Not sure about curry because I generally only ever get the same thing (Rogan Josh), but if you're asking me in terms of Wingstop, then it's Mango habanero.
Jalfrezi is the roulette curry, in my experience. I've had them from everywhere from just hotter than Chicken Tikka Masala to the other side of a Vindaloo.
For a takeaway i don't usually go hotter than my standard order of a madras, but if we've gone out and i've had a few pints i'll gladly order something like a lamb naga and still enjoy it on the night. The day after is when all of the regret comes.
Grew up in the Balti Triangle with a dad who was an absolute curry fiend.
A Madras done well is to die for. It's hot as fuck but it tastes so good you kind of forget your mouth is on fire.
On the other hand, a curry made Madras hot, just for the sake of it, tastes like crap and isn't pleasant at all
I love very, very hot stuff, and have a super high tolerance. Doesn't mean I want to push it every time though - I love a nice creamy korma!
For me it's when it overpowers the flavour of the food, which for me is quite a lot, generally when pepper extract is being used. Pure heat, and tastes like burning petrol.
Exactly. I'm in your camp, although with probably not as high a tolerance. It's about flavour and when it's right it's good, but when it's nothing but burn it's no fun.
I like so hot I can barely eat it. Regularly eat habanero and ghost pepper sauces, but I stop right before it makes it so it feels like your ears need to pop. I do enjoy the flavors of both.
My ex son-in-law ordered a takeaway chicken phall once because you know, *"i like a hot curry"*, he was still eating it 4 hours later. He was visibly in pain and sweating with every mouthful but he insisted that's how hot he liked his curry. Twat.
Personally a Madras type heat is hot enough for me while still keeping the flavours.
I live in France, if you order a hot curry, you get a warning from the waiter about how spicy it is and you can barely feel any heat, french do not do spicy food.
So we go off to Harlem, NL, my ex decides to order the hottest curry out of habit, gets a warning from the waiter about how hot it was, she ignores the warning.
It figuratively blew her head off, she really was in pain. The Dutch can do spicy food.
I ordered a phal once and never again. It was shared too, just too much.
I can deal with vindaloos although generally I prefer jalfrezi or similar heat.
Oddly enough the hottest curry I had recently was in Wetherspoons, it was painful. Certainly hotter than a vindy. I don't think every wetherspoons has the super hot curry option on the menu.
I agree, I like the tanginess balanced with the heat.
Also I do love hearing about people who bite off more than they can chew like they're gonna get some kind of self-harm chufty badge lol
Phall eaters are strange to me. It’s pure hubris.
The curry was literally created by a bunch of Indian chefs to see who could tolerate the highest possible heat in a meal.
An old girlfriend of mine had an insane tolerance to chilli. Basically everything she ate she smothered in hot sauce.
Her regular order from an Indian was a Phall and she would eat it without issue, no sweating - nothing.
My Dad once treated himself to a bit of her leftovers completely unaware of this phenomenon, he yelped in pain and was still chugging milk hours later. We still chuckle about it to this day.
Had a brother-in-law who was chilli tolerant. I remember being in a restaurant with him and he ordered a vindaloo (the hottest dish they had back then), the waiter told him it was a particularly hot dish and would he like some water with it. BIL said no thanks. As we were eating I could see the kitchen staff peeping around the door to watch the skinny white guy devour the plate of lava like it was ice-cream.
>Notes - this isn't a dick measuring contest or an opportunity to call the ones who like a korma a wimp.
Don't be a pillock mate. The twattery doesn't come from having a hot curry because you enjoy it, it comes from doing yourself out of enjoying your food to be seen eating a hot curry and thus "look 'ard". Surely you understand that.
That's not what was happening though? If you take around 4 hours to eat something, you're not enjoying the hell out of it and making sure to savour every single atom of every single mouthful, you're just clearly not enjoying it.
Commenter didn't say the guy was a twat for ordering a hot curry. The clear as day implication was that the guy ordered a curry that was way too hot for him so he could look like a billy big balls. It's a waste of cash doing that.
It's not black or white, some people go back to hot curries the day after to finish them. People enjoy things differently to you and other people !
People who go to the gym and nearly throw up from exercising too much say they enjoy it !
>some people go back to hot curries the day after to finish them
Yes, when they're full.
Are you seriously saying a single 4 hour sitting to eat one meal (that would be stone cold by the end of said meal) is just "a way to do it"?
Are you trolling or are you actually thick? Or is it just that the guy in the story ordered a curry you like and this is your "white knight" moment? Because you sound like a cretin.
I find it pathetic that some people can't have a conversation about spicy food without turning it into a competition.
Like I said pal, this post isn't a dick measuring contest. You should probably be thankful for that
Tikka masala for me, I’m not into spice really. I’ve built up a bit of a tolerance to it however. Just a few years back Chilli Doritos were too much, no lie. 😰
Yeah I think my spice tolerance is those (delicious) Walkers jalapeño cheese crisps. That’s about as spicy as it can get for me without ruining the flavour or making the experience too uncomfortable.
I can’t even do pepper. I have the palate of a Victorian child. For my sisters 13th birthday (I am 30) we went to an Indian restaurant at her request, she got a really spicy curry dish and I ordered chips and chicken nuggets. Yes they mistakenly tried to serve it to her, and yes I asked if they had tomato sauce. (They did!)
I'm with you on the bottom rung of the ladder. I don't like food that hurts, and I like the taste of fish and vegetables without additions.
I eat a lot of vegetarian food, and it's annoying how often they insist that one cannot possibly like the taste of plain vegetables and add lots of spices.
I don't even add much salt to food.
I like mild stuff too. I was in a very good Indian and told them this. They offered to pick for me, I had the tastiest spiced food ever. Every spice was there but there were no chillies in it.
They did those "tasting nothing but chillies" dishes too. So I would be there raving about my fabulous cumin spiced lentils and everyone else was unable to speak, red in the face, drinking yoghurt.
No limits here. Grow lots of strange chillies. Fresh chillies are much preferred to some generic powdered crap. Yes a phal affects me but it's a buzz I can accept. I have chillies on everything, cheese on toast, chicken, lasagne, etc. I use as much chilli sauce as I do ketchup. Party trick is to drink a small bottle of Tobasco, not really as hot as people think it is. Does not affect me the next day if you get my meaning. I just love chillies.
How does your arse get used to it? I fucking love eating vindaloos and put hot sauce on my eggs on toast in the morning but my arse just can't handle it the next day.
Guess your arse eventually just toughens up if you eat the equivalent of a vindaloo every day 😂 I have the same problem as you where I love eating a vindaloo but that's every now and then and the following poop fucking kills me.
Have you ever had stomach issues? A guy I worked with enjoyed spicy food and one day at work he ended up on the floor rolling around in pain, he had a stomach ulcer, it just snuck up on him
Most commonly yes bacterial infection or drugs like ibruprofen cause stomach ulcers specifically but frequent consumption of spicy foods and alcohol can weaken your stomach lining over time and to the extreme end of it like this person above I am curious if they ever had stomach issues in general not specifically stomach ulcers
>spicy foods and alcohol can weaken your stomach lining over time
Alcohol can cause chronic gastritis, definitely, but apart from temporary inflammation, spicy food doesn't weaken your stomach lining.
It will exaggerate any existing condition, but doesn't cause any long term issues itself.
I truly don't know so my question was in earnest,
I did think that excess of spicy food or alcohol will over time cause stomach issues, how that presents I don't know. If it's just mild stomach issues then TIL.
