This is an interesting piece. I can certainly believe the connection between enjoying spiciness and thrill-seeking. Eating really spicy food is a form of culinary masochism after all.<p>I have two little pieces of information to add.<p>On Mao&#x27;s culinary idiosyncrasies: He was famous for his love of red-braised pork belly. And today, there are many &quot;Mao restaurants&quot; in China which specialize in the Hunanese-style red-braised pork belly recipe he preferred, which distinctively uses caramelized sugar instead of soy sauce to achieve the dark brown color.<p>On the connotations of 辣妹子 (&quot;spicy girl&quot;): The &quot;spicy&quot; implies not only a &quot;spicy&quot; temper and &quot;spicy&quot; tongue, but also &quot;spicy&quot; looks. Sichuanese and Hunanese girls are known for being very attractive.