which cuisine has the spiciest food?

[mongo_jones]

there's quite a few real spicy cuisines in india (though my own home state of bengal can't claim to have one in the top 5) and i've sampled most of them. through my wife, who is korean-american (she was born and raised in korea for what that's worth in such discussions), i've also eaten a lot of korean food. we go back and forth over whether koreans can eat spicier food than indians but we're both agreed that the spiciest food we have ever eaten--topping even the incendiary sichuan food at the best restaurants in the san gabriel valley--is what we ate in thailand en route to india this winter. one shrimp-bamboo shoot dish literally knocked us out of our chairs and induced dangerous arrythmias. i can't imagine anything spicier. then again i have the lowest spice tolerance of anyone in my immediate family so perhaps i'm not the best judge.

so:

a) which cuisine do you think has the spiciest food on the whole?

b) what is the spiciest dish you've ever eaten?

(edit to add: oops! meant to post this in the general food topics forum--can someone with access please move it for me? thanks!)

Edited March 23, 2004 by mongo_jones (log)

[foodgeek]

Hottest I've had is Thai food from Sripraphai (restaurant) in NYC (Queens) ordered Thai Spicy, the soups in particular.

[Marco_Polo]

I'd vote for Anglo-Indian cuisine and in particular the archetypal British classic 'Vindaloo curry' as experienced most typically on a visit to the local Indian (in whatever city or town in the UK) after the pubs shut. Haven't done this since I was a student many years ago, but I recall vindaloos so fiercely hot that sweat would be pouring down my face, mouth utterly and painfully on fire, drinking pints of lager, water, sucking ice cubes, nothing would help. And the next day...Why???

The single most worryingly spicy item I've ever eaten was at one of my favourite restaurants in the world, O Serol, a simple marisqueria in Armaçao da Pera, Algarve. They make a fantastic ameijôas na cataplana -- clams cooked in a primitive copper clam-shell-like pressure cooker along with prosciutto, tomatoes, chouriço, cilantro, etc. The cataplana is placed in the middle of the table and you help yourself from this communal hot pot. Now cataplana is not usually spicy, or perhaps just slightly so, so I was caught off guard. As I was fishing around the cataplana for any final end-of-dish tasty bits (the odd overlooked clam, a nugget of chouriço), I fished out a tiny chili, and, in a moment's inattention (probably talking too much or maybe disappointed that it wasn't a clam), I popped it in my mouth, chewed and swallowed. Uh oh. Big big big mistake. This was a genuine fresh piri-piri chili (the fiercely hot Moçambican variety that is now a feature of Algarve cuisine) I immediately discovered, and the effect was like I'd munched on a tiny stick of nitro-glycerine. It wasn't just hot, it was explosively hot. Painfully and incredibly worryingly hot. As with those vindaloos of old, nothing it seemed would assuage the heat: I glugged a bottle of Quinta da Aveleda (a light, quenching vinho verde), sucked down a few beers, tried gargling with mineral water, stuffed bread down my mouth, ate ice cream. No better at all. And it wasn't just my mouth that was on fire: worst of all, I could feel that piri-piri chili inside me, burning a hole in my stomach lining. It was one of the biggest mistakes of my life and my stomach has never quite been the same since...

Ever since I've been extra vigilant whenever I fish around the dregs of communal hot pots, whatever the cuisine.

MP

[tanabutler]

I cannot begin to compete in this thread, but there is a very great difference, to me, between "spiciest" and "hottest."

"Hottest" is a slam dunk. Get your chilies and that garlic mace, and blind the competition. However, to balance spices is quite something else.

[mongo_jones]

not a competitition--i'm not asking who can eat the spiciest (by which i here mean hottest) food, but which cuisine people find to be the hottest on average--and which the hottest dish they've ever eaten is (not necessarily from that cuisine).

[Adam Balic]

Anglo-Indian has some stupidly hot dishes, the entire point of which is to be as hot as possible. Vindaloo is often bastardised like this, but fals are are even worse. But since most people in the UK prefer milder curries (not matter what the popular imagine is), I guess that this doesn't count as a hot cuisine.

I would guess that some of the East-Asian cuisines are heavy one heat (chillies/ginger/garlic/peppercorns), but I doubt that an entire cuisine will be hot, it has to cater to too many different peoples tastes, including children.

[stephenc]

1. Szechuan/Hunan

2. Anglo-Indian

3. Thai

4. Tex-mex

5. Korean

[FistFullaRoux]

1. Szechuan/Hunan

2. Anglo-Indian

3. Thai

4. Tex-mex

5. Korean

I'll go along with that list for the most part. The bastardized "Cajun" you get at some places is right up there though. One place my friends dragged me to had habanero corn. It was almost a 50/50 mix of diced habaneros and fresh corn. THAT was stupid hot. They had to put it at the very end of the buffet line, because people couldn't stand near it trying to get the other food.