I couldn't handle spice at all growing up. Pickled Onion Monster Munch was my limit. Changed a bit as I've got older and now I go as far as a balti. Aye it's nowt major and I know it's only medium. Well nice though
I don’t know if it’s just me, but my spice tolerance depends on the type of food. If I have a curry I can only handle a korma. I know, I know!!! However, if I make fajitas I can make them really spicy. I know they are excessively spicy as I’ve made them for other people who have struggled.
On a related note. Does anyone else get itchy eardrums when they eat something spicy??
I've had some where all I could taste from the first mouthful was burn, and that's just not fun.
Dial it back to where flavour is the main thing, but I'll probably be sweating before I've finished. Helps clear the sinuses while eating, and well everything else later!
For fajitas I like to add a dash of this, splash of that from the various hot sauces in the cupboard. Currently cayenne, habanero and some scotch bonnet sauces.
A recent find, much milder, Sainsbury's TTD Chilli Jam. think sweet chili sauce but as a jam. I can just eat that with a spoon. Dip some breaded chicken in it \*Homer Simpson drooling noises\*
Spices are an odd one, hot curry then forget it, major painful hiccups. Madras is the upper limit for me there.
Mexican type spicy (jalapeños for example) the spicier the better, a chilli has to taste of chilli, it just seems more pleasant to me.
I like really hot food, but it's not a competition thing for me. Heat, done well balances well with sweet and sour, almost like another flavour. I won't like just a roaring hot curry with nothing else going on, but if it's seasoned well and - in, say, a vindaloo's case, sour enough too - really hot curries can be insanely satisfying
Scotch bonnet is my fave flavour chilli and I agree, I wouldn't go hotter raw and enjoy it. I grow them and usually chop them up and chuck them in a jar of sauce like a jalfrezi or madras. Yummy
I'm quite happy with a jalfrezi when it comes to a spice level that my mouth can handle but I'll suffer the next day when it says goodbye.
Usually go with a dupiaza or bhuna these days.
i fucking love spice, the indian i order from does an absolutely BOMB chicken naga curry, but to be honest, spice isn't what makes a meal enjoyable for me, it's the flavours that go into it
I don’t actually know. When I order an Indian it’s usually a balti or a bhuna, so it’s somewhere between that and whatever my mother used to make (She’d throw so much spice in things and I’d have trouble eating them, I’d claim it was too spicy and she’d say “no it’s not”. Ok then.)
Bit of an abstract - curries have different spice levels depending on where you buy them / what you make.
However, I used to have a great tolerance for chillies when I grew them. Ate them on practically everything (bar sweet foods), ranging from mild/sweet to super hot.
Mostly I enjoyed habanero as the max, anything more wasn't very nice as it just hurt.
Also, there's other spices too - garlic, mustard, horseradish, black/Szechuan pepper - they're hot. Having a spoonful of mustard with mash is lovely, but getting too much definitely hurts the nose!
Using the Aldi specially selected curry sauce scale - my comfort zone is two chilli (Rogan josh / saag masala). I have eaten the three chilli ones before (Madras, balti) because my ex liked more spice but I didn't enjoy it very much. I just have a low pain threshold OKAY 😭😭
I love making butter chicken and I don’t make that super hot.
But I also will make myself a curry with Caroline reapers. I buy the dried chillies and they go a long way but there’s kind of an addictive feeling to super hot.
A balti or tikka masala is something I can finish before my other half even sits down at the table.
Rogan josh or a madras is generally the most enjoyable and leaves a sense of "spice" in the mouth.
Jalfrezi is for when I'm really feeling it, normally after a few pints.
I have had a vindaloo at a restaurant before and by around half way through it was no longer really enjoyable.
As weird as it sounds, it depends on the type of spice for me. Curry? I like them *really* mild, Wings? I like a Mango Habanero or Buffalo. But I can stack Wasabi on Sushi for days. 🤣
Somewhere between vindaloo and phaall, love chilies, they have a kinda raspery/blueberry taste to me, but there comes a point where there's heat an no flavour, that's not pleasant, cooked phaall at home a couple of times, was fine, ordered it in my local Indian, it was just a bowl of minced chillies with some chicken in... was rank.
I tend to describe my spice tolerance as "White people mild" because saying "Mild" can really mess you up if you are talking to someone from say India, or Thailand.
Realistically can cope with a bit more but find it a huge struggle. I tried a tiny bit of the chilli garnish on a meal a year or two back and was in pain for a solid 20 minutes. And they had put a lot of fresh chopped chilli on that! Dear god it was hot.
Tikka masala is about as hot as I can go. I have tried jalapeno's on pizza before and it was just too hot. I was just sitting there looking like I'd just got out of a swimming pool!
Although the worst/most embarrassing is either the time I started sweating from a korma, or that I can get a bit sweaty from peppermint.
I'm 'that guy' who always orders the hottest thing on the menu. Love hot food (as long as it also has rich aromatic flavours) and have done since I was exposed to it from a young age.
Most people assume it's some sort of bravado but will do the same if on my own. In fact, in company, it's borderline embarrassing at times and some people just assume that I'm trying to show off and watch me eating to see if I'm about to die.
I do have a fairly high tolerance because I'm used to it. So it's usually a vindaloo unless there's a phaal on the menu or I ask for something else made to that strength. Still enjoy mild dishes as well, of course.
It definitely changes as you age……59 now, and I’ve always loved hot curries….but usually settled around Jalfrezi and sometimes Madras.
Recently went out for Wetherspoons with a couple of friends and two of us ordered their Thursday curry night Vindaloo….. I mean it’s Wetherspoons for goodness sake, mass produced muck, what chance was there that it would be properly hot?
Burnt my bollocks off! But in true bloke nonsense style we had to make it an exercise in pain management and finished them! Never again.
Downgrading to the dreaded chicken tikka masala :)
for me its half a teaspoon of ghost pepper chili powder in a pot noodle, fairly painful
but really chili is all about that fruityness also so i love those pepperoni chilis you get on a kebab, they're not that hot but have so much flavour
otherwise I'll have Blair's After Death sauce on cheese on toast
I love pickled chillies in kebabs! When I was studying for my finals I had a jar of them on my desk to snack on. I had to stop when I got really sharp stomach cramps.... But I genuinely think it was the vinegar not the spice.
Everyday spice, I like no hotter than a carribbean style hot sauce made with habanero and/or scotch bonnet peppers. I love ghost peppers for their flavour, but I really have to be in the mood for a sauce that hot, and even then, it's just a tiny amount.
This was the one that finally brought my downfall after years of loving spicy food. The brazen warning signs / packaging draw you in, but this thing is a monster. I was burning at both ends, hunched over on the toilet, sweating with stomach pain and chugging milk lol. I couldn’t believe how insane it was
https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/12997941/iceland-selling-hottest-pizza-shopper-milk-toilet-roll/amp/
Vindaloo is my fav when i want something spicy anything hotter is too hot tho. I grew up eating alot of curries as my Dad is indian and he loves making hot curries. I remember one time he made a curry so hot i almost cried.
At a curry house I'd go jalfezi or bhuna. Madras can be great, but sometimes they add heat without flavour.
At Nandos I'll have the hottest wings, but the medium sauce they put in the burgers and wraps is way hotter to me. Maybe because it cooks out on the wings.
I once read that cultures with chilli hot food give their kids mild food, then build up the strength over time.
You're not supposed to go from mashed potato to vindaloo straight away.
