What Is the Hottest Cuisine on the Planet?

[Perilagu Khan]

Based upon your personal experience--and hearsay, if you want to factor that in as well--what is, generally speaking, the hottest cuisine on our little mote of dust? My most scorching experiences have come from Thai food and that of Andhra Pradesh in India.

[greygarious]

At a long-gone but fairly authentic Thai place in my area, the one-pepper dishes were plenty hot enough for me. When I asked if they could make a mild version of a seafood red curry (they could), it occasioned a brief exchange with the waiter, a Thai native. He said that at home, the normal level of heat for this dish would be about 12 peppers. I can't fathom that. As someone with a very low capsaicin tolerance, I regard Scoville-consuming competitions as part and parcel of the same testosterone-driven folly as extreme skiing and auto racing. Bragging rights are, in general, of more interest to men than women.

[Steve]

Do you think all those people in Thailand are competing with each other?

[greygarious]

Of course not. I specifically mentioned the competitions that are held to test peoples' tolerance of hot peppers. For example, a Boston-area restaurant has an annual "Hell Night" for which the menu is purposely punishingly hot. Diners must sign a release before eating at this event. Those who persevere through the whole meal get to boast about the accomplishment and their pain tolerance. You don't hear them saying they *enjoyed* the food, just that they survived it.

[BobB]

That's a bit of an exaggeration - East Coast Grill's's "Hotter Than Hell Night" is so popular that they run it several times a year for two or three consecutive nights each time, and the dishes vary widely in heat level. They're given "bomb"ratings of one to ten bombs, and you only need to sign a release for the ten-bomb Pasta From Hell, which is an interesting fruit-based pasta dish made with bananas, oranges, pineapple, and lime, plus a big pile of habanero peppers. Too hot for me personally, but I've been there with friends who've enjoyed it.

And for the record, most people who go really do enjoy it, not just survive it. I know I have.

[aynrandgirl]

What's the bomb rating of those habanero fritters they featured on DDD? I've been thinking of trying out East Coast Grill the next time I'm in Boston.

[Perilagu Khan]

There's a place in NYC called--I think--Brick Street Curry House that claims to serve the world's hottest curry. It's called phal curry. I aim to try my hand at it next time I'm in the Mammoth McIntosh.

[small h]

For your future reference, it's Brick Lane. And p'hall, or phaal (the restaurant's website spells it both ways, for some reason).

http://www.bricklanecurryhouse.com/br...

[Perilagu Khan]

My spelling has always been somewhat phaulty.

Thanks for the correction.

[small h]

Well, there doesn't seem to be just one way to spell, uh, fall? pfal? phaaaaal? Anyway, if you do get around to taking the challenge, let us know how it went. I get delivery from Brick Lane sometimes, but just stuff that's regular-hot, not crazy-hot.

[Perilagu Khan]

I don't think it can be too murderous. The Phaal of Phame on their website has hundreds of inductees. Still, I intend to give it a go someday.

[JMF]

I've had the phaal at Brick Lane. Phaal is a dish conceived in London, some fans of Indian food wanted a super spicy dish and this was invented to appease them. The Brick Lane version is extremely hot. I can eat habaneros, and recently had a Naga pepper and ate the whole thing, very slowly, enjoying the amazing floral flavor and crazy heat. but the thing with the phaal was that while it is extremely hot, it tastes terrible. the sauce was basically ground up dried chile's and tasted ike chile flavored saw dust.

[Perilagu Khan]

Ah. So it attacks you on two fronts. I could probably handle the heat more easily than the bad taste. Perhaps they sould rename it foul curry.

Did you finish it, by the by?

[JMF]

I didn't, not because of the heat, but it didn't taste good. I don't waste my calories on bad food. I save them for the stuff that makes me wriggle around in my seat in joy, or my eyes roll up in my head from ecstasy.

[Perilagu Khan]

Understood. Personally, I'm averse to wasting hard-earned cash on food that tastes bad. I think--in fact I know--it's possible to make a blisteringly hot curry that is also delicious. Brick Lane Curry House should be able to do better.

[Veggo]

That's not for me. United we stand; divided we phaal.

[linguafood]

I was very peeved to find out that the hell night was not going on when I was last in Boston.

[JMF]

Actually I have seem many times Thai business men at lunch trying to out pepper each other until they are sweating madly from so much spice.

[Steve]

You're right: those competitions, just like all food-consuming competitions, are not at all about appreciating the food.

[huiray]

Word.

[Perilagu Khan]

"Bully!," he said, while gnawing a Trinidad scorpion and careening around Pike's Peak in a blown '66 GTO.

