My dad & my brother both do this. And then they offer one to me. :eek: NO!
I know a place here in San Jose which actually does make hot and spicy Chinese food. It’s Hunan Taste on Fourth Street, and it is cram-packed every day at lunch by people who know what’s what when it comes to the hot stuff. You can order it mild, medium or hot.
I always order my food “mild”, yet it still makes my lips glow and my face run with sweat. Once my husband ordered a “medium” dish but it was too painful for me to eat. I can’t begin to imagine what the “hot” stuff must be like.
I also like this place because they don’t follow the “Americans like everything sweet” rule. They use no sugar in their sauces, and as a result, the cooking may taste a bit salty and vinegary to a lot of folk. To me, it’s refreshingly savory and kick-ass hot with Hunan chilis. Come to think of it, I haven’t been there in awhile and I think I’ll have to make a trip soon.
My tongue is part of my face, especially when I stick it out. 
I don’t think the goal should be “who can eat the spiciest food”. There’s always going to be a bell curve. You probably are a genetic freak, without the right capsicum receptors. I know what I like, and it tends to be spicier than the average Joe, but I am by no means a “nothing is too spicy for me” freak. When you come to visit AZ, we’ll see if Los Dos Molinos is too bland for you…
Around here the Taco Bells are staffed by Mexicans and the Chinese restaurants are staffed by Chinese. And Mexicans. Except for the Korean-owned Chinese restaurants, which are staffed by Koreans and Mexicans.
I had a coworker who was born in India but raised in the US. When she goes to Indian restaurants she has to order food as “medium” instead of “hot” because the restaurants usually see that she’s Indian and make it as “Indian-hot” instead, and that’s too much for her to deal with.
I find it interesting that a few of you are in the spicy=flavor camp. I don’t mind spicy food when it actually adds flavor but often times I see that spicy food is just hotter and not necessarily better. Is there some point where the food just isn’t getting any better it’s just getting hotter?
Marc
Who says spicy isn’t equal to flavor? Is the title of the thread “Spicy and Flavorful?” No, it is “Hot and Spicy?”
And different spices have different flavors. It isn’t all about hotter being better. I don’t try to eat the hottest possible thing every time I eat something spicy, depends on the food. I love a bit of a spice, but you adapt to things after awhile, and you have to eat hotter and hotter stuff to get the same taste / feeling. Just like anything else, you become accustomed to it. Nobody is born with “less capsacin receptors” or is a genetic freak. Once upon a time, I thought pepperoncini peppers were spicy. Once upon a time, some mexican food made me sweat. Adaptation.
For me, going spicier isn’t about “suffering through it” it is about actually experiencing a bite and a kick.
I have a bad stomach but love hot and spicy food. This causes a dilemma sometimes.
I was in the mood for hot one day. I went to the Indian restaurant and the waitress came out and took my order. I ordered my food ‘hot’. She came back a few minutes later and asked me to rate how hot on a scale of 1-10. I said ‘10 please’. A few minutes later the owner of the restaurant comes out and tries to talk me out of it. I hold my ground and stick with the ‘10’ level of spicyness. It was delicious. Of course I nearly died about 6 hours later, but it was worth it.
The local Thai place (and this surprises me because it seems like the old couple who own/cook there would make really traditional food) never seems to make the dishes very hot. They don’t have a scale system, so the best I can do is say ‘very, very hot please’. It doesn’t seem to work. The food is awesome anyway though.
Americanized Chinese places I just don’t understand the spicy icons on the menu. I am glad you brought this subject up because I have certainly wondered about this before. Sesame chicken? Shrimp in garlic sauce? Seriously? Not that it isn’t delicious once in a while (in the same way Taco Bell is delicious once in a while).
The restaurants must be really toning it down where you are. At our favourite Thai restaurant (in southern Thailand), the chef asks in percentile terms, with 100% being “Thai spicy” - meaning “blows your fucking head off” - and 60% being just about not-quite-edible to our chilli-blasé palettes. 40% will do. When we’ve eaten at Thai friends’ houses, we’ve not been able to have a second bite of anything other than the rice. 
As for Szechuan - I suspect you’d love the real thing. Yowza!
My reason for starting this thread was not to say that hotter is automatically better, it was to complain about the mislabelling of truly bland dishes as “Hot and Spicy”. If I order something and am told it is hot and spicy, then that’s what I expect. Where is the “spicy” in my Szechuan Beef? Celery? Scallions?
I can go four blocks down the road and order the “Hot” Green Chile, and be wiping sweat off my eyelids in 30 seconds. I don’t think people in the Southwest have any difficulty understanding what “Hot and Spicy” means, but apparantly my Chinese restaurant does.
I know what you were saying. Some of it got off topic, but I was agreeing with you. I don’t know why they put spicy icons on their menu like that. What I was trying to imply with my anecdote was that to me the restaurants I have been too, nothing is spicy. To others they are. Perhaps your tolerance is higher than the general population they are trying to target. My parents find the mildest most bland salsa in the store a bit spicy. Which boggles my mind.
I in no way intended a pissing contest or was implying that hotter was better (though some foods this is true IMHO).
Studies have shown otherwise: Supertaster - Wikipedia
http://chemse.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/25/3/239
Most of the other links require registration.
A link to suggest Capcasin has receptors for taste would be helpful in the first place. It is my understanding that it is flavorless and the heat comes from other means. Funny how pepper in the eye burns just as well, yet there are no taste buds or olfactory nerves in the eyes or on the genitalia (yes, I’ve accidentally touched both with those oils on my hand).
Your second link seems to be saying that repeated use decreases sensitivity, just as I suggested.
No kidding. I went to a hot pot place in Ya-an (in Sichuan), and while waiting for a table, we noticed locals going in with white faces and leaving with deep strawberry red faces. Every table had a huge wad of napkins, and at virtually every table they were seeing heavy use, as people were blowing their noses out. My friend and I can stand moderately spicy food (as in most non-Sichuan restaurant’s spicy dishes), but it took us 3 hours to get full, due to constant tongue-relief breaks.
Dai minority (primarily in Yunnan province) restaurants can also really bring the spice, and the pickled hot stuff can be sublime, though wimpy ol’ me still asks for the less spicy version, and my eyes still water…
All spice lovers should really make a trip to southwest China once in their life. 
hold on…
IMNAB, but my understanding is that Capcasin stimulates nerves that transmit pain. These can be anywhere in the body. It is not a “taste” per se (although it may have a taste). It appears that genetic variability accounts for at least some of the difference in people’s perceptions of “spiciness”, with desensitizing (training) accounting for much of the rest.
Ah, that makes sense. (more than me being a genetic freak 
after all, I used to be pretty sensitive)
Hear hear. Thai holy basil chicken (gai pud gaprao or similar spelling) is one of those dishes I like searingly, blow-your-face-off hot. In my life, I have only encountered three restaurants that have made it as hot as I like it. My standard line is to order it “Thai spicy,” and even then it doesn’t always work. I’ve actually used the line “Thai spicy, trust me. Pretend I’m not white.” The one time I used it, it actually worked.