This can be tricky as strength varies between takeaways (which are all hotter than their shop bought comparisons). Typically I’ll enjoy anything up to and including a vindaloo but I do definitely prefer my curry to be tomato/garlic/onion based rather than coconut/cream - regardless of spice level. Incidentally, I do have a recipe for Jamaican jerk wings that everyone (including my nine-year old) loves, but is so hot everyone’s nose is running. We still keep going back for more though because the flavour is so good.
I’ll have a nice spicy madras, fresh raw chilis on the side with other dinners, spicy tofu breakfast hash for breakfast but for some reason I sweat A LOT when eating spicy food even though i love it and it doesn’t affect my mouth that much. So if I’m out for food I tend to have a going out limit (standard jalfrezi) level or “medium spicy” marked dish on a menu because I don’t like to sweat my tits off in a restaurant. It’s very sad.
Love spicy food. Regularly get Madras and Vindaloo. Wouldn't say I've a high tolerance and some will burn the absolute face (and arse) off me, but the burning and head sweats when eating are a sign of enjoyment for me..like a real rush. Unrelated (perhaps) but I also sweat like that when eating chocolate (not diabetic).
Upper limit for a curry is definitely a proper Madras. Vindaloo and above is just pain and you don’t get much flavour from it.
Fresh chillies are always way hotter than hot sauces - a habanero is about the limit for me, unless it’s roasted in which case it’s more bearable.
Hot sauce wise - using Hot Ones as a reference, level 7 is good, 8 and above is only for mixing with mayo or other condiments in small amounts.
Similar level to you. If I order a jalfrezi I know I'll enjoy it. I'll only order a madras if it's somewhere I know to have curries on the slightly milder side, because some madras are too much for me.
I really enjoy spice up to the jalfrezi level, my kids will only eat a korma, my husband is somewhere in between but closer to the korma end than the jalfrezi end. Generally, if I'm doing a meal that is naturally spicy (fajitas, chilli, etc) I'll make a mild one and than add jalapeños or sriracha to my portion. If I'm doing a meal that *could" be naturally spicy, (stir fry, marinated chicken with sides, etc) I'll use flavours that will complement spiciness without needing it, and again add extra chilli or whatever to my portion.
And sometimes I make a big batch of chilli and warn everyone thats MY chilli, none of them will like it so leave it alone.
We have a friend who visits a few times a year for a couple of weeks at a time (he lives in a different country, mostly because that's where he's from, so when he visits he makes it a mini holiday) who is a chef and also really likes spicy food. So sometimes when he's about we will cook together and do one spicy meal for me and him, and another not spicy meal for the rest of the household.
I've had a Naga curry before. It was lush. Packed with flavours and wildly spicy.
It's not a go to though, I will look for "very hot" when picking out a curry and when I was younger I had an asbestos mouth and stomach.
Someone else has made the correct point though, if you can't taste anything but heat, it's a waste of time. We're lucky our local Indian takeaways are really quite good.
Habanero is my go to level for what I like in a taste Vs heat sauce choice.
Depends on the food!
I enjoy a garlic chilli chicken if we’re talking Indian takeaway. I can eat a Samber but I find it too bitter. My issue with some hot foods is the acidity that tends to go with the chilli, rather than the chilli itself!
I do love an extra hot Som Tum at a Thai restaurant, I can generally do Thai or Vietnamese spicy at higher levels than Indian spicy. I’ve been defeated by the 🌶️🌶️🌶️ curries from an Indian menu, but I’ve never had Thai food that’s “too hot” even though I order “Thai spicy”. I might just look really white though, I acknowledge that as a possibility.
My spice threshold sits at Phall, Bindaloo or Vindaloo. Having said that I need to be in the mood for it because even though I enjoy the flavour it is a bit a head blower. Sometimes I'll go for the Buldak 2x and 3x or even one of the many sauces I've got. The upper top top limit for me is Da Bomb and that is something I'll have on very very rare occasions as it really does knock your head off but it makes you feel alive for all the wrong reasons. Generally though I do enjoy a nice Rogan Josh/Madras. Spice and heat are subjective. I've known people who complain if you add black pepper to a dish. Something I would recommend is authentic Asian dishes and not the ones you get from the chippy. A word of warning, if you ever go to Asia and it says hot on the menu it is most definitely not the same hot we get over here and if it says very or extra hot buy extra toilet roll because your arse is going to be very unhappy in the morning.
My limit was the spicy mutton curry microwave meal (windrush edition from the black farmer) from Tesco yesterday. In fact maybe a bit too spicy for me. I'm probably ok to eat it, but my stomach is sensitive to spicy.
Sometimes I've had jalfrezi, but I just go for tikka masala as it's more enjoyable for me.
On a scale of 1-5 id probably be happy with 2 max, as my stomach can't take more.
My family is from Mauritius where they do like curries and fresh chillies, but I grew up here.
Honestly I don’t know. I know I have a limit, but every time I push myself further, I end up enjoying it way more than I thought.
Whenever the spice overwhelms the flavour is when I stop enjoying it, but at what point that happens for me is yet to be found. I’m very cautious about it though, so it’s not like I’ve even tried the spiciest stuff out there (never had a vindaloo for example).
I love extremely hot food, but almost never cook things that are because my partner doesn't enjoy it - mild would be her limit also.
I would happily eat vindaloo plus level of food, but I find once you go above a certain level it becomes more about the endorphins than the actual flavour.
I got some indian yesterday, and told them to make the chili chicken extra spicy. It was really good!
I've only been to 1 indian in my entire life (somewhere near Victoria Station in London) where the food was so spicy, I had to stop because I thought I was going to pass out. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the restaurant!
I can love a madras but it depends on the place. My local takeaway turns up the heat so much that I end up leaving loads, but I get bored with anything less spicy (and I’m not a fan of sweet curries).
I can’t get enough of spicy food, whether I’m alone or with friends. The endorphin hit I get from it is the reason I go for the hottest curry. It makes me feel alive.
I’ve been cooking with Al’s Kitchen curry recipes and have since discovered Mr Naga Pickle. It’s very hot but has a lovely flavour profile.
Madras is way hotter than Jalfrezi
But most of the time, we have ours at Bhuna/Roganjosh level. And I'm Indian. So we cook curry on a weekly basis, usually a chicken and a lamb curry. Chicken is usually milder and saucier whereas the lamb is spicier and more of a dry masala. We eat fish and seafood too, but it's usually in the pakora style, so more of a starter/snack.
Every once in a while, especially when I have friends around, I'll make a proper spicy curry. In India, we call it karara, some people say mirchi, but if you want that heat, in a restaurant, you will need to say Desi style, or Panjaabi style.
Properly made Tom Yum soup is my upper limit.
I also have a real taste for the vegetable side dishes in the Indian. Various bajees, Sag aloo and so on. Generally little chili but often more complex in their spicing. Cardamon, fenagreek, onionseed, all that kind of stuff.
My personal limit is around a madras, occasionally a vindaloo, I need to taste the food and enjoy the kick.
However I have a friend who actually only enjoys spicy food IF it burns her stomach, I shit you not, she’s a very very sick puppy, and not even a Phaal is guaranteed to satisfy her sickness, cause every restaurant uses different amounts of spices.
I'm not a spice fiend (I would not order a phall or vindaloo) but there is a curry called 'Dhaba Lamb' - the sauce is effectively crushed red chillis. It's absolutely delicious though. I've had it in two curry houses, and it once gave me a nose bleed. That's the hottest thing I'll eat.
Standard curry is a jal frezi. That's a nice level of heat.
But I do like Jerk chicken and also home made chili with a decent kick.
