• anakin78z@lemmy.world
    92·
    1 year ago

    There was a place on Venice beach called Rose’s Thai Window which had the best pad Thai. You could get it mild, medium, spicy, or ‘Rose spicy’, which is how she made it for herself. Whenever we tried to order it Rose spicy, she would flat out tell us no. On the last day the place was open, before she moved back to Thailand, she finally made it for us. I lasted literally 2 bites before I couldn’t taste anything anymore, except pain.

    • Especially_the_lies@startrek.websiteEnglish
      60·
      1 year ago

      I went to an Indian place once and asked the waiter to make my food spicy. It was kinda medium-spicy, and when the waiter asked if it was spicy enough, I–stupid white boy I am–said no. He took the dish back to the kitchen. He returned a little later with the chef. They both watched me take a bite and regret my decision. Through the tears, I told them the Spice was just right. They laughed.

  • betwixthewires@lemmy.basedcount.com
    721·
    1 year ago

    Pro tip: don’t ever tell a Thai cook their food isn’t spicy enough. They take their spice seriously, they take pride in it, and they like to dig it in a little if you ask for it spicier.

    • GratefullyGodless@lemmy.worldEnglish
      46·
      1 year ago

      I seem to recall that Thai places have a special spiciness scale, it goes…

      Mild

      Medium

      Spicy

      Extra spicy

      Thai mild

      Thai medium

      Thai spicy

      Thai extra spicy

      Whether it’s true or not, I don’t know, and I plan to never personally find out.

      • DaTingGoBrrr@lemmy.ml
        32·
        1 year ago

        Based on my experience you can ask for Thai spicy. It also works in Indian restaurants if you ask for Indian spicy. So far I have gotten what I asked for.

        My latest experience in my local Indian restaurant resulted in the waiter to double check if we understood what we asked for. Once we got our food he was eyeing us the whole time to see if we would survive haha

        • teruma@lemmy.world
          5·
          1 year ago

          My favorite way to order from indian places is “not spicy for child” because otherwise mild is too spicy for me. 🙃

  • SendMePhotos@lemmy.world
    481·
    1 year ago

    Here’s my perfect spicy level: I want slight to moderate discomfort in my mouth, but no follow up burn from my asshole.

  • JJROKCZ@lemmy.world
    443·
    1 year ago

    This is basically how I do my order at a Chinese spot near work, most of the time they don’t listen though and still give me white people heat.

    • HiddenLayer5@lemmy.mlEnglish
      45·
      1 year ago

      From the restaurant’s perspective I can kind of understand. They don’t want to serve you a meal that they suspect you won’t be able to eat because it’s a bad look for their business. And if you complain, being too spicy is also way harder to rectify than being not spicy enough so they play it safe initially. Though it obviously sucks if you’re specifically looking for spicy food.

      This is why I advocate for chili oil, white pepper, and other condiments at the table or provided on request at Chinese restaurants. As a Chinese person who likes to fine tune the spice level of my food or change the spice level part way through. It also basically means the kitchen doesn’t really have to worry about if something is too mild in the same way they don’t have to worry if it’s not salty enough.

      • Bananigans@lemmy.ml
        62·
        1 year ago

        Maybe, but I think his point is that pad Thai isn’t a spicy dish to begin with. So it would be a weird complaint to make in the first place.

        • bitsplease@lemmy.ml
          5·
          1 year ago

          I don’t pretend to be an expert on thai food, so I can’t speak to the “traditional” way to prepare it, but in my experience pass thai being spicy is about 50/50 at restaurants I’ve been to, and there certainly isn’t anything wrong with asking it to be made spicy

          • Bananigans@lemmy.ml
            5·
            1 year ago

            If Thai people can throw tuna on waffles, I think you can have your pad Thai however you want.

          • Iceman@lemmygrad.ml
            4·
            1 year ago

            Pad Thai isn’t even a “traditional dish” in the sense that it s old and costumary. It was invented in the 30’s as a part of nationalist project.

            • bitsplease@lemmy.ml
              1·
              1 year ago

              I mean, I’d say a dish that’s 100 years old is fairly old and customary at this point. Not ancient or anything, but 100 years is nothing to sneeze at

    • Roya1eWCheese@lemmy.world
      5·
      1 year ago

      Pad kee mao is way better than pad thai imo. Even it spicy you can still taste other flavors compare to pad thai I think it just bland.

    • somethingsnappy@lemmy.world
      72·
      1 year ago

      R2-D2One of the hottest dishes I’ve ever eaten where there was still flavor was boat noodle soup. I think it was with cow blood instead of pig blood. When they asked me how spicy, I said “make it how it’s supposed to be.” It burned, but I could still taste everything. Perfrct.

  • RBWells@lemmy.world
    241·
    1 year ago

    “Like you would make it for your grandma” usually works for me. But not if it’s the whole order, only if I am trying to get one item really spicy.

    Once at an Indian buffet, the owner had okra out & I was so happy, love okra but he kept warning me off it - “no, no, it’s spicy” and I was like “Great!” and he would say “no, no, I mean it’s spicy” he really was worried.

    Nope. It was not. Like, some perceptible heat, sure. But nothing anyone would consider too spicy. Like medium taco bell packet of hot sauce spicy. I was so disappointed after all the warnings!

    • derpgon@programming.dev
      11·
      1 year ago

      I once bought “4/5 chilli peppers, EXTRA HEAT” meat, pre-sauces for the grill. It was not even in the slightest sense spicy, even water is spicier.