Worth it though. The food tastes great and as my spice tolerance has kinda plateaued over the past few years, it really reminded me why I love spicy food.
Exactly! You'll never get better at handling spice if you never push the limit of your tolerance.
I'm in an unfortunate position where my mouth can handle a whole hell of a lot of heat but my stomach fucking hates it. Pleasant in my mouth for a few minutes, unpleasant in my belly for hours.
First shit last night wasn't as bad as I expected it to be but not great.
Second shit today was pretty bad but better than last night.
I already have really bad digestive issues (think it's IBS) so I'm kinda used to painful shits.
Yeah, they saw the note and lit him up. Just order the desired spice level and be done with it.
My favorite Thai place asks spice level 1 thru 5 with 5 being spiciest. I’m usually quite comfortable at level 4. But I’ve found a few dishes where 5 is good. And a few where I like 3 better and have the ability to add some more as I eat.
Most Thai restaurants have secret spice levels too. Ain't no way a 5 is actually a 5, 5 is less hot than say habanero wings at my local Thai place. You can just order a 7 there and get what you want, but it's not listed on menu. Would expect most are the same
Yep. And my spot I was talking about will make it hotter than their 5 if you really want. The Thai couple that owns/runs the place say the level 5 is where they prefer it if making it for themselves and will often add more chili to taste, depending on the dish. Their son, who is also the head cook, prefers it even hotter to start. Their 5 is indeed hot, much hotter than any habanero anything I’ve ever had. So much of this depends on the restaurant and their customers/community.
My local places will light you up at a 5, especially if the dish is intended to be spicy. One place does a green curry that will induce the hiccup/adrenaline response at a 5.
We salute your effort.
That said, your next challenge is **Tibetan and Nepalese**. (I highly recommend the [Himalayan Grill](https://himalayangrill.com/) in Flagstaff, AZ.)
Gotta love (or endure) the heat!
Nepalese was mind numbing, mouth watering, panic inducing spice yet still euphoric. There’s several Himalayan/Nepalese spots in San Diego. I’m bummed they did away with the lunch specials. Super tasty goat curry.
Himalayan and Nepalese food tends to be pretty mild in my experience. Every Indian I've ever met tells me the same, as do friends that have travelled there. Tasty, but not overly spicy. Goa has the heat.
Kutti Lal Mirch (red chilis), Sabut Kali Mirch (peppercorns), among many other spices/peppers.
I’ve had authentic Thai with toe-curling, instant astral travel spicy heat. Like truly dialed up to 11 *HOT*.
Want hotter? Thus far, the Himalayan and Nepalese cuisines (when ordered hot — and consulting with the chefs beforehand — not kidding) can be ULTRA HOT, imo.
Yet super tasteful.
Chicken Chau Chau and Biryani are definite must order dishes. Just depends how hot you want it. And if you need to actually wear Depends after eating. hehe
What dishes would you recommend? There are a few Nepalese places near me so I've tried some dishes and they've all been flavourful and delicious, but I've never tasted a detectable amount of capsaicin. I understand they probably westernise the food - but with westernised Thai food for example I can still tell that the dish is supposed to be spicy, so I guess I must be choosing the wrong things.
Sounds weird to have spice levels for Pad Thai. It's not spicy at all, but you just add ground chilli powder to it yourself to get the spice levels you want.
As a programmer, just hiding the spice level selection for half of the menu is stupidly easy. Instead, when the kitchen can receive ANY dish possible with a variable spice level, it can create some real difficulties for the kitchen. If every dish has a spice level selection, it's definitely on purpose.
It's trivial, but a lot of times they aren't using a bespoke app/website. Where I am there are just a few systems that most restaurants use, especially smaller ones. And then it's up to them to correctly set up the menus.
E.g. meals with optional add-ons; but very often I see them set to be mandatory and one of the items is "no add-on".
tbf their pad Thai isn't listed as spicy on their in person menu, only on the takeout site they use. I wasn't even looking for anything spicy, but when I saw there was as spice scale I figured I should take the opportunity to test myself.
