By way of background, I like Indian food. By which I mean real Indian food, which is much spicier than most American food. When I go to an Indian restaurant, I expect to be served spicy food. If I wanted food that wasn’t spicy, I would go to an American restaurant.
But I don’t know how to find that. I just did some checking of restaurant review sites, and out of curiosity, looked up one particular restaurant that I already knew. I’ve been there three times, and each time tried to emphasize to an increasing degree that yes, I really do like spicy Indian food, and to give it to me as hot as they can possibly make it. And each time, got food where the spice was barely detectable. I gave them a chance, but won’t be returning, because I know they’re never going to get it right. And yet, every single review I found that mentioned that restaurant’s spice level was a warning that their “medium” was almost inedible from being so hot.
So clearly, I can’t base anything on reviews left by typical Americans. What I need is a review site where the people leaving the reviews also like their food spicy. Or maybe some Dopers know where the good Indian food is in the Cleveland area. Any help?
Many Indian dishes aren’t particularly spicy, even when made authentically. But if you want spicy, order something like a vindaloo or a phall. Both of those are notably spicy.
Vindaloos are generally one of the spiciest dishes. If you ask for it extra spicy, you should be good.
If it’s still too mild, find another restaurant.
I have actually had spicy Indian food at Cleveland restaurants. It’s just that they’ve all closed down.
I’ve also had Indian food served by friends that was satisfactory (though since they were usually making it for a group, they still had to tone it down a little more than I’d prefer).
Compared to the average American? Yes, I absolutely know that. So where can I find a restaurant that caters to abnormal Americans?
I think the o.p.’s essential complaint is that nothing he orders is sufficiently spicy regardless of its traditional preparation. Unfortunately, I think that is a problem with the general region he is in and Cleveland in particular insofar as restaurants dial back their scale of spiciness in response to local tastes. I’ve spent a bit of time in Cleveland and nearby Sandusky, and I have observed that the local idea of ‘spicy’ is to put a bit of chili powder in melted Velveeta, and if they really want to be exotic they’ll add a dash of cumin. While I’ve had some pretty good meals in Cleveland (and found an excellent Lebanese place down in the warehouse district which saved the day when my flight was cancelled and I was stuck there over a weekend) they do not seem to grasp the notion of ‘spicy’. I think the o.p. is going to have to take a road trip to Pittburgh, or else learn to cook Goan and Marathi dishes for himself.
A bit of trivia: the dish was originally called “vindalho”, pronounced vin dalyoo. It’s a portmanteau of the Portuguese words vinho d’alho or ‘garlic wine’.
This. DesertRoomie got back Monday evening from a week and a half in South Dakota visiting friends. When I picked her up at the airport the dialog was something like…
“Hungry?”
“Oh, yeah!”
“Whaddaya want?”
“Anything not midwestern.”
We stopped at a New Mexican restaurant. They didn’t have black pepper in the home she was staying at.
Find an Indian restaurant where people from India eat. At least that works for me. There is a large Indian community near Monroeville, east of Pittsburgh. I’ve had amazing Indian food at a restaurant in Monroeville where I’m often the only non-Indian dining.
Are there any Indian grocers in your area? Drive past them and see if they’re connected to (or very close to) an Indian restaurant. If you find one of those, you’re golden.
Or try and find an Indian student association at a local college and see what they recommend.
Weird thing is, vindaloo as I’ve had it in India, is not nearly as spicy as vindaloo as I’ve had it in the UK. They were more flavorful, more vinegary, and pork the default meat (as it comes from Goa, a Portuguese/Christian influenced area). But, yes, vindaloo is generally considered the dish for spice heat lovers, and then there’s phall and tindaloo, which both seem to be a UK creation for all the folks for whom vindaloo wasn’t spicy enough.
I usually just try the “pretend I’m not white” line, but that doesn’t always work. And, having worked many, many Indian events and eating the food the Indian guests eat, Indian food is not necessarily sear-your-face-off hot. It’s quite spicy, in general, compared to Midwestern cuisine, but it’s been very rare that I found something really “hot” by my metric. I find Southeast Asian food to be more extreme in that regard when I ask for something “pretend I’m not white” hot there.
It depends whether you give them the impression that you are familiar with the food and really know what you want, or not.
If you tell them “Indian hot”, and add that the Indian food you get is usually not hot enough for you, and make a point of it, they will get the message. They just don’t want you complaining and returning the dish because it’s too hot.
But if it’s not hot enough, you must immediately tell them. With many dishes they can take it back to the kitchen and make it hotter. They must get the feedback anyway, so that they will know for next time.
Another tactic is to cut back on how much spicy food you eat in general to lower your tolerance.
I used to eat spicy food all the time. And nothing in a restaurant labeled “spicy” was ever spicy. Like, even a little bit. People would dare me to eat the “five alarm flaming throat roaster” dish and I’d say “did they forget the peppers?”. I had to drown my food in sriracha and tabasco to get even a hint of heat.
But I got diagnosed with GERD a few years ago and I cut back a lot on the spicy food. Now when I eat something hot at the Chinese or Indian restaurant, I can actually taste some heat. Maybe not a lot, but at least it’s noticeable, where before it tasted about as spicy as warm milk.
Maybe not the most satisfying answer to your problem, but it does work.