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If I say I want spicy -- I want to be in visible discomfort and bystanders should be concerned for my safety.
"If they tell you it's spicy, it's hot. If they tell you it's hot, you'd better not.
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.
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.
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.
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
My favorite way to order from indian places is "not spicy for child" because otherwise mild is too spicy for me. 🙃
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.
Here's my perfect spicy level: I want slight to moderate discomfort in my mouth, but no follow up burn from my asshole.
I like my toilet to be a crime scene. I had to switch to a bidet to stop rubbing filth into the blood.
That’s basically where I’m at. I want some tingling, burning and flavor, but I don’t want to feel like I’m dying either during the meal or after.
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.
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.
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.
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
If Thai people can throw tuna on waffles, I think you can have your pad Thai however you want.
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.
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
I work at a Thai restaurant. Pro tip: get phat kee mao/drunken noodles instead if you like heat
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.
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.
"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!
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.
Meanwhile, OP doesn't say if it was spicy enough or if he went to the hospital because it was too spicy
I went to an Indian restaurant a long time ago with two coworkers on lunch. The waiter asked me how hot I wanted to which I responded, "just medium I have to go back to work." It was chicken vindaloo and it was the hottest shit I'd ever eaten and enjoyed. I was sweating really bad but it was so good. I barely made it back to the office before I had to start shitting.
I go back on a Friday after work. I tell the same guy, make it as hot as you can. It wasn't nearly as hot as it was that day. I was mad disappointed. Still really good but I wanted it to melt my face like the end of Indiana Jones. Still burned my asshole that way. Defifinite 5/7. Would recommend.
Still really good but I wanted it to melt my face like the end of Indiana Jones.
Truly c/BrandNewSentence material.
Seriously though, never challenge Indian and Thai cooks on spiciness. They can be ruthless!
Just ask for Thai level of normal spicy and your asshole will burn for a week. When you ask for spicy and you are a non-thai they just skip spicy all together. If you feel spiciness that's from previous meal and it survived washing the plate.