In reading the recent GQ thread on habanero chilis, I got to thinking about how the English language is missing a few key words when it comes to flavour.
Most of the references to chilis try to describe how “hot” or “spicy” they are. But of course, the sensation that’s being referred to is not exactly that of heat (rising temperature) or spice (variety of flavour added by seeds).
I know that Bengali has its own word to describe the stinging sensation created by capsaicin – “jhal.” In addition there’s another word for the sinus-clearing sensation caused by mustard, horseradish, and wasabi – “jhanj.”
Are there words in other languages that distinguish these two sensations from “hot” or “spicy”?
Except spicy does pretty much refer solely to the heat generated by chiles.
If I’m eating meatloaf and I say, oooh, this is really spicy nobody is going to think I’m referring to anything except chile spiciness and consequently think I’m insane since the meatloaf has no eat whatsoever, just a lot of whatever spice you put in meatloaf.
But wouldn’t mulled wine be spicy? Mulled wine is hot wine mixed with cloves, cinimon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and fruit. Or do you have another word for something flavored by a mixture of spices?
Astringent may be a valid English word for Mustard or Wassabi flavour.
I don’t agree. When I describe an Indian curry as being “nice and spicy” there might not be any chili in it at all. Curries don’t have to have chili and don’t have to be “hot/spicy” in the chili sense, but do always have to be spicy – turmeric, garlic, cinnamon, cardamom, cumin, cloves, etc., but not necessarily red (or green) chili.
I would refer to this as ‘savory’ meaning ‘layer with flavor, but not exactly sweet.’ I would also refer to certain spiced meats as savory as opposed to spicy, even though the flavors coming through are brought to me by way of spices, not savors.
Yeah, it makes sense in my head.
Just doing a quick thesaurus check leaves me with:
peppery
fiery (which i suppose goes under the same heading as “hot”)
zesty (I kind of like this one…“That’s a zesty meat-a-ball!”)
piquant
highly spiced :rolleyes:
Eh, I suppose the English language is a bit more varied than we might imagine, but I think I might have to slap the first pretentious stuff-shirt who describes a good, five-alarm chili as “piquant”. I would say that you should go with zesty for any good mustard. Until your friends start to muffle their giggles.
But Mulled wine is certainly not savory, being quite sweet. How about good -old American pumpkin pie, would it not be spicy. Cinnamony (sp?) is a horrible word, and not correct if the pie also features nutmeg and cloves in its flavor.
I think zesty is too well associated with zest ( citrus fruit peel without any pith) for use with mustard.
Astringent is valid but too strong a word since chlorene gas could also be called astringent.
Zingy is a nice descriptor that could go with Wassabi I think. Devilled is often used for something made hot with use of mustard, so maybe devilish would be a nice term to use
