian background and have lived in the states for the majority of my life. So, I can handle spices.

    Nearly a year ago, I went to Scotland for thanksgiving break. It’s my favourite country in the whole world, and it’s beautiful. I’ve found a fondness for haggis and the full Scottish breakfast is to die for. The sticky toffee pudding literally had me fuming at how dare the US declare independence from the British because they were hiding their scrum-dilly-umptuous dessert from us. I was wondering how to overstay my visa, mind you. Now, this is, more or less, British food. It’s good on it’s own.

    Now, let’s get to the ethnic/not British foods. Remember how I said I was from an Indian background? Well, my mom had been in India for two weeks at this point, and I was missing her and her home cooked meals. I went into this one restaurant in Edinburgh and I ordered a “daal” and “chapatti.” This is a very, very simple and basic dish. Very humble. Also, extremely hard to fuck up. You guys, I swear to you, I don’t know how this restaurant managed to fuck up my chapatti by using all purpose flour rather than wheat flour and the daal was BLAND AF! Whole wheat chapatti has flavour. You don’t even need to put in salt or anything, because it has its own flavour. This Indian restaurant even had south Asian servers and cooks. I also spoke in Hindi so the servers knew I was Indian. Nope, the food was bad. I was so turned off, that I wouldn’t even go to an authentic Punjabi restaurant.

    Then, I tried the Thai place near my hostel. I made sure to say spicy and that I was not only Indian but American, so I can handle my spices. The waitress was nice enough and understood… or so I thought. The spiciness was .1, which was better than the Indian place, but not really. This led me to give up on Scotland’s interpretation of eastern cuisine. I’m sorry, people of Scotland. I love you, your gorgeous country, and local cuisine. Maybe let the English claim the title for better Indian food, because I’ve had scrumptious biriyani in London that was nearly identical to my mother’s.

    Lastly, I went to a local Italian chain restaurant. I ordered spaghetti and meatballs with tiramisu for dessert along with some wine. Y’all, I found out why the eastern cuisines didn’t have any spices. My spaghetti and meatballs had allll the flavour and spices my Indian self was craving. I’m talking nose sweats and teary eyes. Now, remember: when you go away for a while, your palate adjusts to the food there. So, it’s harder for the palate to accept spices again. It was an experience for sure.

    Long story short: European food is NOT spicier than American foods. Nor is it spicier than Indian food. I would be willing to try traditional Italian foods in Italy, though.

  42. Most of Europe doesn’t really do spicy/hot foods. At least not traditionally. Whereas the U.S. has been more heavily influenced first by Mexico and later by Eastern/southeast Asia (China, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, etc).

    Whereas I feel like the Average British or German person would find a bell pepper too spicy. (I kid, but seriously, I’ve never really heard of any spicy traditional European foods)

  43. I’m a Brit, and I’ll answer absolutely yes. I just tried flaming hot Cheetos, and they’re the hottest crisp I’ve ever eaten. There aren’t any snacks in the whole of the UK with that level of spice which in my opinion, isn’t spicy at all.

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