Spicy Food???

[Attica!]

Just thought I'd start this topic as I'm curious if there's any other spicy food enthusiasts? I've been totally addicted the last year and I just find mild food bland now haha.

[darkbluemurder]

I love Thai and Indian food - certainly enough hot spices in these curries.

But there is a big difference between mild and bland. I do quite a lot of cooking, and fresh herbs make a lot of difference in the overall taste of the food.

Cheers Stephan

[Attica!]

When I say bland, I mean boring haha. I love cooking, but I have a habit of making it spicy because I always feel the dish is missing something, and it tastes boring lol. My gf loves spicy food, but it drives my parents crazy haha. My gf actually ate a full Scotch Bonnet, the mad person lol.

I actually had a Fire Eater curry a couple months back. Paal strength, bloody hot!

[Telerocker]

I like Indian and Indonesian food to a certain degree. I was not born as a flamethrower.

[HTH AMPS]

I don't like things TOO spicy where the heat takes over all the other taste sensations.

I generally like two fresh chillis and 1/2 tsp of chilli powder when I make a batch of chilli for four people.  Madras curries tend to be a bit on the too hot side for me, prefer Jal Frezi, Bhuna, Rogan Josh etc...  more aromatic spices than all out heat.

Here's a pic of a chilli from last years greenhouse crop - was pitiful last year with the cr@ppy summer we had.

[_tom_]

Love it but I think I have IBS or something as it doesn't agree with my insides at all 0_0

[Attica!]

I've always wanted to growvmy own chillis. And about a year ago, Madras was about my maximum tolerance, but after eating spicy food all the time, you'd be surprised how your tolerance goes up. Back in the Madras days, if I tried a Vindaloo, there'd be no flavour, but funnily enough there is now.

Hottest thing I've had though is a Chilli Con Carne made with Naga Viper Chillis at this fair. That made the insides of my ears itch for ages and I went light headed, I only had a spoonful. It was apparantly the hottest chilli in the world at the time (although in a chilli it's diluted with all the ingredients), but I think there's a new one now. There were actually these really big (not muscley) guys that were eating these chillis whole. That must be bad for heartburn lol

[Elliot]

I used to be a fire eating fiend as a teen, in my 20s and early 30s but when I hit 38 (I am 39 now) the whole carnival just came to a close - I just cannot stomach (literally) anything above hot any more - which is a shame because my staple diet for most of my life has involved putting chillies in everything.  I guess I'm not a voodoo chillie any more and more a magic boy..... (well ageing man, unfortunately) :P

[agentOrAnGe]

This past summer we grew a couple Bhut Jolokia or Ghost chili plants along with the what we usually grow (habanaro, jalapeno and thai). This thing is WAAAAYYY too hot and i love to sweat when i eat spicy. It feels like being force fed a porcupine! Normally I eat habaneros whole or cut up and put on a sandwich, but when I put this on a burger i was forced to stop. It actually made my tongue peel and scalded the skin around my mouth.

[Philly Q]

I've never been into spicy for the sake of spicy, but I do love Indian, Chinese, Thai, Mexican (etc) food.

Unfortunately like Elliot I've developed an intolerance problem - not to the hotness, but I'm now diabetic and those foods tend to be accompanied by a lot of carbohydrates in the form of rice, noodles, tortillas etc.

I'm trying to work round it - usually by having cauliflower and/or spinach to replace the rice etc - but it's not really the same.  :(

[Kiichi]

Well, I have a shirt of Blairs Death Rain sauces. Need I say more?

Yeah, currently I have 7 different hotsauces in my fridge (not that they need to be kept cool) plus 3 powders (Chipotle, Habanero and Naga Jolokia).

Gives me a great range in taste (anything from pure chili taste to refined sauce) and hotness (little over tabasco to HOLY MOTHER OF).

I do not burn up all my food, but where it fits I like to get at least a little in and from time to time go into endorphine high mode.


Mhhh this topic makes me hungry for some Blairs Death Rain Habanero Chips (not as in british, but in american chips of course). If you like hot stuff (and can handle a fair bit) and have not tried these, it is absolutly imperative that you do.
Pretty darn fiery but probably some of the best tasting chips in the world.
They also do very taste chips in other varietys that do not just about kill regular folks ;)
Gotta get me some again.

[Mr. Air]

I like hot and spicy food, but there's a limit. In the six months I backpacked around in East Asia the only thing a had that was way too hot was a thali in Hyderabad, India.

[tomjackson]

I'm addicted to chili and have it with most meals (except breakfast, not that bad yet).  I like all types of spicy cuisine and always have about 5 bottles of chili sauce on the go at any one time.  I've tried some great spicy stuff on my travels as well in Peru, Bolivia, and SE Asia and not much is too hot.

That said, hotter is not always better, I like non spicy curries like Saag Aloo etc just as much as Madrass and don't always go for the hotest( except for the vindaloo I had last week).  And sauce wise although I find the usual tabasco and encona pretty boring I've tried some of the speciality sauces like 'Dave's Insanity Sauce' and 'Dragons Blood' and they are a bit too heat with not much flavour.

This one is excellent though, my absolute favorite:-

http://www.mrvikkis.co.uk/index.php?app=ecom&ns=prodshow&ref=hellisly-hot-habanero

Plenty hot enough but not too hot and plenty of flavour.  If you have enough your skin smells of it the next day so you can enjoy it twice!

[nfe]

I've never been into spicy for the sake of spicy

I'm the same. I do use extremely hot sauces on stuff (the hottest Blairs, Dave's Gourmet etc) but it's got to still have an actual taste. I've never been into vindaloos or Fahls as most restaurants make them as they're simply hot for the sake of it and there's no effort to actually be flavoursome.

I don't make everything roasting, but I do make hot stuff a fair amount.

[Brow]

I have no sense of smell, and therefore very little sense of taste. So if I'm out for a Curry etc then I tend to have a Vindaloo or a Phal and usually get nothing more than a small sense of heat from them.