Anyone eat Phall curry.

[Adam4868]

Chip shop curry sauce - haven't had that for so long.

Your a posh southerner now....the culinary delights of the north west are a long gone memory !
Lovely Indian vegetarian restaraunt on Plungington road Preston if my memory serves me right,your neck of the woods😁

 

[bitsandbobs]

Indian cuisine that we find in the majority of UK restaurants ( estimated at 95%) are from North India and should be not be chilli hot unless the customer asked for it. In India or within their community in the UK, no one will ask for a North Indian dish to be chilli hot. And it will never be done as its not supposed to taste like that.

Bangladesh, no?

 

[Solocle]

I've had a phall before, although Vindaloo tends to be the hottest I can get.

As for at home, when these babies are ready...

Carolina Reapers

 

[PK99]

Your a posh southerner now....the culinary delights of the north west are a long gone memory !
Lovely Indian vegetarian restaraunt on Plungington road Preston if my memory serves me right,your neck of the woods😁

that would be RK dining. On my list, bu I am so rarely in Preston....

 

[Arrowfoot]

Yep. Most Subcontinent food is spicy/tasty not hot.
Sri Lanka is an exception, local restaurants refused to serve us the same as the locals.

Thai, on the other hand....



Vietnamese I would agree, but not so sure about Thai.
A (self-proclaimed) authentic Thai cookbook I used to have, said that the recipes were given using the number of cillies normal in Thailand, but Thais like their food fiery hot, it advised adjusting the number of chilies to what we find fiery hot.

Back in the day, ie nearly 40 years ago, we frequented one of the very few Thai restaurants in London (Bahn Thai IIRC *) - a basement place in Kensington. English guy front of hosue, Thai wife as Chef. One dish that caught us out was a minced beef dish with lots of French Beans, saw it and ordered it by sight. Lots of beans - only they were not beans, they were green chillies. I was a Vindaloo fiend then but is was way beyond my capacity!

* A couple of years later I was on a BA flight (to Sri Lanka) and the In-flight magazine had a feature on the top 5 Thai Retaurants in the World. Bahn Thai was on of them. It moved to Soho at some point and lost its distinctive edge when it softend lots recipes to a more general western palate. Shame!

Incidental comment. Vindaloo as served in most Curry Houses procaims its lack of autjhenticity by including potatoes and using other meat than Pork. From Portugese Goa it is based on the Potruugese dish Carne de vinha d'alhos - meat marinated in Wine and Garlic. Nothing to do with Potatoes!
This is a good recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/217331/goan-pork-vindaloo/

Chilies are common in SEA and many countries including the Thais but its for taste and not served as mildly hot or fiery hot except for Tom Yum Goong. Any non-asian should be able to handle it.

In Singapore and Malaysia, lots of dishes when cooked, the cook or hawker will ask the customer how chilly hot they want It. This applies to locals as well. So you can order fried rice noodles such as “Kway Teow“, Nasi Goreng (Fried rice in Indonesia and Malaysia) and specify how chilly hot you want it. Same practice in SEA food outlets in the UK. For HK dishes including noodles and rice you don’t specify as they are not chilly hot. Those who want to add chill, you can get the house chilly oil to add on to the already cooked dishes.

For the Indian sub- continent as mentioned you do not specify how chilly hot you want as there is no such practice. South Indian meat and fish dishes are generally considered chilly hot to foreign taste but not North Indian cuisine.

Mainland China, all cooked dishes are not chilly hot with the exception of Szechuan province where many meat dishes are done with dried chillies which makes their dishes chilly hot. Again like India, you do not specify how chilly hot you want. Its their recipe.

 

[Arrowfoot]

I've had a phall before, although Vindaloo tends to be the hottest I can get.

As for at home, when these babies are ready...
View attachment 664227
Carolina Reapers

Vindaloo comes from the Goa, which is in the South, like Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

 

[Bazzer]

1970's Home of the hottest biryani!


View attachment 664132

Another here one who was regular there.
ISTR one or two individuals who, full of bravado on their first visit, asked for a suicide. Always an entertaining watch.

 

[Arrowfoot]

I'd say the opposite,they think foreigners don't eat spicy so they tone it down unless you ask.Without doubt Thai use heat and a lot of chilli's,some of the hotest food Ive had has been Thai salads "Laab" same when you get to Lao or Cambodia,there's a lot of similarities. Agree Vietnamese is totally different again.

Most foreigners cant handle chilly especially Caucasians. Its those that are well travelled or stationed overseas that become “acclimatised” and learn to eat chilly hot dishes. I thought I was dying when I first tasted Tom Yum. I struggled to eat Sri Lankan cooking even in the UK even till today.

Toning down is common when the original receipe calls for fiery hot and where the customer base is foreigners not familiar with hot stuff. Thai restaurants particularly in the US have a toned down version of the Tom Yum. Problem is when foreigners are not familiar with practice and ask for dishes to be spiced up.

 

[Arrowfoot]

Just too add anyone going to India and thinking it'll be like your local takeaways with Bhuna,Jalfeizi,Madras currys your going to be dissapointed.😁
Getting back to spicy...my partner never really liked to much spice/heat with food when we met.Over the time we've been together she will now eat hot food that I've made or ordered.Well share a fiery hot curry and she'll enjoy it.Which made me wonder if you build up a tolerance to the heat ?

Absolutely right. They will give you a blank stare when you head to India and ask for them. Indian colleagues posted to the Uk, will ask local Brits on how to order Indian takeaways as the dish names are foreign to them.

 

[Arrowfoot]

Bangladesh, no?

Sadly I have never tried Bangladesh cuisine.

 

[Reynard]

It shouldn't, as you have different receptors for flavour and heat.

Capsicin - the molecule that gives chillies their heat, act on the temperature receptors, I think, if memory serves, due to their shape. It's also the active ingredient in "Deep Heat" type creams, which is why it's a very good idea to either wear gloves when applying, or to wash your hands VERY thoroughly before touching anything else on your body.

DAMHIKT...

 

[Reynard]

Sadly I have never tried Bangladesh cuisine.

It's what Brick Lane is famous for - aside from their brilliant fabric shops and the Jewish bagel bakeries...

 

[Adam4868]

Sadly I have never tried Bangladesh cuisine.

I think he meant a lot of Indian restaurants in the UK are actually Bangladeshis.

 

[PK99]

I think there is a big difference between the red or green chilli heat in eg Thai food and the chilli powder plus cumin etc heat of Sub continent curries - these have more of a cumulative effect.

 

[Adam4868]

A lot of Thai food and curries are made with fresh chillies and herbs where as Indian food uses a lot of dry spices and curry powder.Thai in general I'd say has more of a kick chilli wise than indian !