I’ve never actually seen or heard of this in the UK. It could well be real, but it’s not that common. Most people I know have reasonable spice tolerance given as you say the popularity of Indian food there.
Indian is spicy in that it uses lots of spices. It doesnt rank real high on the spice meter imo. Even the “ghost pepper vindaloo” at a specialty hot Indian place near me doesn’t rate much more than 3/5 and that’s the hottest Indian I’ve found. Everything else at the many Indian places I’ve been only reaches maybe a 1.5. I grow ghost peppers annd I don’t think they really use em. Any Thai or Burmese places “white people spicy” is about the same.
Yea this sounds like a local you thing. The indian near me has me literally sweating at “white people spicy.” I tried “indian spicy” when i went with my indian friends, and i could barely finish it.
I’d agree with you. Sweating can be a 2-3. Starting to get hot. 4 might be crying involuntarily and nose running. 5 involves numbing to the point you don’t feel anything anymore and get a runners high.
Now that I think about it, people say my scales are fucked up. Like at the hospital what they ask pain on a scale of 1-10, I always imagine 10 being a combination of many of the worst tortures you have heard of or can imagine. I had my puss filled swollen inflamed taint sliced open and drained which is apparently one of the more painful procedures but it made sense for me to rate it an 8. Nurses tell me everyone says 10 at the smallest thing.
Can confirm. As someone who has a high spice tolerance, when I order spicy, I tell them to not hold back, and sometimes they still do, thinking I can’t handle it. But when I went to England, that request was a whole other realm of pain. No regrets, I asked for it, I cried my tears, and teared my crungus, but man, I was not expecting it.
It must be made differently across the pond. I’ve felt like I was gonna bleed from my eyeballs once or twice from Indian food. Way hotter than any Mexican food I’ve ever had and I’m in an area with a lot of first generation immigrants cooking…
Lived in Southern China for a while. I’ve also had plenty of authentic thai, Indian, central American. The dal bhat my sister made after living in Nepal was a burning I will never forget. Ever.
To give a more specific answer, Dahl is often cooked with whole chillis in, then may use more chilis in the temper (if it uses one). My recipe calls for 6 whole green chillis in the lentils, then 3 more dried chillis in the temper. I have never used more than two and two and it’s still arse-tinglingly hot.
That is legitimately surprising considering how popular Indian food has been with the few Brits I know.
I’ve never actually seen or heard of this in the UK. It could well be real, but it’s not that common. Most people I know have reasonable spice tolerance given as you say the popularity of Indian food there.
Indian is spicy in that it uses lots of spices. It doesnt rank real high on the spice meter imo. Even the “ghost pepper vindaloo” at a specialty hot Indian place near me doesn’t rate much more than 3/5 and that’s the hottest Indian I’ve found. Everything else at the many Indian places I’ve been only reaches maybe a 1.5. I grow ghost peppers annd I don’t think they really use em. Any Thai or Burmese places “white people spicy” is about the same.
I’ve been meaning to learn how to say “fuck me up with spice” in Thai for this reason. Or ordering takeout under a native name.
A common trick is to order it “Thai spicy”. Obviously YMMV.
Yea this sounds like a local you thing. The indian near me has me literally sweating at “white people spicy.” I tried “indian spicy” when i went with my indian friends, and i could barely finish it.
I’d agree with you. Sweating can be a 2-3. Starting to get hot. 4 might be crying involuntarily and nose running. 5 involves numbing to the point you don’t feel anything anymore and get a runners high.
Now that I think about it, people say my scales are fucked up. Like at the hospital what they ask pain on a scale of 1-10, I always imagine 10 being a combination of many of the worst tortures you have heard of or can imagine. I had my puss filled swollen inflamed taint sliced open and drained which is apparently one of the more painful procedures but it made sense for me to rate it an 8. Nurses tell me everyone says 10 at the smallest thing.
I think you guys get different Indian food than we do. I’ve had stuff that would peel paint off a car.
Can confirm. As someone who has a high spice tolerance, when I order spicy, I tell them to not hold back, and sometimes they still do, thinking I can’t handle it. But when I went to England, that request was a whole other realm of pain. No regrets, I asked for it, I cried my tears, and teared my crungus, but man, I was not expecting it.
Same.
It must be made differently across the pond. I’ve felt like I was gonna bleed from my eyeballs once or twice from Indian food. Way hotter than any Mexican food I’ve ever had and I’m in an area with a lot of first generation immigrants cooking…
Lived in Southern China for a while. I’ve also had plenty of authentic thai, Indian, central American. The dal bhat my sister made after living in Nepal was a burning I will never forget. Ever.
If I got it right, how can dal and rice be spicy?
You use spices
Fair enough, chef
O7
To give a more specific answer, Dahl is often cooked with whole chillis in, then may use more chilis in the temper (if it uses one). My recipe calls for 6 whole green chillis in the lentils, then 3 more dried chillis in the temper. I have never used more than two and two and it’s still arse-tinglingly hot.
I’ve never had a spicy Indian dish in my life in Australia. I usually go with Szechuan food if I want something spicy from a shop.
South Indian food is quite spicy. Most typically the Indian food you find in different place is Northern Indian. I recommend trying to find some!