It looked really pretty, though.

[mongo_jones]

1. Szechuan/Hunan

2. Anglo-Indian

3. Thai

4. Tex-mex

5. Korean

can i ask where people have eaten instances of the cuisine that they're basing their selections on? thai food in the u.s, for instance, wouldn't be on my top 10. thai food in bangkok, on the other hand, knocked my socks off (steam came out my ears, bells rang, a cartoon fireman hit me on the head with a hammer).

and sichuan and hunan aren't the same thing are they?

also anglo-indian has a very different sense in india (evokes pictures of people eating anything but spicy food)--is it used generally to describe south asians in england and their food etc?

my own top 5:

1. thai food (as eaten in bangkok)

2. sichuan food (as eaten in the san gabriel valley in california)

3. andhra food (as eaten in andhra pradesh in india)

4. korean food (as eaten in los angeles)

5. chettinad cuisine (as eaten in various restaurants in north india that probably tone it down for the north-indian palate)

the spiciest things i've ever eaten?

1. the aforementioned bamboo-shoot/shrimp curry in bangkok

2. the hot chopped chicken at chungking in monterey park (san gabriel valley)

3. a concoction of powdered dried venision and red chillies that a naga classmate in boarding school once brought back with him from home--it was like eating gunpowder soaked in sulphuric acid, but it was so goooood.

[John Whiting]

My wife invited a working companion to lunch, a young girl from Dubai. She was a sweet, modest creature, unassuming, well-behaved, a perfect guest. In the course of pre-luncheon conversation, she remarked that what disappointed her most in British food was that nothing was spicy enough. As a joke I brought her (along with a warning) a jar of Whistle Blower's Pickle from Bombay Bangers, the hottest and strongest condiment I've encountered. She tasted a bit on the end of a spoon, then ate a whole spoonful.

"Yes," she said, "that's what I miss."

When the steak and kidney pie arrived, she ladelled a generous amount of the pickle over it. She ate it without apparent effort -- no sweating, no heavy breathing. It could have been ketchup.

[mongo_jones]

My wife invited a working companion to lunch, a young girl from Dubai. She was a sweet, modest creature, unassuming, well-behaved, a perfect guest. In the course of pre-luncheon conversation, she remarked that what disappointed her most in British food was that nothing was spicy enough. As a joke I brought her (along with a warning) a jar of Whistle Blower's Pickle from Bombay Bangers, the hottest and strongest condiment I've encountered. She tasted a bit on the end of a spoon, then ate a whole spoonful.

"Yes," she said, "that's what I miss."

When the steak and kidney pie arrived, she ladelled a generous amount of the pickle over it. She ate it without apparent effort -- no sweating, no heavy breathing. It could have been ketchup.

my parents eat raw green chillies (the lethal, slim, dark green ones) alongside lentils and rice. that is to say, they pause between mouthfuls of lentils and rice to bite off chunks of the chillies and chew them down. no water in sight either. on their last trip to the u.s (when i was still in los angeles) my mother was defeated by the hot chopped chicken i mentioned, my father on the other hand was largely unfazed.

[SobaAddict70]

1. Szechuan/Hunan

2. Anglo-Indian

3. Thai

4. Tex-mex

5. Korean

can i ask where people have eaten instances of the cuisine that they're basing their selections on? thai food in the u.s, for instance, wouldn't be on my top 10. thai food in bangkok, on the other hand, knocked my socks off (steam came out my ears, bells rang, a cartoon fireman hit me on the head with a hammer).

and sichuan and hunan aren't the same thing are they?

also anglo-indian has a very different sense in india (evokes pictures of people eating anything but spicy food)--is it used generally to describe south asians in england and their food etc?

Perhaps not at the Thai restaurants you've eaten at, but there are two Thai restaurants here in New York that could probably give you a run for your spice money: Sripraphai, located in Jackson Heights, is one of them, and the other is that place in Hell's Kitchen that Eric and Sam went to the other day, the one I could do a search for in the NYC forum but I'm too lazy to do at the moment.

Sichuan and Hunan cuisine are NOT the same thing. Click here for a concise comparison of various regional cuisines in China.

Soba

[SG-]

My vote goes to Thai. They use those bird chillies like there's no tomorrow.

