India

it was his first month or so in Mysore, India. his friends wanted to take him for breakfast, and knew he wasn't vegetarian, so they took him to a muslim run restaurant. quick little note: my dad was a major neatfreak when it came to food and eating. back in Dubai when he grew up, he had his own cutlery, plates, bowls, cups, etc that only he would use and clean, so being in India was already out of his comfort zone (he was there for university). the restaurant was just filthy, but he was hungry, so he put up with it. fast forward to ordering, he wanted something simple, hard to mess up, and not spicy (he HATED anything spicy before then, even pepper on eggs for breakfast). so he ordered hard boiled eggs. again, fast forward. the eggs came with his friends food, and guess what it arrived in? a bowl full of chutney. red, spicy chutney. he had it sent back, not going to have something floating in chutney. the eggs came back, but all they did was rub off the chutney and put it in a clean bowl, with the eggs still permeated with the spicy broth. at that point, he gave up and learned to like spicy food. now, he loves it.

TL;DR dad hated spicy food, but learning evolutionary genetics wasn't the only thing he learned in India