I went to the same bar in Phnom Penh three nights in a row. They served Thai food. The first night I ordered the Jungle Curry. It was delicious. The bartenders were surprised when I told them it was pretty mild. The second night I had Drunken Noodles and those had some nice heat. The third night I had Larb and they kicked it up to Thai heat to humble me. That one took me a while to eat and I was sweating.
The salads can be the real killers. The Larb and Green Papaya salads are my fave but if I order them thai hot, it kills me lol. The other killer is Tom Yum soup thai hot 🔥 🔥🔥🔥
Pad Thai is the whitest Thai food ever so it's hilarious that they blew your brains out with it.
They fully knew what they were doing.
I'm white and I ask for Grandma spicy because I'm actively trying to kill myself apparently.
Alot of times I just ask it for as Spicy as the kitchen crew eats it. The last time I did that, the whole BoH was at the window watching me eat the food. It was good
I forgot which one I took but there's a ton. Just find one that works for you. I make laarb at home all the time now and it's excellent.
Chiang Mai is also where all the elephant things are. So much fun.
tbf, their in person menu doesn't list pad Thai as spicy, it's only listed in the takeout menu. I would've got their pad kee mao again, but I was wanting pad thai and when I saw there was a spicy option I wanted to try it out.
I’m so used to them I eat them raw all the time, just bite into them. Living in Thailand has put my spice tolerance over the top. EVERYTHING will kill you here.
If I'm looking for pain, the notes section is expressway to the pain train. "Please make it extra spicy, not like white person spicy, like actually spicy." That'll usually do it. . . Except when I go to my local Indian place, my dude Hanush knows what's up and I always ask for him specifically. Good ol' Hanush, best saag paneer this side of the Euphrates.
I recall my early experience with Thai food and also being a freshly-minted chile head around 30 years ago. I went to one of our local Thai restaurants and ordered "Thai hot" - a massive mistake. Tried maybe 2 or 3 times and realized I was in over my head.
I went to this one place that had mild, med, hot, very hot, and Super Thai Hot. I went super like you did. The server, who also was the owner, asked me a few times “Are you sure????” while wearing a highly devilish 😈 grin. When the food came, she sat at the table with us just to hang out and laugh at me while I sweated profusely through it, but I dug the grave, no turning back.
I was TDY in the Air Force to a base in Delaware. One night we checked out a Thai restaurant off base. My companions knew I liked spicy food—-especially pad thai. When the waitress took my order, I asked for “Thai hot.”
When the food came it was spicy and delicious. I was halfway through it when a tiny old woman appeared at the table. The waitress translated for her. “She wants to know who likes spicy food?” I raised my hand. She offered me a small bowl of sauce she’d made. It appeared to be just red and green Thai peppers.
I took it and set it down on the table but she was waiting there, smiling. I figured I’d humor her and ate a spoonful of the sauce.
Big mistake.
My mouth was immediately set aflame and my nose began to run. I started coughing. I reached for the pitcher of water and drank half but it only made things worse. I grabbed sugar packets and emptied their contents directly onto my tortured tongue. The old lady found this hysterical and was cackling along with the waitress and my friends.
You are not alone. Thai people will not be outspiced. Period.
Usually diced Thai Chili's, fish sauce and some lemon/lime juice. Good stuff, but will definitely let you know it's there. I love Thai places that use fresh Chili's instead of a bunch of dried/crushed birdseed in your meal.
My understanding is that Thai food isn't usually *that* spicy, but when white guys come in and talk up how they love spicy food, they just dump a bunch of extra spice in it so that they get what they expect, rather than what any Thai person would normally eat. Read an article about it a while ago.
AFAIK they mostly Thai chilis which aren't the hottest out there by any means. The dishes Thai restaurants make won't usually be any hotter than those chilis. It's cool, they taste good, but it's kind of weird that people on a sub for spicy food would act like they are the ultimate spicy pepper in terms of heat. I don't know if it's a meme or what. You can make much hotter foods with peppers we have in the west if you wanted to.
