I swear by Apizza Scholls.
The Rock is a chain, too. A Northwest chain, but a chain nonetheless.
At least at The Rock down here in Lacey (about 60 miles south of Seattle for those unfamiliar with the area), the buckets are made with several types rum and pineapple juice. It is delicious.
Spicy Fried Rice for lunch. When the guy asked how hot, I told hin Five (their highest). He warned me that’s very spicy. I told him that I like spicy food. When I went to pick up my order, he warned me of the spiciness again. It’s OK. I like spicy food. (And I’ve found that ‘five’ at this place is closer to a three. But I didn’t want to sound greedy and ask for ‘eight’.) He said they’d put extra chilis in the container.
So I get back to my desk and get ready to dig in. Where are the lovely strips of seranno chilis? Doesn’t smell very ‘hot’ either. I took a taste. Did they put any spice in here? I had my coworker taste it, knowing that she doesn’t do spicy. She said it kicked in after she swallowed, but she said that even she could eat a whole serving of it and it wouldn’t be too spicy.
I dumped the little container of red chili sauce on the rice and stirred it up. It helped, but it wasn’t nearly spicy enough. And I like the flavour of the green chilis in Thai fried rice. Reds are OK, but I like the green ones. And I missed the crunch. The rice actually tasted pretty darned good, so I went ahead and ate it. But I was looking forward to some green-taste and heat.
I called the restaurant, and the guy who took my order was busy. The girl who answered said that they tone down the spices because Americans will order ‘five star’ and then complain it’s too hot to eat. But hey, you’ve already got my money and I’m back at my office. Why not just make it spicy? And I wouldn’t mind so much if they ‘toned it down’ a little. I can see their reasoning. I’ve gotten the spiciness I’ve ordered there, and I’ve gotten less than I’ve ordered. Nothing wrong with ‘toned down’, since the next time it will be hot enough. But NO spice at all? (Or at least so little that my coworker could eat it.) If they’re afraid I’d burn myself, couldn’t they at least put some nice green chilis in a little bag?
On a previous note, my coworker stopped off at White Center last week and got me some chicharrones. They were different from the ones I used to get in L.A., in that they were mostly meat. She said they had (what sounds like) the kind that are mostly skin there as well. The meaty ones were great. I offered her one, but she got this horrified look on her face and declined. She’s going to pick up the crunchy ones for me next week.
Yes. The girlfriend and her family are from Chicago, and they love this place.
Totally lame. I absolutely love spicy food, and I’m even a native. One of my co workers reports success requesting them to “make it the way you like it” if you’re at an east Asian or Indian restaurant, but I can’t vouch for the effectiveness of that method.
IME, any restaurant I eat at more than once, I’ve never noticed any difference between 3, 4, or 5 stars. There’s some minor variability, but it’s never anything above just a little noticeable spice.
Ah… That’s better!
I ordered some yum-nuea (spicy beef salad) from the same place, and they remembered my call. This time it was nice and spicy. Raised a nice sweat. I called back, and they said spiciness was six (out of five – and five was how I ordered the rice, so they must have been using a modified scale for me this time). Just right for lunchtime. No blisters raised, not so spicy that I couldn’t sip my coffee with it, and not overpowering. (Coworker would disagree. I gave her a bite, and she kept saying her tongue was burning.)
'Course, now I have red-onion breath. 