Spice discrimination

Today Mark and I were out and decided to stop at a noodle restaurant for some 비빔국수 (bibim guksu). It's basically a cold spicy red noodle soup. As we were eating it, I felt my lips and tongue tingling and broke out into a serious sweat. Meanwhile, Mark was happily chowing down on his bowl.

I asked him several times if he thought it was pretty spicy, and he kept saying, "No, it's good."

"Sheesh, I thought I'd gotten pretty good at eating spicy food, but Mark's STILL kicking my butt." I thought to myself. About 5 bites in, my entire face felt like it was lit on fire and I had to stop.

Once he finished his bowl, Mark leaned over and helped himself to my bowl. He immediately said, "Woah, this is a lot more spicy than mine was..."

So apparently the restaurant had taken it easy on the spiciness for the white guy and amped it up for the Korean...

Meanwhile, I'm just happy to know that Mark isn't better than I am at eating spicy Korean food. :)