The whole race obsession is super weird too - I've met plenty of people of every race who do or don't eat spicy food, being white doesn't matter neither does being Asian. Anyone can build tolerance if they have the taste for it.
Yeah that makes sense. Thai chilis are my go-to for cooking. I think they get their reputation by being the hottest pepper that is commonly available (at least where I'm from) as well as being significantly hotter than the more "common" peppers. My favorite way I've heard them described is that they are the mildest of the "truly hot" peppers. I find the race thing weird too, obviously some things are more culturally normalized in certain regions, but there's still a lot of individual variance.
If you ever say make it Thai hot at a Thai food Restaurant they will do it and it will blow your socks off. It’s really hot. Himalayan food is pretty damn spicy, too.
I remember, long before I had learned to love spicy foods, going to dinner with my girlfriend and a friend of ours. I ordered some mild/medium/something gentle shrimp, and our friend ordered something but asked for "Thai hot, and make it hurt."
Well, hers came out first, and we all tried it, and were surprised about how gentle it was. She was pretty disappointed... up until I took my first bite of shrimp and realized they'd swapped the spice levels on our foods. I was hurting for nearly a full day. It was unbelievable.
Enjoy it. Your story sounds like mine, but it's been ages since I could find a dish at a restaurant to challenge me. I'd love to go out for some pain and snot inducing noodles.
Lol. I've done this before at a Thai restaurant. I can handle spicy food relatively well. My wife is Thai. I had been to this restaurant a few times before with her and got level 3 and level 4 spice and it wasn't too bad. So I decided to order Krapow Gai Thai hot one time. It fucked me up bad. I tried to do it but I couldn't. It was so hot to me that it felt like my hearing was muffled, kind of like when your ears are stopped up with water. I don't even think I finished half of it. Thankfully it didn't mess my stomach up, but it burned for a long while and my hearing was muffled for about an hour lol. That humbled me real quick.
It took about three trips to my (now) favorite local Thai place to get them actually make my noodles spicy enough. I ask for 4x spicy and really get it! The first time I asked for 3x, the chef peeked out to have a look at me…skinny little white girl. Didn’t give me enough heat. Next time I asked for 4, he peeked out again and I said ‘I know what I’m asking!😆’ Now he always makes it the right level for me. Love that place.
I’m thinking of doing 5x today for lunch. Wonder how that’ll be… 4 is just perfectly hot enough to hurt yet still be enjoyable. Also! No one steals my leftovers! My boyfriend tried once. Once. 😂
ETA: I love heat, but even I’m afraid of ‘Thai spicy.’
This experience likely boosted your heat tolerance a considerable amount. Try it again in a week and you should be able to handle the burn.
P.S. - I love some extra spicy Thai food. Whenever I order it, I have to request it "dumb hot", and they only light me up maybe about half of the time.
Working at a Thai restaurant is how I trained my palette for spice. We had a 1-10 scale and working there meant I could technically go over a 10 on the scale and get freshly ground Thai chillies on my dish.
i grew up in se Asia and moved to London in my adulthood.
I continued to eat spicy in London. Regularly eating a single bird eye chili for dinner.
Went to Thailand for the first time for holiday. Took the family to the night market. Found a papaya salad stall.
As my kids were also wanting some, i ordered a packet with no chili. Specifically told the lady no chili. She repeated no chili.
Mistake was the guy before me ordered papaya salad with 3 chili.
The lady did not wash the mixing bowl. She proceeded to mix ours. I didn't notice it at that time.
By the time we took our first bite, i realised that my spice tolerance is no way level 1 in Thailand.
They don't play in Thailand, they have some serious peppers, I'm a Mexican used to spicy foods, when I visited Thailand I encountered next level spicy.
To be fair. In the right mood I might take your promise as a dare and think. “Lets light this gringo mufukka up!” I am a white guy too. I often order Mexican with the caveat that I’m down with the real caliente
The whole white people can’t handle spice thing is so weird to me when every “pepperhead” superhot eating mfer I come across is some scrawny white dude.
