I used to live in New Mexico for a while and there was a common joke: how do you tell if someone is a native New Mexican? They keep a fire extinguisher in the bathroom.

It’s not so much that you taste it on the way out, it’s that there’s undigested capsaicin that burns, uh, other mucus membranes on the way out. Fortunately not something that bothers me much either, but I get hints of it sometimes when my niece makes what I call her nuclear fire curry.