I moved recently and tried a Thai place down the street. The guy asked if I wanted mild, medium, or spicy, and I said spicy. He said :No, I think mild." I didn’t know what to say and he added “…but you can have it however you want.” I decided to try medium.
He came by after and asked how the spiciness was, and I said it was just a little spicier than I like it (I ate it without issue), and he said “I told you!”
You just gotta know whose palate it’s balanced for. Taco bell is meant for white people. Their hottest sauce has a maybe jalapeño-level spice to it (and it tastes like shit). Go to any legit Thai or Indian place and their medium will destroy the hottest you can get at any tex-mex chain.
We really need a decent scale for spicyness of foods. The mild/medium/spicy thing is by far too unspecific.
There’s an Indian place down the road that we sometimes order from. I like moderate levels of spicy, so it works well for me. But my wife dislikes hot spicy foods at all. So when I ordered the food I asked if the dish is completely non-spicy, and they confirmed that it was completely non-spicy, and it was too spicy for my wife.
Afaik scoville only works for chilli peppers. It doesn’t work for other spicy things like e.g. pepper and it doesn’t work for prepared dishes either.
So you can say “This dish contains chilli peppers with X scoville”, but since the amount of chilli in there also matters, that’s only part of the equation. For example, a single drop of 100 000 scoville chilli pepper on a whole plate of otherwise non-spicy food might be less spicy than e.g. a dish consisting almost entirely of 30 000 scoville chilli peppers.
Seems like something where you could ask where eating a whole jalapeno falls on their spiciness scale, because that’s a very mild pepper and as someone who likes moderate spice and enjoys jalapeno based dishes, that seems like a very good anchor to start with
Maybe that could replace the scale actually. “This dish is equivalent to 5 pepper corns. This one here is equivalent to a jalapeno. This one is equivalent to a habanero.” and so on.
Looked it up (under “Early life” on Wikipedia). Born in Washington D.C. actually, but his father is of Mexican and Hungarian-Jewish descent and the family lived his first 7 years in Mexico.
That’s actually the reason I couldn’t use the phrase “born & bred”, because it would’ve been inaccurate. However, it is accurate to say he’s Mexican (has dual US & Mexico citizenship) and grew up (spent most of his formative years) in Mexico City.
Honestly the mild sauce taste better, even though I like really spicy like ghost pepper+ levels of heat I get mild at Taco Bell on the rare occasion I go.
Yeah, it doesn’t have to be that way, but it so often is. I like the Herndez brand mexican salsa you get at the grocery store (US), but the flavor of the medium is so much better than the flavor of the hot. It’s like with the hot ones, the only care about getting the heat.
I’ve had very hot sauces that had really good flavor, it just seems more rare.
I moved recently and tried a Thai place down the street. The guy asked if I wanted mild, medium, or spicy, and I said spicy. He said :No, I think mild." I didn’t know what to say and he added “…but you can have it however you want.” I decided to try medium.
He came by after and asked how the spiciness was, and I said it was just a little spicier than I like it (I ate it without issue), and he said “I told you!”
You just gotta know whose palate it’s balanced for. Taco bell is meant for white people. Their hottest sauce has a maybe jalapeño-level spice to it (and it tastes like shit). Go to any legit Thai or Indian place and their medium will destroy the hottest you can get at any tex-mex chain.
We really need a decent scale for spicyness of foods. The mild/medium/spicy thing is by far too unspecific.
There’s an Indian place down the road that we sometimes order from. I like moderate levels of spicy, so it works well for me. But my wife dislikes hot spicy foods at all. So when I ordered the food I asked if the dish is completely non-spicy, and they confirmed that it was completely non-spicy, and it was too spicy for my wife.
Scoville?
cassandrafatigue already suggested that, and I answered below that: https://lemmy.world/comment/21043110
deleted by creator
Afaik scoville only works for chilli peppers. It doesn’t work for other spicy things like e.g. pepper and it doesn’t work for prepared dishes either.
So you can say “This dish contains chilli peppers with X scoville”, but since the amount of chilli in there also matters, that’s only part of the equation. For example, a single drop of 100 000 scoville chilli pepper on a whole plate of otherwise non-spicy food might be less spicy than e.g. a dish consisting almost entirely of 30 000 scoville chilli peppers.
There’s math to be done here.
Seems like something where you could ask where eating a whole jalapeno falls on their spiciness scale, because that’s a very mild pepper and as someone who likes moderate spice and enjoys jalapeno based dishes, that seems like a very good anchor to start with
That’s not a bad idea, actually.
Maybe that could replace the scale actually. “This dish is equivalent to 5 pepper corns. This one here is equivalent to a jalapeno. This one is equivalent to a habanero.” and so on.
Is it racist to say Taco Bell is meant for white people?
Since it is TexMex, a food that was practically invented for white people, I would say no.
Just a casual reminder that this guy is a Mexican, raised in Mexico City.
Looked it up (under “Early life” on Wikipedia). Born in Washington D.C. actually, but his father is of Mexican and Hungarian-Jewish descent and the family lived his first 7 years in Mexico.
That’s actually the reason I couldn’t use the phrase “born & bred”, because it would’ve been inaccurate. However, it is accurate to say he’s Mexican (has dual US & Mexico citizenship) and grew up (spent most of his formative years) in Mexico City.
Edit whops I said “raised in” not “grew up in”.
Seriously, why is the Diablo sauce so foul? I always get fire sauce because it actually tastes good. But I want it with more heat!
Honestly the mild sauce taste better, even though I like really spicy like ghost pepper+ levels of heat I get mild at Taco Bell on the rare occasion I go.
Yeah, it doesn’t have to be that way, but it so often is. I like the Herndez brand mexican salsa you get at the grocery store (US), but the flavor of the medium is so much better than the flavor of the hot. It’s like with the hot ones, the only care about getting the heat.
I’ve had very hot sauces that had really good flavor, it just seems more rare.
That should be the default spicy, so when I say ‘very mild’ it’s doesn’t turn out sweet.