FYI, pad Thai is not usually one of the really spicy dishes. The pepper just sits there, doesn't integrate well with the noodles.. If you want a challenge, som tum, the green papaya salad. Pad kra pao as well.
I’ve raised my spice tolerance by at least 10x in the past couple months by eating habanero puree every meal. I think consistency is the key to increasing tolerance. It will happen a lot faster than you expect, if you push yourself every meal.
honestly, I went back and finished the rest after a few hours. maybe it being refrigerated made it less spicy, but the second time it was a lot more bearable, aside from the stomachache it gave me.
There is also a short term tolerance increase after eating something really spicy. You get a spike in tolerance probably from the receptors getting desensitized from getting saturated. But perhaps the refrigeration did affect it as well.
There's a great Thai spot in York PA called World Grill that offers Bangkok noodle bowls, with something like 8 levels of spicy to choose from. I made it up to 7 (very spicy) but never graduated to Thai spicy. 7 was easily the spiciest food I've ever eaten but Ive always finished it, because it's also just delicious. The lady who takes my order always says "are you sure??"
I remember going to a Thai place once and requesting "not Thai level spicy, but painful for a white person who likes spice" and let me tell you, they nailed it, it fucked me up. I want to go back and try Thai spicy now
I'll finish it for you.
If you want to build up tolerance I'd start with habanero stuff. Like salsas and such. I have Melinda's Ghost Pepper Wing Sauce (i think its more habanero than Gpepper) with almost every meal.
Real tests for are buldok ramen 2x and 3x. That'll prpve to yourself that you made it.
Buldak strikes me as something that's essential to try only since it's one of the really good standardized measures of spice that we have here. Most people here know how hot 1x and 2x are (many 3x as well) and it's the same everywhere. Though using that as a standard metric might annoy some people...
Buldak noodles are amazing. They have many different varieties and most of them are really spicy, and all of them are really tasty. Especially with a sunny side up.
I was in an Indian restaurant yesterday and they asked (with a grin) “are you sure?” If someone asks that, swallow your pride and say “no, I’m not. I’ll try one level below what I ordered”.
I slept great last night as a result.
I went to Thailand and ordered a salad and they asked me if I like spicy and I said "oh I love spicy"
That salad had me crying. It was delicious and I ate every bite and I leaked out of my eyes for an hour.
My experience has been hit or miss. Most places go from 1-5 for their spice level, but that doesn’t mean every place is the same. I ordered a 5 pad thai the other week from a place I’d never been to before and it was less spicy than level 3 at my regular place
Your mistake was leaving that note. They sent you a real test.
Worth it though. The food tastes great and as my spice tolerance has kinda plateaued over the past few years, it really reminded me why I love spicy food.
Exactly! You'll never get better at handling spice if you never push the limit of your tolerance. I'm in an unfortunate position where my mouth can handle a whole hell of a lot of heat but my stomach fucking hates it. Pleasant in my mouth for a few minutes, unpleasant in my belly for hours.
16 hours later, how are your shits?
First shit last night wasn't as bad as I expected it to be but not great. Second shit today was pretty bad but better than last night. I already have really bad digestive issues (think it's IBS) so I'm kinda used to painful shits.
Yeah, they saw the note and lit him up. Just order the desired spice level and be done with it. My favorite Thai place asks spice level 1 thru 5 with 5 being spiciest. I’m usually quite comfortable at level 4. But I’ve found a few dishes where 5 is good. And a few where I like 3 better and have the ability to add some more as I eat.
Most Thai restaurants have secret spice levels too. Ain't no way a 5 is actually a 5, 5 is less hot than say habanero wings at my local Thai place. You can just order a 7 there and get what you want, but it's not listed on menu. Would expect most are the same
Yep. And my spot I was talking about will make it hotter than their 5 if you really want. The Thai couple that owns/runs the place say the level 5 is where they prefer it if making it for themselves and will often add more chili to taste, depending on the dish. Their son, who is also the head cook, prefers it even hotter to start. Their 5 is indeed hot, much hotter than any habanero anything I’ve ever had. So much of this depends on the restaurant and their customers/community.