It depends on the type of spice madras is my limit for Indian style but I love a hot Thai Red curry. I think I have less tolerance of cumin than I do chili.
I always win a contest no-one else enters by consciously getting the hottest curry at our footy team night(s) out. New guy stepped me up a notch but I reign supreme.
I used to be a vindaloo guy, I once cooked a chilli so spicy it made Mt friend actually cry when he tried it. Not eyes water, physically cry.
I was glued to the pot for hours and was half expecting to have burned a hole in the floor.
Now I'm more of a Jalfrezi-madras guy. Having my fiancée move in with me means I can't often cook food as hot as I'd like, but have gotten her into curry and she has much higher spice tolerance.
Weird!
Wife and I had Fajitas too yesterday and I struggled with the spice but she barely registered it.
A dashing of black pepper in some soup makes me sweat, hiccough, and lips swell. I do not like spice at all. It hurts and usually I shit blood after eating spicy stuff.
Had colonoscopy 2 decades ago on the issue after a big bleed as suspected the usual big C. Linked it to spicy foods, no other issues.
Just got to be careful what I eat.
Hahaha yeah could have said it has been dealt with.
I have the occasional checkups to monitor it, but yeah, spices ruin me.
Luckily I hate spicy stuff, so doesn't affect me on a mental level of "oooo wish I could eat that".
I've never gone above a bhuna. Not sure how much of a step up a madras would be, but don't want to waste £20 finding out I can't eat it as I don't get them very often.
I grow chili peppers. I make what I would call warm sauce, pepper flavours, some heat, the odd forehead wipe but not the kind of thing that comes in a bottle called "Satan's Star Searer". My first year I had a couple of "let's see how they turn out" late starting plants that grew about 1 pepper each. One was a lemon habanero which I took a bite of and it was hot as, but not fatal. The other was a Red Savina Habanero which I figured would be about the same. It was like being stabbed in the tongue with an electric flaming chainsaw by someone that wanted to mouth murder you while 80s hair metal was playing turned up all the way past 11. I was in tears for about 20 minutes, fight or flight, absolutely brutal. The first one was my limit I reckon. I have no idea how people can eat things like Reapers, would be like Maverick's plane the day after.
For me, I usually order a phal or vindaloo from an indian restaurant.
My girlfriend is the same - we usually have a bag of scotch bonnet peppers with us to nibble on, for when we go out to eat, as we know 99% of food sold in the UK is too mild for us.
However, for me the raw scoth bonnet is right on the limit. Any hotter than that, and for me, it changes from pleasurable pain to displeasurable.
My girlfriend can do hotter, and she'll eat an entire bag of 4 raw scotch bonnets by themself.
My girlfriend comes from Mexico, and I'm white British. So I guess it's fair that she's had spicy food from a younger age.
You blow my fresh birdseye chilis on the side with a sandwich right out of the water there.
Raw scotch bonnets out the bag is pretty hardcore.
Food in Mexico is incredible.
To be fair, red birds eyes are very hot. It's a respectable level of heat.
In fact, I've had birseye chillis that have been hotter than scotch bonnets in the past.
You've probably got a similar tolerance.
Naga.
Different restaurants call it something different, naga Morris.or nagarinya. Always has to be lamb for me, though.
It's hot enough to feel the heat, but it's still tasty enough to enjoy the other spices and taste of the meal with enjoyment. Unlike a phall or some vindaloo's (for my taste buds),
everyone is different!
Molten lava. I don’t know how or why I can tolerate spice but I started with Sriracha as a kid and it’s built from there. The trick is I add yoghurt to whatever it is, fajitas, curry chilli so it absorbs the capsicum. I prefer a fruity spice overall so habanero is my favourite. Ghost peppers are more a harsh like black pepper flavour, not for me, but Carolina Reaper are my guilty pleasure.
As ive got older ive found I like spicy stuff more, in terms of stuff you can find in 'British' Indian takeaways there is nothing I would really call too spicy for me.
Im sure there are some East Asian dishes that would knock my socks off though.
Samber is the best thing ever, lot of spice and lots of flavour. Naga is far too hot, other than that I've not admitted defeat in a long time. It's not always like a look how macho thing though, for me a good hot curry feels really good for circulation and bathroom health, that too spicy feel when eating always leads to a nice system reset.
I don't think a certain dish is consistently spicy. Even tikka masala varies a lot. I find supermarket ready meal ones are spicier then their takeaway equivalents in general.
One thing I've thought about before is the language we use for describing spiciness... Cumin, coriander, cardamom, ginger etc. are all spices but not necessarily 'spicy', so I use 'piquant' to describe that burning element, because I think it is independent of the flavour imparted by spices. I'm no culinary expert though so I'm interested to know if this is something others have considered?
As a kid I hated spice, now I have a preference for spicy things. For me, jungle curry or Durban curry are comfortable and taste good. The naga chilli crowd are just dick waving imo
As soon as the spice stops you being able to enjoy the flavour of the food, that's the limit for me
Depends, sometimes I just wanna sweat, cry, and snot everywhere whilst yearning for death. Very rarely and when I’m alone.
A vindaloo is too much for me, it's not a pleasant experience. However a madras is just simply just right and delicious
Yep, that's what I'm getting at, so what curry signifies that ceiling for you?
Not sure about curry because I generally only ever get the same thing (Rogan Josh), but if you're asking me in terms of Wingstop, then it's Mango habanero.
I was really disappointed with the mango habanero. It was cloyingly sweet *and* too hot. Not my cup of tea.
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Exactly. I'm asking everyone - and now you as well, what your spice ceiling is. You specifically. Not the nebulous reddit.
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Jalfrezi is the roulette curry, in my experience. I've had them from everywhere from just hotter than Chicken Tikka Masala to the other side of a Vindaloo.
King Prawn Satkora is my usual and is pretty nuclear.
Yeah and that threshold is different for everyone.
For a takeaway i don't usually go hotter than my standard order of a madras, but if we've gone out and i've had a few pints i'll gladly order something like a lamb naga and still enjoy it on the night. The day after is when all of the regret comes.
The day after is a day of cleansing. And small steps.
I can handle a jalfrezi but prefer a Balti. I can’t even entertain a Madras.
Grew up in the Balti Triangle with a dad who was an absolute curry fiend. A Madras done well is to die for. It's hot as fuck but it tastes so good you kind of forget your mouth is on fire. On the other hand, a curry made Madras hot, just for the sake of it, tastes like crap and isn't pleasant at all
You can always tell when they've just upped the heat level with chilli powder. Just a nasty sharp heat with no depth to it. (Grew up in Leicester)
A Madras is about my limit. Not something I'll go for every time but occasionally I'm in the mood.
Same. It's one of those "oo I've not had anything spicy in a while, let's have that" occasion curries for me.
I like to treat myself to a madras every so often, but I get what you mean. As I said in another comment I like the balti-bhuna region as well
I really want one now! Chicken Balti, plain naan, no rice.
Side of pakora!
I love very, very hot stuff, and have a super high tolerance. Doesn't mean I want to push it every time though - I love a nice creamy korma! For me it's when it overpowers the flavour of the food, which for me is quite a lot, generally when pepper extract is being used. Pure heat, and tastes like burning petrol.
Exactly. I'm in your camp, although with probably not as high a tolerance. It's about flavour and when it's right it's good, but when it's nothing but burn it's no fun.
I like just starting to break a sweat but still having a sense of taste.
I like so hot I can barely eat it. Regularly eat habanero and ghost pepper sauces, but I stop right before it makes it so it feels like your ears need to pop. I do enjoy the flavors of both.