[Pan]

I think the spiciest thing I ever tasted was when I went to a wedding (?) feast (called a kenduri) in a village in Malaysia that was a short walk from where I was living in those days (mid 70s). It was a goat curry into which they had put a huge amount of dried hot pepper, because the pepper was a lot cheaper than the goat and also cut down on how much of the lauk (which means "stuff to put on rice," essentially) people ate. My parents and I stayed for a decent interval and then left. While we were on the doorstep, one of the other residents of this all-Malay grouping of villages asked us whether we liked the curry. Being polite, we said we had. His reply? "You liked that?! That was so hot it almost blew the roof off my mouth!" Yep, when a Malay says that, it's really hot! My classmates often stopped at the coffee shop owned by one of my classmate's parents to get long hot green peppers stuffed with fish and seasonings. It was good, but it was too hot for me to eat. Yet they loved it. Malay food can be very spicy.

[mongo_jones]

I think the spiciest thing I ever tasted was when I went to a wedding (?) feast (called a kenduri) in a village in Malaysia that was a short walk from where I was living in those days (mid 70s). It was a goat curry into which they had put a huge amount of dried hot pepper, because the pepper was a lot cheaper than the goat and also cut down on how much of the lauk (which means "stuff to put on rice," essentially) people ate. My parents and I stayed for a decent interval and then left. While we were on the doorstep, one of the other residents of this all-Malay grouping of villages asked us whether we liked the curry. Being polite, we said we had. His reply? "You liked that?! That was so hot it almost blew the roof off my mouth!" Yep, when a Malay says that, it's really hot! My classmates often stopped at the coffee shop owned by one of my classmate's parents to get long hot green peppers stuffed with fish and seasonings. It was good, but it was too hot for me to eat. Yet they loved it. Malay food can be very spicy.

never eaten malay food--always wanted to

[Vikram]

I haven't eaten Bhutanese food, but its reputed to be total dynamite mainly because their national dish of emadashi consists of curried chillies. Yes, that's right, not chillies in a curry, but chillies are the curry. And pretty hot chillies like this. Years ago my mother and aunt were in Bhutan for a while and my mother says meal times were remarkable since at all the tables in their hotel people would be sitting around crying into their emadashi!

As Mongo notes, in India Andhra food is usually seen as the hottest, followed by Chettinad food, and I'd agree with him on Andhra. Real chettiar food isn't that hot, though its certainly spicy. Its the usual problem - cooks in restaurants who don't quite know how to make the right stuff, divert attention from this by piling on the chilli powder. Most chettiar food is generic non-vegetarian food cooked in a southern style, but with too many spices. Eat real chettiar food - Raintree at the Connemara Hotel in Madras is one that serves it - and its not that hot.

Ditto for Anglo-Indian food which should mean the food of the Anglo-Indian (mixed race, Eurasian) community and was often the exact opposite of hot. To be more precise, it sort of see-sawed in between - an Anglo-Indian friend of mine settled in Australia said the community demonstrated its conflicting roots by never quite settling on the spice level of its food. Genteel Anglo-Indians would tend to their British side and make their food as bland as possible. But they would still have longings for spicy Indian food and secretly cook up fiery curries.

The vindaloo that was described in the beginning is not a product of Anglo-Indian cuisine, but British-Indian (and has nothing whatsoever to do with the original Goan vindaloo which is sour rather than hot). British-Indian should probably even be British-Bangladeshi since its almost exclusively the product of curry houses opened by Bangladeshi's from Sylhet who set them up with no real idea of Indian cooking, and took to throwing in the chillies to make up for this lack of knowledge.

If someone wants to really go off the scale with hot foods, perhaps they should consider what British-Bangladeshi-Bhutanese fusion might be like....

Vikram

[Mabelline]

JAMAICAN. Yipes and Holy Moly!!!

[mongo_jones]

As Mongo notes, in India Andhra food is usually seen as the hottest, followed by Chettinad food, and I'd agree with him on Andhra. Real chettiar food isn't that hot, though its certainly spicy. Its the usual problem - cooks in restaurants who don't quite know how to make the right stuff, divert attention from this by piling on the chilli powder. Most chettiar food is generic non-vegetarian food cooked in a southern style, but with too many spices. Eat real chettiar food - Raintree at the Connemara Hotel in Madras is one that serves it - and its not that hot.

you mean the north indian restaurants may actually have been spicing it up for the non-native palate? there's a change!

and vikram, that bhutanese chilli curry sounds very much like the sichuan hot chopped chicken dish i referred to earlier: hacked pieces of chicken in a sea of chili oil and HOT red peppers. floating like so many deceptive mines in this lethal sea are mushrooms, which have soaked up a lot of the oil--biting into one is like biting into ball of napalm. the first time i ate this at chungking in monterey park (one of the best sichuan restaurants in the san gabriel valley) my bengali eating habits--take rice and douse it with as much sauce as you can--almost did me in. the owner explained to me, while putting out the flames, that the correct way to eat it is to pull out pieces of chicken and stuff them into your mouth with rice and leave the sauce alone.

in hyderabad (the capital of andhra pradesh), of course, you get an accompaniment with your usual dosa sides that is actually called gunpowder.