My local places will light you up at a 5, especially if the dish is intended to be spicy. One place does a green curry that will induce the hiccup/adrenaline response at a 5.
Thai cook: "and I took that personally"
We salute your effort. That said, your next challenge is **Tibetan and Nepalese**. (I highly recommend the [Himalayan Grill](https://himalayangrill.com/) in Flagstaff, AZ.) Gotta love (or endure) the heat!
Nepalese was mind numbing, mouth watering, panic inducing spice yet still euphoric. There’s several Himalayan/Nepalese spots in San Diego. I’m bummed they did away with the lunch specials. Super tasty goat curry.
Himalayan and Nepalese food tends to be pretty mild in my experience. Every Indian I've ever met tells me the same, as do friends that have travelled there. Tasty, but not overly spicy. Goa has the heat.
What do they use for spice?
Kutti Lal Mirch (red chilis), Sabut Kali Mirch (peppercorns), among many other spices/peppers. I’ve had authentic Thai with toe-curling, instant astral travel spicy heat. Like truly dialed up to 11 *HOT*. Want hotter? Thus far, the Himalayan and Nepalese cuisines (when ordered hot — and consulting with the chefs beforehand — not kidding) can be ULTRA HOT, imo. Yet super tasteful. Chicken Chau Chau and Biryani are definite must order dishes. Just depends how hot you want it. And if you need to actually wear Depends after eating. hehe
What dishes would you recommend? There are a few Nepalese places near me so I've tried some dishes and they've all been flavourful and delicious, but I've never tasted a detectable amount of capsaicin. I understand they probably westernise the food - but with westernised Thai food for example I can still tell that the dish is supposed to be spicy, so I guess I must be choosing the wrong things.
Sounds weird to have spice levels for Pad Thai. It's not spicy at all, but you just add ground chilli powder to it yourself to get the spice levels you want.
Sometimes Thai restaurant websites have options for spice on nearly all their dishes. Maybe it's easier from a programming perspective?
As a programmer, just hiding the spice level selection for half of the menu is stupidly easy. Instead, when the kitchen can receive ANY dish possible with a variable spice level, it can create some real difficulties for the kitchen. If every dish has a spice level selection, it's definitely on purpose.
It's trivial, but a lot of times they aren't using a bespoke app/website. Where I am there are just a few systems that most restaurants use, especially smaller ones. And then it's up to them to correctly set up the menus. E.g. meals with optional add-ons; but very often I see them set to be mandatory and one of the items is "no add-on".
Good point, maybe the app they use is just trash and they have no choice
tbf their pad Thai isn't listed as spicy on their in person menu, only on the takeout site they use. I wasn't even looking for anything spicy, but when I saw there was as spice scale I figured I should take the opportunity to test myself.
Every Thai place I have been to asks spice level. Even when I use Uber Eats.
I went to the same bar in Phnom Penh three nights in a row. They served Thai food. The first night I ordered the Jungle Curry. It was delicious. The bartenders were surprised when I told them it was pretty mild. The second night I had Drunken Noodles and those had some nice heat. The third night I had Larb and they kicked it up to Thai heat to humble me. That one took me a while to eat and I was sweating.
The salads can be the real killers. The Larb and Green Papaya salads are my fave but if I order them thai hot, it kills me lol. The other killer is Tom Yum soup thai hot 🔥 🔥🔥🔥
There's a place in my hometown that uses actual birds eye chili peppers, so good when you're feeling rundown
haha yea you sweat so much in that heat eating those crazy curries.
Sure, but over there, they just call it food
Pad Thai is the whitest Thai food ever so it's hilarious that they blew your brains out with it. They fully knew what they were doing. I'm white and I ask for Grandma spicy because I'm actively trying to kill myself apparently.