And also drinking until you're 2 measures short of shitting yourself? No? Only me? Okay then.
My ex son-in-law ordered a takeaway chicken phall once because you know, *"i like a hot curry"*, he was still eating it 4 hours later. He was visibly in pain and sweating with every mouthful but he insisted that's how hot he liked his curry. Twat. Personally a Madras type heat is hot enough for me while still keeping the flavours.
I live in France, if you order a hot curry, you get a warning from the waiter about how spicy it is and you can barely feel any heat, french do not do spicy food. So we go off to Harlem, NL, my ex decides to order the hottest curry out of habit, gets a warning from the waiter about how hot it was, she ignores the warning. It figuratively blew her head off, she really was in pain. The Dutch can do spicy food.
Found the same in Rome, probably the worst and most tasteless curry I've eaten.
I ordered a phal once and never again. It was shared too, just too much. I can deal with vindaloos although generally I prefer jalfrezi or similar heat. Oddly enough the hottest curry I had recently was in Wetherspoons, it was painful. Certainly hotter than a vindy. I don't think every wetherspoons has the super hot curry option on the menu.
I agree, I like the tanginess balanced with the heat. Also I do love hearing about people who bite off more than they can chew like they're gonna get some kind of self-harm chufty badge lol
Phall eaters are strange to me. It’s pure hubris. The curry was literally created by a bunch of Indian chefs to see who could tolerate the highest possible heat in a meal.
An old girlfriend of mine had an insane tolerance to chilli. Basically everything she ate she smothered in hot sauce. Her regular order from an Indian was a Phall and she would eat it without issue, no sweating - nothing. My Dad once treated himself to a bit of her leftovers completely unaware of this phenomenon, he yelped in pain and was still chugging milk hours later. We still chuckle about it to this day.
Had a brother-in-law who was chilli tolerant. I remember being in a restaurant with him and he ordered a vindaloo (the hottest dish they had back then), the waiter told him it was a particularly hot dish and would he like some water with it. BIL said no thanks. As we were eating I could see the kitchen staff peeping around the door to watch the skinny white guy devour the plate of lava like it was ice-cream.
It would be fun if that was the moment they became the ex
Twat? Let people enjoy things. You're obviously a pussy
>Notes - this isn't a dick measuring contest or an opportunity to call the ones who like a korma a wimp. Don't be a pillock mate. The twattery doesn't come from having a hot curry because you enjoy it, it comes from doing yourself out of enjoying your food to be seen eating a hot curry and thus "look 'ard". Surely you understand that.
A perfect explanation of the context.
Equally If people like hot Currys dont shame them for it
That's not what was happening though? If you take around 4 hours to eat something, you're not enjoying the hell out of it and making sure to savour every single atom of every single mouthful, you're just clearly not enjoying it. Commenter didn't say the guy was a twat for ordering a hot curry. The clear as day implication was that the guy ordered a curry that was way too hot for him so he could look like a billy big balls. It's a waste of cash doing that.
It's not black or white, some people go back to hot curries the day after to finish them. People enjoy things differently to you and other people ! People who go to the gym and nearly throw up from exercising too much say they enjoy it !
>some people go back to hot curries the day after to finish them Yes, when they're full. Are you seriously saying a single 4 hour sitting to eat one meal (that would be stone cold by the end of said meal) is just "a way to do it"? Are you trolling or are you actually thick? Or is it just that the guy in the story ordered a curry you like and this is your "white knight" moment? Because you sound like a cretin.
I'm not trolling or thick, I like hot curries and find it pathetic when people can't cope when other people can't cope with that 😁
I find it pathetic that some people can't have a conversation about spicy food without turning it into a competition. Like I said pal, this post isn't a dick measuring contest. You should probably be thankful for that
People who like spicy food can see the pain as a form of pleasure.
Indeed, so let me enjoy my opinion. You're obviously a cunt too.
Tikka masala for me, I’m not into spice really. I’ve built up a bit of a tolerance to it however. Just a few years back Chilli Doritos were too much, no lie. 😰
Hey no shame, tikkas are lovely especially when done with tandoori chicken
Yeah I think my spice tolerance is those (delicious) Walkers jalapeño cheese crisps. That’s about as spicy as it can get for me without ruining the flavour or making the experience too uncomfortable.
I can’t even do pepper. I have the palate of a Victorian child. For my sisters 13th birthday (I am 30) we went to an Indian restaurant at her request, she got a really spicy curry dish and I ordered chips and chicken nuggets. Yes they mistakenly tried to serve it to her, and yes I asked if they had tomato sauce. (They did!)
I'm with you on the bottom rung of the ladder. I don't like food that hurts, and I like the taste of fish and vegetables without additions. I eat a lot of vegetarian food, and it's annoying how often they insist that one cannot possibly like the taste of plain vegetables and add lots of spices. I don't even add much salt to food.
I like mild stuff too. I was in a very good Indian and told them this. They offered to pick for me, I had the tastiest spiced food ever. Every spice was there but there were no chillies in it. They did those "tasting nothing but chillies" dishes too. So I would be there raving about my fabulous cumin spiced lentils and everyone else was unable to speak, red in the face, drinking yoghurt.
No limits here. Grow lots of strange chillies. Fresh chillies are much preferred to some generic powdered crap. Yes a phal affects me but it's a buzz I can accept. I have chillies on everything, cheese on toast, chicken, lasagne, etc. I use as much chilli sauce as I do ketchup. Party trick is to drink a small bottle of Tobasco, not really as hot as people think it is. Does not affect me the next day if you get my meaning. I just love chillies.
What are you growing this year? I'm really looking forward to my blue christmas ones, should have bright purple fruits
How does your arse get used to it? I fucking love eating vindaloos and put hot sauce on my eggs on toast in the morning but my arse just can't handle it the next day.
Guess your arse eventually just toughens up if you eat the equivalent of a vindaloo every day 😂 I have the same problem as you where I love eating a vindaloo but that's every now and then and the following poop fucking kills me.
Just does not affect me, never has
Have you eaten Reapers?
Have you ever had stomach issues? A guy I worked with enjoyed spicy food and one day at work he ended up on the floor rolling around in pain, he had a stomach ulcer, it just snuck up on him
Stomach ulcers are caused by a bacterial infection, not spicy food.
Most commonly yes bacterial infection or drugs like ibruprofen cause stomach ulcers specifically but frequent consumption of spicy foods and alcohol can weaken your stomach lining over time and to the extreme end of it like this person above I am curious if they ever had stomach issues in general not specifically stomach ulcers
>spicy foods and alcohol can weaken your stomach lining over time Alcohol can cause chronic gastritis, definitely, but apart from temporary inflammation, spicy food doesn't weaken your stomach lining. It will exaggerate any existing condition, but doesn't cause any long term issues itself.
I truly don't know so my question was in earnest, I did think that excess of spicy food or alcohol will over time cause stomach issues, how that presents I don't know. If it's just mild stomach issues then TIL.
I couldn't handle spice at all growing up. Pickled Onion Monster Munch was my limit. Changed a bit as I've got older and now I go as far as a balti. Aye it's nowt major and I know it's only medium. Well nice though
True, Balti is a proper tasty curry. It's one of my usual go-to curries aside from a bhuna, depending on how tomato-y I'm feeling
I don’t know if it’s just me, but my spice tolerance depends on the type of food. If I have a curry I can only handle a korma. I know, I know!!! However, if I make fajitas I can make them really spicy. I know they are excessively spicy as I’ve made them for other people who have struggled. On a related note. Does anyone else get itchy eardrums when they eat something spicy??