[mongo_jones]

JAMAICAN. Yipes and Holy Moly!!!

all the jamaican food i've eaten in the u.s seems to have gotten the thai treatment (sweetened up for the american palate).

i'd imagine there must also be a lot spicy african cuisines. i don't know why i imagine this of course, i just do. anyone know?

[JPW]

i'd imagine there must also be a lot spicy african cuisines. i don't know why i imagine this of course, i just do. anyone know?

In my experience, not to the degree or ubiquity of some of the SE Asian cuisines.

You can find the occasional nice kick in West African food. (Cameroonian, Senegalese).

That said, I'm sure that someone else here knows a lot more than I on this subject.

[Mabelline]

Oh no, I mean Jamaican in Jamaica. I am sitting here with a one-cent Jamaican coin: one side is Eliz. II, the obverse is a PIG!!! Them Jamaicans have their priorities straight! Also, that was the ONLY place my mouth tingled from one meal to the next...

[Lady T]

Most any cuisine that has hot variations will cause me trouble at the hottest extreme, but the one that most consistently leaves me gasping and moaning if I don't order with care is Thai. I persevere, however, because I love the flavors of the spices in spite of the heat.

[Beto]

For me, the Thai food that I ate in country was on-the-whole, consistently the hottest cuisine that I've ever had. I love hot Thai food but after about 3 weeks, it got a little old, constantly having to scrutinize my plate for hidden pepperbombs. I finally broke down one day and went to KFC, the only place that I could get something that I could put in my mouth without trepidation.

Korean food is no joke, however. While the Korean food I've eaten in the U.S. wasn't too hot, I've had some food in Korea that'd almost make me cry, especially some of the hot pots. To anyone who doubts in the fieriness of their food, just go down to an asian market and pick up a package of "shin ramyon" and prepare it using the entire spice packet.

[Vikram]

you mean the north indian restaurants may actually have been spicing it up for the non-native palate? there's a change!

Not such a change - isn't that the same process by which they ended up with a British Indian 'vindaloo' that is way hotter than anything Goa has ever seen?

and vikram, that bhutanese chilli curry sounds very much like the sichuan hot chopped chicken dish i referred to earlier: hacked pieces of chicken in a sea of chili oil and HOT red peppers.

The difference being that emadashi, as I understand it, is ONLY chillies. No chicken, no mushrooms, just treat the chillies as veggies and curry them.

in hyderabad (the capital of andhra pradesh), of course, you get an accompaniment with your usual dosa sides that is actually called gunpowder.

Although Andhra food is really hot, gunpowder oddly enough isn't always that hot itself. Its more savoury-crunchy with the most distinct flavour I remember being of the coarsely ground peanuts. On the other hand, there's a typicaly garlic-methi (fenugreek) powder you get here in Bombay that I use all the time to add flavour to anything bland. It doesn't advertise its chillies, but it surely has them since it can be pretty explosive.

Vikram

[mongo_jones]

you mean the north indian restaurants may actually have been spicing it up for the non-native palate? there's a change!

Not such a change - isn't that the same process by which they ended up with a British Indian 'vindaloo' that is way hotter than anything Goa has ever seen?

true enough, but it is a change in north india where a lot of south indian foods get blandified in translation--even tam-brahm cooking can be spicier than your average new delhi dosa place will allow.

by the way, perusing my penguin kerala cookbook i came across recipes for country style curries that call for multiple sliced fresh green chillies and 4 tspns of red chilli powder! all of this for about 500 gms of prawns etc. and a not very highly sauced final dish. unless the author uses much tinier tea-spoons than i do or is referring to kashmiri chilli powder (which seems unlikely) this seems almost unfeasible. for my spiciest chicken curries (with a whole chicken) i use 2 tspns of chilli powder, and even with the use of tomatoes/yogurt and quite a bit more water than is called for in these malayali recipes it usually turns out pretty hot. twice that amount of chilli powder with less than half the liquid and no tomatoes/yogurt/coconut-milk to cut it? if true, wow! and if true, also another example of north-indian restaurants blanding down--no nadan curry i've eaten in new delhi has approached this level of explosiveness.

but this might be a discussion better carried out on the india forum.