Many Asian cuisines are not spicy – Nepali fare is not spicy but pretty grubby. I understand that “Asian” in the US usually means East or Southeast Asian and not the continent as a whole. But even then, most Chinese food is not spicy, although Szechuan is. Even inside a single country, you get wide variations in cuisine. Such as in Vietnam – it makes a big difference if you’re talking North, Central or South, much of it not spicy.
“Oriental” stills sounds exotic to me. Whereas “Asian” just, as mentioned, covers a lot of land and sounds geographical.
“Oriental” meant Chinese.
I always thought “Asian” is what Midwesterners referred to as any food with soy sauce on it.
Asian flavored dishes tend to be a little more complex than western dishes. They like to play tastes against each other. So the same dishes can be sweet, sour, spicy, and savory all at the same time. Since tolerance for heat varies so much, someone with a high senstivity to heat could experience much of Asian food as hot and spicy.
If you’re a fan of spicy food, Rayalseema cuisine from the state of Andhra Pradesh in India is unlikely to be topped by anything else, at least it’s not by any Sichuan, Indian or Thai food I’ve eaten. I’m an Indian who can shrug off extremely hot/spicy food, but dinner at a Rayalseema restaurant will often find me unable to finish most of the dishes. Andhra food in general is very spicy/hot, but not very well known outside India. Probably because few people would be able to tolerate the spices.
Hey, the Wendy’s spicy chicken sandwich actually has a bit of kick to it.
Thanks for the tip! I’ll have to keep an eye out for it or for recipes. While I can find a lot of specific Indian specialties here, I have a feeling that one is going to be difficult if not impossible to find. Wish I had known about it last year when I was in India, so I would have sought it out.
The spiciest foods I’ve ever had generally come out of my kitchen. (My jerk chicken, in particular.) Hunanese food can get quite silly, and I did once have an Indian dish so hot that it made my ears ring (although that was twenty years ago when I was first discovering Indian food, so I may not have been used to the spice levels yet then.) That may actually have been the most spicy dish I’ve ever eaten (or at least it was the most painful in relation to my spice tolerance at the time), but I can’t remember exactly what it was, other than it being some lamb dish from a restaurant in Wolverhampton, England.
Unfortunately, you’re probably quite right. Even within India, Andhra restaurants tend to serve toned down versions of the food I experienced in Rayalseema restaurants in Hyderabad (Andhra’s capital). If you do ever end up in India or Hyderabad again though, let me know, I’ll be happy to suggest a suitably spicy place to eat.
Momma Mia, that’s a spicy meatball.
BTW, if you do come across any recipes that look suitably authentic, pass them my way. I know it’s hard to really replicate a cuisine without having the experience of an actual reference point, but I’d be interested anyhow.
This is reminding me of a discussion regarding noodles on another thread not so long ago.
Asia is a huge continent, and the spice levels differ from country to country, and even within a country.
China for instance, Schichuan food is spicy, they cook their food in chili oil! I love it! But, Cantonese, Shanghai and Beijing are not spicy at all. For Beijing, think Peking duck. Even India, which is notoriously spicy, has different levels of spiciness, from not at all, like tandoori, which originates from Rajastan to Andrha food, a state in central India. Vindaloo, is considered super spicy , but is actually a British Indian dish. Meaning, it was first cooked by Indians in the UK. You can’t find Vindaloo in India. (This may have changed by now, since Indians from the UK have returned to India with the recipe, but it is rare).
Even smaller countries have varieties, like Thailand, famous for spicy food, but you can get non-spicy dishes. The thing is, they will always have chopped chili paddies on the table so you can spice it up if you want.
I would say that for most of Asia, it mirrors the rest of the world in that the further south you go, the more spicy it gets. However, there are a couple of exceptions in Asia that has always made me wonder. Korea and the Philippines. Korea in the North should have food like Japan, not spicy at all, but in fact Korean food tends to be quite spicy. The only country in the world that far North that has spicy food that I know of.
Filipino food on the other hand is not very spicy at all. Sure, you can get chopped chilies on the side, but it’s never a main ingredient in the dishes they cook. I do like it on occasion, but it is far from my favorite. And I should add, there are a lot of pork dishes. I do enjoy Sisig occasionally, but deep fried pork jowls is not something you should be eating every day. It is good though, for a non-spicy dish.
Can’t say I’ve ever heard that before. Nor is the tandoor associated with many Rajasthani dishes.
bldysabba is going to have to help me out on this, but that’s not true from what I can tell. Vindaloo is from Goa, a former Portuguese colony in India, and traditional vindaloo is made from pork (the Christian Portuguese influence being evident there.)
Maybe you’re thinking of tindaloo or perhaps phall?
I don’t associate “hot and spicy” with the term “Asian Food” (when I hear “Asian Food” I tend to think of stir fries and wontons and noodle soups etc) but I do associate it with the term “Curry”.
India* is well known for its curries but they are also feature in Thai cuisine as well as Malaysian and Singaporean cuisine. The hottest dish I have ever had was a Thai Green Curry in Kuala Lumpur, which was indeed a subtle blend of delicate spices, coconut milk, beef, lemongrass, and molten lava.
Another factor complicating the “spiciness” issue is people’s varying tolerance for “hot” spices. I know a lot of people who consider plain black pepper to be “too spicy”, while there are others who can happily eat a Vindaloo Banquet.
*And I don’t care what the Brits say, India is The Subcontinent, not Asia.
Jalapenos aren’t hot, except to people from Iowa. 
That said, I’ve grown Trindad Scorpions, Naga Jolokias, Scotch bonnets, habaneros, Thai birds, etc., and eaten them all straight-up, but, every once in awhile, you just get a scorching jalapeño, and the heat effect is cumulative, as far as I can tell. So if you eat a giant, hot jalapeño and get that large amount of capsaicin all in one shot, it can be as painful as a tiny one inch by quarter inch Thai pepper.
There are also parts of Mexico that are known for growing rather hot jalapeños. The ones that come out of my garden are comparable to serranos.
My mistake, I meant to say the Punjab.
I have been to India many times, but I admit I have never been to Goa. I have, however, been to Goan restaurants in Mumbai and Delhi. I have never seen vindaloo on the menu. I should also ad that, my Indian friends have told me that vindaloo is not authentically Indian. Perhaps it was influenced by Goan cuisine. I really don’t know.
If you can confirm your statement, I will have learned something new.
Sorry. On the day I started the thread I was too lazy to type out, “People who might be interested in responding to a food-related question”.
I have more energy today.