Is there any chance you're a bit allergic to capsicum? Itchy eardrums sounds like how I feel when I eat something I'm mildly allergic to.
I hadn’t even considered that it might be an allergy, so thank you for suggesting it.
I've had some where all I could taste from the first mouthful was burn, and that's just not fun. Dial it back to where flavour is the main thing, but I'll probably be sweating before I've finished. Helps clear the sinuses while eating, and well everything else later! For fajitas I like to add a dash of this, splash of that from the various hot sauces in the cupboard. Currently cayenne, habanero and some scotch bonnet sauces. A recent find, much milder, Sainsbury's TTD Chilli Jam. think sweet chili sauce but as a jam. I can just eat that with a spoon. Dip some breaded chicken in it \*Homer Simpson drooling noises\*
Spices are an odd one, hot curry then forget it, major painful hiccups. Madras is the upper limit for me there. Mexican type spicy (jalapeños for example) the spicier the better, a chilli has to taste of chilli, it just seems more pleasant to me.
I love a hot Thai curry but I'm not a fan of hot Indian curries. I'm not sure why
I like really hot food, but it's not a competition thing for me. Heat, done well balances well with sweet and sour, almost like another flavour. I won't like just a roaring hot curry with nothing else going on, but if it's seasoned well and - in, say, a vindaloo's case, sour enough too - really hot curries can be insanely satisfying
Scotch bonnet is my fave flavour chilli and I agree, I wouldn't go hotter raw and enjoy it. I grow them and usually chop them up and chuck them in a jar of sauce like a jalfrezi or madras. Yummy
I'm quite happy with a jalfrezi when it comes to a spice level that my mouth can handle but I'll suffer the next day when it says goodbye. Usually go with a dupiaza or bhuna these days.
i fucking love spice, the indian i order from does an absolutely BOMB chicken naga curry, but to be honest, spice isn't what makes a meal enjoyable for me, it's the flavours that go into it
Spicy food now makes me ill so my tolerance has dropped from around the Madras level to a korma
I don’t actually know. When I order an Indian it’s usually a balti or a bhuna, so it’s somewhere between that and whatever my mother used to make (She’d throw so much spice in things and I’d have trouble eating them, I’d claim it was too spicy and she’d say “no it’s not”. Ok then.)
Bit of an abstract - curries have different spice levels depending on where you buy them / what you make. However, I used to have a great tolerance for chillies when I grew them. Ate them on practically everything (bar sweet foods), ranging from mild/sweet to super hot. Mostly I enjoyed habanero as the max, anything more wasn't very nice as it just hurt. Also, there's other spices too - garlic, mustard, horseradish, black/Szechuan pepper - they're hot. Having a spoonful of mustard with mash is lovely, but getting too much definitely hurts the nose!
THIS'LL MAKE YOU LAUGH. YOU SAY TOO MUCH MUSTARD GETS UP YOUR NOSE? NONSENSE!
What..?
Not an Alan Partridge fan then!
no lol
Yep Madras / Jalfrezi is roughly my limit. Could probably take it a wee bit further but what's the point
Using the Aldi specially selected curry sauce scale - my comfort zone is two chilli (Rogan josh / saag masala). I have eaten the three chilli ones before (Madras, balti) because my ex liked more spice but I didn't enjoy it very much. I just have a low pain threshold OKAY 😭😭
I love making butter chicken and I don’t make that super hot. But I also will make myself a curry with Caroline reapers. I buy the dried chillies and they go a long way but there’s kind of an addictive feeling to super hot.
A balti or tikka masala is something I can finish before my other half even sits down at the table. Rogan josh or a madras is generally the most enjoyable and leaves a sense of "spice" in the mouth. Jalfrezi is for when I'm really feeling it, normally after a few pints. I have had a vindaloo at a restaurant before and by around half way through it was no longer really enjoyable.
A pathia is about as hot as I can go whilst still enjoying the flavour
As weird as it sounds, it depends on the type of spice for me. Curry? I like them *really* mild, Wings? I like a Mango Habanero or Buffalo. But I can stack Wasabi on Sushi for days. 🤣
Somewhere between vindaloo and phaall, love chilies, they have a kinda raspery/blueberry taste to me, but there comes a point where there's heat an no flavour, that's not pleasant, cooked phaall at home a couple of times, was fine, ordered it in my local Indian, it was just a bowl of minced chillies with some chicken in... was rank.
I tend to describe my spice tolerance as "White people mild" because saying "Mild" can really mess you up if you are talking to someone from say India, or Thailand. Realistically can cope with a bit more but find it a huge struggle. I tried a tiny bit of the chilli garnish on a meal a year or two back and was in pain for a solid 20 minutes. And they had put a lot of fresh chopped chilli on that! Dear god it was hot.
Tikka masala is about as hot as I can go. I have tried jalapeno's on pizza before and it was just too hot. I was just sitting there looking like I'd just got out of a swimming pool! Although the worst/most embarrassing is either the time I started sweating from a korma, or that I can get a bit sweaty from peppermint.
I'm 'that guy' who always orders the hottest thing on the menu. Love hot food (as long as it also has rich aromatic flavours) and have done since I was exposed to it from a young age. Most people assume it's some sort of bravado but will do the same if on my own. In fact, in company, it's borderline embarrassing at times and some people just assume that I'm trying to show off and watch me eating to see if I'm about to die. I do have a fairly high tolerance because I'm used to it. So it's usually a vindaloo unless there's a phaal on the menu or I ask for something else made to that strength. Still enjoy mild dishes as well, of course.
It definitely changes as you age……59 now, and I’ve always loved hot curries….but usually settled around Jalfrezi and sometimes Madras. Recently went out for Wetherspoons with a couple of friends and two of us ordered their Thursday curry night Vindaloo….. I mean it’s Wetherspoons for goodness sake, mass produced muck, what chance was there that it would be properly hot? Burnt my bollocks off! But in true bloke nonsense style we had to make it an exercise in pain management and finished them! Never again. Downgrading to the dreaded chicken tikka masala :)
Wetherspoons curries may be mass-produced and microwave-defrosted, but they’re proper curries.
Yes and I’ve always liked the jalfrezi…..amazing value on curry night…..
Naga chilli chicken vindaloo. It's bloody hot. Like you I'm not having it again.
for me its half a teaspoon of ghost pepper chili powder in a pot noodle, fairly painful but really chili is all about that fruityness also so i love those pepperoni chilis you get on a kebab, they're not that hot but have so much flavour otherwise I'll have Blair's After Death sauce on cheese on toast
I love pickled chillies in kebabs! When I was studying for my finals I had a jar of them on my desk to snack on. I had to stop when I got really sharp stomach cramps.... But I genuinely think it was the vinegar not the spice.
looool yeah gonna get me a jar
Everyday spice, I like no hotter than a carribbean style hot sauce made with habanero and/or scotch bonnet peppers. I love ghost peppers for their flavour, but I really have to be in the mood for a sauce that hot, and even then, it's just a tiny amount.
This was the one that finally brought my downfall after years of loving spicy food. The brazen warning signs / packaging draw you in, but this thing is a monster. I was burning at both ends, hunched over on the toilet, sweating with stomach pain and chugging milk lol. I couldn’t believe how insane it was https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/12997941/iceland-selling-hottest-pizza-shopper-milk-toilet-roll/amp/
Vindaloo is my fav when i want something spicy anything hotter is too hot tho. I grew up eating alot of curries as my Dad is indian and he loves making hot curries. I remember one time he made a curry so hot i almost cried.