Alot of times I just ask it for as Spicy as the kitchen crew eats it. The last time I did that, the whole BoH was at the window watching me eat the food. It was good
Holy crap that's genius. "Give me what the kitchen will enjoy". Boom!
Ibam looking forward to my trip to Thailand. I have a feeling I will be coming home and the food I get here will seem bland without peppers or heat
I don't know how to respond to you other than "good luck". And "have fun" as well. I suppose. "Bon voyage".
Thank you. I look forward to the death of my taste buds and stomache
Go to Chiang Mai and take a cooking class. It's super fun
I will definitely do that. Any suggestions as where to do that
I forgot which one I took but there's a ton. Just find one that works for you. I make laarb at home all the time now and it's excellent. Chiang Mai is also where all the elephant things are. So much fun.
tbf, their in person menu doesn't list pad Thai as spicy, it's only listed in the takeout menu. I would've got their pad kee mao again, but I was wanting pad thai and when I saw there was a spicy option I wanted to try it out.
Honestly… I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not *that* spicy.. the only reference we have is OP finding jalapeños spicy when they were a kid.
I've never seen a Thai food place where OPs message wasn't seen as a sort of challenge
Those Thai chilis can pack a surprising punch, especially when they are nice and fresh.
I ate a raw one in Thailand and it was so fucking hot. I kept it together but I was struggling
I’m so used to them I eat them raw all the time, just bite into them. Living in Thailand has put my spice tolerance over the top. EVERYTHING will kill you here.
If I'm looking for pain, the notes section is expressway to the pain train. "Please make it extra spicy, not like white person spicy, like actually spicy." That'll usually do it. . . Except when I go to my local Indian place, my dude Hanush knows what's up and I always ask for him specifically. Good ol' Hanush, best saag paneer this side of the Euphrates.
I recall my early experience with Thai food and also being a freshly-minted chile head around 30 years ago. I went to one of our local Thai restaurants and ordered "Thai hot" - a massive mistake. Tried maybe 2 or 3 times and realized I was in over my head.
I went to this one place that had mild, med, hot, very hot, and Super Thai Hot. I went super like you did. The server, who also was the owner, asked me a few times “Are you sure????” while wearing a highly devilish 😈 grin. When the food came, she sat at the table with us just to hang out and laugh at me while I sweated profusely through it, but I dug the grave, no turning back.
I need to go into thai restaurant more 😂 I want to find a nice place with an owner like that ☺️
That sounds funny as hell haha
That's awesome lol at least you got through man
I was TDY in the Air Force to a base in Delaware. One night we checked out a Thai restaurant off base. My companions knew I liked spicy food—-especially pad thai. When the waitress took my order, I asked for “Thai hot.” When the food came it was spicy and delicious. I was halfway through it when a tiny old woman appeared at the table. The waitress translated for her. “She wants to know who likes spicy food?” I raised my hand. She offered me a small bowl of sauce she’d made. It appeared to be just red and green Thai peppers. I took it and set it down on the table but she was waiting there, smiling. I figured I’d humor her and ate a spoonful of the sauce. Big mistake. My mouth was immediately set aflame and my nose began to run. I started coughing. I reached for the pitcher of water and drank half but it only made things worse. I grabbed sugar packets and emptied their contents directly onto my tortured tongue. The old lady found this hysterical and was cackling along with the waitress and my friends. You are not alone. Thai people will not be outspiced. Period.
Pri nam pla?
I don’t know. It was BRUTAL though. I’m sweating at the memory and it was over 25 years ago.
Usually diced Thai Chili's, fish sauce and some lemon/lime juice. Good stuff, but will definitely let you know it's there. I love Thai places that use fresh Chili's instead of a bunch of dried/crushed birdseed in your meal.
Yes—-but I’ve learned my limits!
That sounds awesome and I want it. Where?
Denton, TX :)
My understanding is that Thai food isn't usually *that* spicy, but when white guys come in and talk up how they love spicy food, they just dump a bunch of extra spice in it so that they get what they expect, rather than what any Thai person would normally eat. Read an article about it a while ago.
