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One way to get the point across (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/funny@sh.itjust.works
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[–] 56 points 7 months ago (7 children)

Pad Thai is not a traditionally spicy dish, though. It’s a mild street food, so you have to smother it in toppers to get it hot. You’re way better off ordering a spicy curry and asking for a side of chili oil to raise the heat.

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  • [–] 10 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Drunken noodles all the way. I was incredibly disappointed trying a new thai place when the drunken noodles were weaker than your average pad thai. I mean I know I'm white but if you're gonna make it that weak at least ask me a spice level so I can say medium or something.

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago (4 children)

    To some people, chili oil may as well be ketchup. Thai food uses birds eye chili peppers for heat. Hotter than jalapenos by a lot and a bit hotter than serrano peppers, but generally about half as hot as a habanero and much less hot than scorpion, ghost, reapers, and a few other variants. I can eat all the bird peppers I want on my food. For real heat I add hotter stuff.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Sure, but if your tolerance is that high then you need to have realistic expectations going to a Thai restaurant. Asking them to “make me cry” like OP did just means the chef is going to throw a few extra peppers in the dish. Every once in a while you’ll get a place that punishes you by throwing like 30 peppers in it and then it’ll taste kind of bitter, but the heat reaches a plateau before that.

    Most of the time people ask for that and then complain it’s not hot enough because the Thai restaurant is trying to make traditional dishes with traditional heat, not the latest superhot hybrid.

    The chili oil adds quite a bit of flavor and is a nice neutral oil that can enhance anything. If you learn how to make it at home you can infuse it with superhots, but if you get it from the restaurant you’ll get what they have. Some are certainly hotter than others, and I’ve had chili oil that makes me hiccup despite growing superhots at home.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago

    The problem is that most Thai places look at someone who asks for Thai hot extra extra spicy and still judges you from a typical European decent consideration of what really hot is, as opposed to someone who likes food hotter than what most southern Thai people like their food. If I'm going to a Thai place that they don't know me at from several visits, I'll never get a meal as spicy as I'd like after them, because they think I'll complain, even after asking for it.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago (1 child)

    Agreed on all counts, but they are excellent choices for growing your own peppers as they produce so many more peppers, and produce or longer, than super hots. I always include at least one of those plants in my garden every year in addition to the super hots.

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