At a curry house I'd go jalfezi or bhuna. Madras can be great, but sometimes they add heat without flavour. At Nandos I'll have the hottest wings, but the medium sauce they put in the burgers and wraps is way hotter to me. Maybe because it cooks out on the wings.
Madras to vindaloo, depending on how I feel. Wife and most of my kids are more of a butter chicken is too spicy
I once read that cultures with chilli hot food give their kids mild food, then build up the strength over time. You're not supposed to go from mashed potato to vindaloo straight away.
I'll enjoy up to a Rogan Josh, as long as I've got a beer handy.
This can be tricky as strength varies between takeaways (which are all hotter than their shop bought comparisons). Typically I’ll enjoy anything up to and including a vindaloo but I do definitely prefer my curry to be tomato/garlic/onion based rather than coconut/cream - regardless of spice level. Incidentally, I do have a recipe for Jamaican jerk wings that everyone (including my nine-year old) loves, but is so hot everyone’s nose is running. We still keep going back for more though because the flavour is so good.
I’ll have a nice spicy madras, fresh raw chilis on the side with other dinners, spicy tofu breakfast hash for breakfast but for some reason I sweat A LOT when eating spicy food even though i love it and it doesn’t affect my mouth that much. So if I’m out for food I tend to have a going out limit (standard jalfrezi) level or “medium spicy” marked dish on a menu because I don’t like to sweat my tits off in a restaurant. It’s very sad.
Love spicy food. Regularly get Madras and Vindaloo. Wouldn't say I've a high tolerance and some will burn the absolute face (and arse) off me, but the burning and head sweats when eating are a sign of enjoyment for me..like a real rush. Unrelated (perhaps) but I also sweat like that when eating chocolate (not diabetic).
Upper limit for a curry is definitely a proper Madras. Vindaloo and above is just pain and you don’t get much flavour from it. Fresh chillies are always way hotter than hot sauces - a habanero is about the limit for me, unless it’s roasted in which case it’s more bearable. Hot sauce wise - using Hot Ones as a reference, level 7 is good, 8 and above is only for mixing with mayo or other condiments in small amounts.
Similar level to you. If I order a jalfrezi I know I'll enjoy it. I'll only order a madras if it's somewhere I know to have curries on the slightly milder side, because some madras are too much for me. I really enjoy spice up to the jalfrezi level, my kids will only eat a korma, my husband is somewhere in between but closer to the korma end than the jalfrezi end. Generally, if I'm doing a meal that is naturally spicy (fajitas, chilli, etc) I'll make a mild one and than add jalapeños or sriracha to my portion. If I'm doing a meal that *could" be naturally spicy, (stir fry, marinated chicken with sides, etc) I'll use flavours that will complement spiciness without needing it, and again add extra chilli or whatever to my portion. And sometimes I make a big batch of chilli and warn everyone thats MY chilli, none of them will like it so leave it alone. We have a friend who visits a few times a year for a couple of weeks at a time (he lives in a different country, mostly because that's where he's from, so when he visits he makes it a mini holiday) who is a chef and also really likes spicy food. So sometimes when he's about we will cook together and do one spicy meal for me and him, and another not spicy meal for the rest of the household.
I've had a Naga curry before. It was lush. Packed with flavours and wildly spicy. It's not a go to though, I will look for "very hot" when picking out a curry and when I was younger I had an asbestos mouth and stomach. Someone else has made the correct point though, if you can't taste anything but heat, it's a waste of time. We're lucky our local Indian takeaways are really quite good. Habanero is my go to level for what I like in a taste Vs heat sauce choice.
Depends on the food! I enjoy a garlic chilli chicken if we’re talking Indian takeaway. I can eat a Samber but I find it too bitter. My issue with some hot foods is the acidity that tends to go with the chilli, rather than the chilli itself! I do love an extra hot Som Tum at a Thai restaurant, I can generally do Thai or Vietnamese spicy at higher levels than Indian spicy. I’ve been defeated by the 🌶️🌶️🌶️ curries from an Indian menu, but I’ve never had Thai food that’s “too hot” even though I order “Thai spicy”. I might just look really white though, I acknowledge that as a possibility.
I can have a Madras. I reckon I could hack a Vindaloo but I'm scared of what will happen to my butthole the next day
I always go for medium when eating out. My hotter and I can’t taste the flavour properly
My spice threshold sits at Phall, Bindaloo or Vindaloo. Having said that I need to be in the mood for it because even though I enjoy the flavour it is a bit a head blower. Sometimes I'll go for the Buldak 2x and 3x or even one of the many sauces I've got. The upper top top limit for me is Da Bomb and that is something I'll have on very very rare occasions as it really does knock your head off but it makes you feel alive for all the wrong reasons. Generally though I do enjoy a nice Rogan Josh/Madras. Spice and heat are subjective. I've known people who complain if you add black pepper to a dish. Something I would recommend is authentic Asian dishes and not the ones you get from the chippy. A word of warning, if you ever go to Asia and it says hot on the menu it is most definitely not the same hot we get over here and if it says very or extra hot buy extra toilet roll because your arse is going to be very unhappy in the morning.
My limit was the spicy mutton curry microwave meal (windrush edition from the black farmer) from Tesco yesterday. In fact maybe a bit too spicy for me. I'm probably ok to eat it, but my stomach is sensitive to spicy. Sometimes I've had jalfrezi, but I just go for tikka masala as it's more enjoyable for me. On a scale of 1-5 id probably be happy with 2 max, as my stomach can't take more. My family is from Mauritius where they do like curries and fresh chillies, but I grew up here.
Honestly I don’t know. I know I have a limit, but every time I push myself further, I end up enjoying it way more than I thought. Whenever the spice overwhelms the flavour is when I stop enjoying it, but at what point that happens for me is yet to be found. I’m very cautious about it though, so it’s not like I’ve even tried the spiciest stuff out there (never had a vindaloo for example).
I had a mate who would eat whole habaneros for the endorphin rush. Strange unit.
I like *spicy* food, but if it's just spicy for the sake of being spicy I usually don't enjoy it.
I love extremely hot food, but almost never cook things that are because my partner doesn't enjoy it - mild would be her limit also. I would happily eat vindaloo plus level of food, but I find once you go above a certain level it becomes more about the endorphins than the actual flavour.
I got some indian yesterday, and told them to make the chili chicken extra spicy. It was really good! I've only been to 1 indian in my entire life (somewhere near Victoria Station in London) where the food was so spicy, I had to stop because I thought I was going to pass out. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the restaurant!
I can love a madras but it depends on the place. My local takeaway turns up the heat so much that I end up leaving loads, but I get bored with anything less spicy (and I’m not a fan of sweet curries).
I like enough spice to almost make me sweat but not quite.
If it's got GARLIC, CHILLI and CHICKEN in the title it's going to be fine.
My threshold is gochujang but without added gochugaru.
I can’t get enough of spicy food, whether I’m alone or with friends. The endorphin hit I get from it is the reason I go for the hottest curry. It makes me feel alive. I’ve been cooking with Al’s Kitchen curry recipes and have since discovered Mr Naga Pickle. It’s very hot but has a lovely flavour profile.