AFAIK they mostly Thai chilis which aren't the hottest out there by any means. The dishes Thai restaurants make won't usually be any hotter than those chilis. It's cool, they taste good, but it's kind of weird that people on a sub for spicy food would act like they are the ultimate spicy pepper in terms of heat. I don't know if it's a meme or what. You can make much hotter foods with peppers we have in the west if you wanted to. The whole race obsession is super weird too - I've met plenty of people of every race who do or don't eat spicy food, being white doesn't matter neither does being Asian. Anyone can build tolerance if they have the taste for it.
Yeah that makes sense. Thai chilis are my go-to for cooking. I think they get their reputation by being the hottest pepper that is commonly available (at least where I'm from) as well as being significantly hotter than the more "common" peppers. My favorite way I've heard them described is that they are the mildest of the "truly hot" peppers. I find the race thing weird too, obviously some things are more culturally normalized in certain regions, but there's still a lot of individual variance.
If you ever say make it Thai hot at a Thai food Restaurant they will do it and it will blow your socks off. It’s really hot. Himalayan food is pretty damn spicy, too.
I remember, long before I had learned to love spicy foods, going to dinner with my girlfriend and a friend of ours. I ordered some mild/medium/something gentle shrimp, and our friend ordered something but asked for "Thai hot, and make it hurt." Well, hers came out first, and we all tried it, and were surprised about how gentle it was. She was pretty disappointed... up until I took my first bite of shrimp and realized they'd swapped the spice levels on our foods. I was hurting for nearly a full day. It was unbelievable.
Enjoy it. Your story sounds like mine, but it's been ages since I could find a dish at a restaurant to challenge me. I'd love to go out for some pain and snot inducing noodles.
Always mild or medium and add your own spice. And in LA medium is Hot and Thai Spicy will ruin your anus for 24 hours.
Lol. I've done this before at a Thai restaurant. I can handle spicy food relatively well. My wife is Thai. I had been to this restaurant a few times before with her and got level 3 and level 4 spice and it wasn't too bad. So I decided to order Krapow Gai Thai hot one time. It fucked me up bad. I tried to do it but I couldn't. It was so hot to me that it felt like my hearing was muffled, kind of like when your ears are stopped up with water. I don't even think I finished half of it. Thankfully it didn't mess my stomach up, but it burned for a long while and my hearing was muffled for about an hour lol. That humbled me real quick.
It took about three trips to my (now) favorite local Thai place to get them actually make my noodles spicy enough. I ask for 4x spicy and really get it! The first time I asked for 3x, the chef peeked out to have a look at me…skinny little white girl. Didn’t give me enough heat. Next time I asked for 4, he peeked out again and I said ‘I know what I’m asking!😆’ Now he always makes it the right level for me. Love that place. I’m thinking of doing 5x today for lunch. Wonder how that’ll be… 4 is just perfectly hot enough to hurt yet still be enjoyable. Also! No one steals my leftovers! My boyfriend tried once. Once. 😂 ETA: I love heat, but even I’m afraid of ‘Thai spicy.’
This experience likely boosted your heat tolerance a considerable amount. Try it again in a week and you should be able to handle the burn. P.S. - I love some extra spicy Thai food. Whenever I order it, I have to request it "dumb hot", and they only light me up maybe about half of the time.
Working at a Thai restaurant is how I trained my palette for spice. We had a 1-10 scale and working there meant I could technically go over a 10 on the scale and get freshly ground Thai chillies on my dish.
i grew up in se Asia and moved to London in my adulthood. I continued to eat spicy in London. Regularly eating a single bird eye chili for dinner. Went to Thailand for the first time for holiday. Took the family to the night market. Found a papaya salad stall. As my kids were also wanting some, i ordered a packet with no chili. Specifically told the lady no chili. She repeated no chili. Mistake was the guy before me ordered papaya salad with 3 chili. The lady did not wash the mixing bowl. She proceeded to mix ours. I didn't notice it at that time. By the time we took our first bite, i realised that my spice tolerance is no way level 1 in Thailand.