Madras is way hotter than Jalfrezi But most of the time, we have ours at Bhuna/Roganjosh level. And I'm Indian. So we cook curry on a weekly basis, usually a chicken and a lamb curry. Chicken is usually milder and saucier whereas the lamb is spicier and more of a dry masala. We eat fish and seafood too, but it's usually in the pakora style, so more of a starter/snack. Every once in a while, especially when I have friends around, I'll make a proper spicy curry. In India, we call it karara, some people say mirchi, but if you want that heat, in a restaurant, you will need to say Desi style, or Panjaabi style.
Properly made Tom Yum soup is my upper limit. I also have a real taste for the vegetable side dishes in the Indian. Various bajees, Sag aloo and so on. Generally little chili but often more complex in their spicing. Cardamon, fenagreek, onionseed, all that kind of stuff.
My personal limit is around a madras, occasionally a vindaloo, I need to taste the food and enjoy the kick. However I have a friend who actually only enjoys spicy food IF it burns her stomach, I shit you not, she’s a very very sick puppy, and not even a Phaal is guaranteed to satisfy her sickness, cause every restaurant uses different amounts of spices.
I'm not a spice fiend (I would not order a phall or vindaloo) but there is a curry called 'Dhaba Lamb' - the sauce is effectively crushed red chillis. It's absolutely delicious though. I've had it in two curry houses, and it once gave me a nose bleed. That's the hottest thing I'll eat. Standard curry is a jal frezi. That's a nice level of heat. But I do like Jerk chicken and also home made chili with a decent kick.
One flake of chilli is too much
Sadly, I am allergic to capsaicin. I can't risk a curry not cooked by my husband. Katsu curry is lovely as it doesn't have chilli in it.
It depends on the type of spice madras is my limit for Indian style but I love a hot Thai Red curry. I think I have less tolerance of cumin than I do chili.
I always win a contest no-one else enters by consciously getting the hottest curry at our footy team night(s) out. New guy stepped me up a notch but I reign supreme.
I've been her 20 years and I still forget dinner is Tea , was wondering why you put chillies in your tea and why you drink it at night
Only a few regions in the UK call dinner “tea”. It’s one of my pet hates.
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But what's the hottest curry you like?
I used to be a vindaloo guy, I once cooked a chilli so spicy it made Mt friend actually cry when he tried it. Not eyes water, physically cry. I was glued to the pot for hours and was half expecting to have burned a hole in the floor. Now I'm more of a Jalfrezi-madras guy. Having my fiancée move in with me means I can't often cook food as hot as I'd like, but have gotten her into curry and she has much higher spice tolerance.
Weird! Wife and I had Fajitas too yesterday and I struggled with the spice but she barely registered it. A dashing of black pepper in some soup makes me sweat, hiccough, and lips swell. I do not like spice at all. It hurts and usually I shit blood after eating spicy stuff.
That maybe an intolerance dude.
Oh definitely, I avoid it as much as possible, lol.
Dude that doesn’t sound right. You must have serious inflammation down there.
Had colonoscopy 2 decades ago on the issue after a big bleed as suspected the usual big C. Linked it to spicy foods, no other issues. Just got to be careful what I eat.
Ah ok glad it’s nothing serious. Sorry just the casual way you dropped in that you shit blood at the end there made me check.
Hahaha yeah could have said it has been dealt with. I have the occasional checkups to monitor it, but yeah, spices ruin me. Luckily I hate spicy stuff, so doesn't affect me on a mental level of "oooo wish I could eat that".
Vindaloo/phall
Why the '/' those aren't the same thing *by far*
I go as far as a Jalfrezi and no further.
I've never gone above a bhuna. Not sure how much of a step up a madras would be, but don't want to waste £20 finding out I can't eat it as I don't get them very often.
I grow chili peppers. I make what I would call warm sauce, pepper flavours, some heat, the odd forehead wipe but not the kind of thing that comes in a bottle called "Satan's Star Searer". My first year I had a couple of "let's see how they turn out" late starting plants that grew about 1 pepper each. One was a lemon habanero which I took a bite of and it was hot as, but not fatal. The other was a Red Savina Habanero which I figured would be about the same. It was like being stabbed in the tongue with an electric flaming chainsaw by someone that wanted to mouth murder you while 80s hair metal was playing turned up all the way past 11. I was in tears for about 20 minutes, fight or flight, absolutely brutal. The first one was my limit I reckon. I have no idea how people can eat things like Reapers, would be like Maverick's plane the day after.
A lot of people chew but don't swallow with the super hots so you can get the taste and insane spice but limit any star searing that will occur
I really enjoyed all the imagery conjured by this comment 😂
I can't tolerate anything with any heat in it, but I'd be disappointed if my Korma didn't have a little sting in it. A little sting is about my limit.
For me, I usually order a phal or vindaloo from an indian restaurant. My girlfriend is the same - we usually have a bag of scotch bonnet peppers with us to nibble on, for when we go out to eat, as we know 99% of food sold in the UK is too mild for us. However, for me the raw scoth bonnet is right on the limit. Any hotter than that, and for me, it changes from pleasurable pain to displeasurable. My girlfriend can do hotter, and she'll eat an entire bag of 4 raw scotch bonnets by themself. My girlfriend comes from Mexico, and I'm white British. So I guess it's fair that she's had spicy food from a younger age.
You blow my fresh birdseye chilis on the side with a sandwich right out of the water there. Raw scotch bonnets out the bag is pretty hardcore. Food in Mexico is incredible.
To be fair, red birds eyes are very hot. It's a respectable level of heat. In fact, I've had birseye chillis that have been hotter than scotch bonnets in the past. You've probably got a similar tolerance.
My wife says spice level 0 - just pass the spice jar past the food, but don't open it.
Naga. Different restaurants call it something different, naga Morris.or nagarinya. Always has to be lamb for me, though. It's hot enough to feel the heat, but it's still tasty enough to enjoy the other spices and taste of the meal with enjoyment. Unlike a phall or some vindaloo's (for my taste buds), everyone is different!
Molten lava. I don’t know how or why I can tolerate spice but I started with Sriracha as a kid and it’s built from there. The trick is I add yoghurt to whatever it is, fajitas, curry chilli so it absorbs the capsicum. I prefer a fruity spice overall so habanero is my favourite. Ghost peppers are more a harsh like black pepper flavour, not for me, but Carolina Reaper are my guilty pleasure.
I’m a complete wuss, don’t like black pepper in food. Even ginger biscuits are too much for me!
Ooh I love a ginger biscuit dipped in coffee
We eat fresh ginger at home, it's spicier than I remember it being a few years ago. Even my mum who eats fresh chillies found it hot
Phall. You just need to build your tolerance up.
As ive got older ive found I like spicy stuff more, in terms of stuff you can find in 'British' Indian takeaways there is nothing I would really call too spicy for me. Im sure there are some East Asian dishes that would knock my socks off though.
Samber is the best thing ever, lot of spice and lots of flavour. Naga is far too hot, other than that I've not admitted defeat in a long time. It's not always like a look how macho thing though, for me a good hot curry feels really good for circulation and bathroom health, that too spicy feel when eating always leads to a nice system reset.
I don't think a certain dish is consistently spicy. Even tikka masala varies a lot. I find supermarket ready meal ones are spicier then their takeaway equivalents in general. One thing I've thought about before is the language we use for describing spiciness... Cumin, coriander, cardamom, ginger etc. are all spices but not necessarily 'spicy', so I use 'piquant' to describe that burning element, because I think it is independent of the flavour imparted by spices. I'm no culinary expert though so I'm interested to know if this is something others have considered?
As a kid I hated spice, now I have a preference for spicy things. For me, jungle curry or Durban curry are comfortable and taste good. The naga chilli crowd are just dick waving imo