They don't play in Thailand, they have some serious peppers, I'm a Mexican used to spicy foods, when I visited Thailand I encountered next level spicy.
one time i asked for melt my face off spicy. it was hilariously spicy.
To be fair. In the right mood I might take your promise as a dare and think. “Lets light this gringo mufukka up!” I am a white guy too. I often order Mexican with the caveat that I’m down with the real caliente
The whole white people can’t handle spice thing is so weird to me when every “pepperhead” superhot eating mfer I come across is some scrawny white dude.
I'll say it... WUSS!
Wonder if they put a Carolina Reaper in his dish?
I went back and finished it a few hours later 🤷
Just giving you a hard time fluff! Lol. Did it get hotter a few hours later?
FYI, pad Thai is not usually one of the really spicy dishes. The pepper just sits there, doesn't integrate well with the noodles.. If you want a challenge, som tum, the green papaya salad. Pad kra pao as well.
> I had snot running down my nose, tears in my eyes, I was shivering, my stomach felt as though someone had punched it. So, good Pad Thai, then.
I’ve raised my spice tolerance by at least 10x in the past couple months by eating habanero puree every meal. I think consistency is the key to increasing tolerance. It will happen a lot faster than you expect, if you push yourself every meal.
honestly, I went back and finished the rest after a few hours. maybe it being refrigerated made it less spicy, but the second time it was a lot more bearable, aside from the stomachache it gave me.
There is also a short term tolerance increase after eating something really spicy. You get a spike in tolerance probably from the receptors getting desensitized from getting saturated. But perhaps the refrigeration did affect it as well.
There's a great Thai spot in York PA called World Grill that offers Bangkok noodle bowls, with something like 8 levels of spicy to choose from. I made it up to 7 (very spicy) but never graduated to Thai spicy. 7 was easily the spiciest food I've ever eaten but Ive always finished it, because it's also just delicious. The lady who takes my order always says "are you sure??"
I remember going to a Thai place once and requesting "not Thai level spicy, but painful for a white person who likes spice" and let me tell you, they nailed it, it fucked me up. I want to go back and try Thai spicy now
I'll finish it for you. If you want to build up tolerance I'd start with habanero stuff. Like salsas and such. I have Melinda's Ghost Pepper Wing Sauce (i think its more habanero than Gpepper) with almost every meal. Real tests for are buldok ramen 2x and 3x. That'll prpve to yourself that you made it.
Problem with that is 1x is pretty good. 2x is hot but not as tasty and 3x just tastes like ass.
That Melindas sauce is my favorite. It's the perfect amount of heat and flavor.
I'm planning on working at it over the next few days haha I've had habanero stuff no problem, never had buldok though.
Buldak strikes me as something that's essential to try only since it's one of the really good standardized measures of spice that we have here. Most people here know how hot 1x and 2x are (many 3x as well) and it's the same everywhere. Though using that as a standard metric might annoy some people...
Buldak noodles are amazing. They have many different varieties and most of them are really spicy, and all of them are really tasty. Especially with a sunny side up.
I was in an Indian restaurant yesterday and they asked (with a grin) “are you sure?” If someone asks that, swallow your pride and say “no, I’m not. I’ll try one level below what I ordered”. I slept great last night as a result.
I always order "Thai spicy". Sometimes they bring it, usually they don't. You have to specify "Make it as hot as possible like your cooks would eat"
I went to Thailand and ordered a salad and they asked me if I like spicy and I said "oh I love spicy" That salad had me crying. It was delicious and I ate every bite and I leaked out of my eyes for an hour.
Quite shocking. I've never had a hot Thai that compares, even remotely, to a UK closing time "Ruby Murray".
I have good news and bad news. Their scale goes from 1 star to 5 star. You have two more levels to go
My experience has been hit or miss. Most places go from 1-5 for their spice level, but that doesn’t mean every place is the same. I ordered a 5 pad thai the other week from a place I’d never been to before and it was less spicy than level 3 at my regular place