[neoredpill]

The hottest pepper in the world (reaching over 1,000,000 Scoville Heat Units or SHU) is Bhut Jolokia, native to India, which would seem to give the edge to that country. In the final analysis, however, it depends on the actual recipes being used. I have had extremely hot dishes from Indian, Thai, Szechuan, and other cuisines.

[Perilagu Khan]

Actually, I think the new hottest pepper is the Trinidad Scorpion. Now whether the TS is a real pepper or something concocted in a lab and experimental field at the University of Trinidad is unknown to me. Having said this, the presence of an extremely hot pepper doesn't automatically vault the local cuisine to the ramparts of chilehead heaven. The naga jolokia is a British pepper, but few would rate Brit cuisine up there with Bhutanese, South Indian or Thai.

PS--I'm surprised nobody's plumped for the Yucatan.

[neoredpill]

Looks like you're correct. Bhut Jolokia (aka Ghost Pepper) was the hottest pepper measured until last February. At that point, the Infinity Chili (England) took top honors, only to be replaced by the Naga Viper (England) two weeks later, then the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T (Australia) four days after that. This does underscore the point, however, that having the hottest chilis doesn't equate to having the hottest cuisine (a pint Perlagu echoes), as neither England nor Australia would be in the running at all.

As for the Yucatan, I didn't have particularly spicy food when I was there. Did you have any specific dishes in mind?

[Veggo]

The dominant chile picante in the Yucatan is the habanero. It's most commonly used in a side dish of fresh sauce for breakfast dishes and with chips. The habanero salsa at La Tarraya in PDC, for example, can knock the uninitiated out of their chairs. An incredible sight for years was watching Java Joe eat his morning bag of habaneros as if they were peaches.

[Perilagu Khan]

Word.

[pine time]

I'm still using my now dried bhut jolokias from last summer, and they're plenty hot for me. Don't think I'd grow them again, but they did produce like mad and I have ample of crushed dried peppers now.

[GraydonCarter]

I'd say Malay & Nyonya, maybe Singapore?

My Malaysian friend couldn't find chilis that were hot enough, he had to bring back little red chilis from Malaysia to grow in his garden.

[Perilagu Khan]

I wonder how Malaysian food differs from Thai in terms not only of heat, but also ingredients and preparation.

[chocomel]

While Malay food can be spicy, i don't think its typically as spicy as Thai. I don't quite know how to explain it but let me try.

Spicy malay food is typically accompanied by really spicy sambals or items that are cooked with sambals (chilli paste/mixture of some sort). When you order a certain type of dishes, you know it is going to be spicy, but you have other non-spicy dishes that balance out the spiciness. From my experience in Thailand, there are items that I have ordered, without knowing that it will be hot, that have scorched my tongue. As a percentage of available dishes, thai food incorporates heat more often in each dish (not as an accompaniment/condiment) and often leaving the unsuspecting diner no option to adjust the heat level.

I guess to sum it up, Malay food gives diners option to adjust as the heat comes from accompanying sauces/sambals (although not always) but for thai food, sometimes you don't realize it's too spicy until it's a little too late... has anyone ever felt this way before?

[boogiebaby]

Malaysian food can be very spicy. It uses quite a bit of heat from dried and fresh chillis.

[chocomel]

Yes, i agree that Malaysian food can be spicy (used to live in se asia), but in general, there is a good mix of non-spicy food that without the added sambal accompaniment, it is easy to control the heat level. However, the many times I've eaten in Thailand, everything seems to have a lot of heat.

[huiray]

"Malaysian food" is not synonymous with "Malay food". See chocomel's and boogiebaby's posts also. :-)

For more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysian_cuisine
http://www.malaysianfood.net/
& etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_cuisine
http://thaicuisine.com/
& etc.

[Jzone]

While I LOVE hot and spicy food, I'm still a firm believer in the adage "food should not hurt"... well not too much anyways. So when I go for hot and spicy I judge on taste and qualities of the heat (beginning, middle and finishing heats through a dish, not just a blast here or there.).

My favorite would be Thai, followed closely by Ethiopian, Szechuan then Korean and Indian.

Best story was when I was in thailand for work and the customer saw me add chili sauce to a noodle soup and said "ahhh... you eat like Thai". The next day he took us out in the boonies to this little house by a river that has the hottest, and still to this day the absolute best Tom Yum Goong I have ever had. My lips were on fire for hours, it was hard to get the last few spoons down... well on the 2nd bowl anyways :). It was just phenomenal... sigh.

[Perilagu Khan]

The hottest and the best and the most memorable, eh? Funny how those adjectives often function in triplicate when describing food. ;)

[Bada Bing]

Your particular post exemplifies something that always leaves me in curious wonderment: while I definitely like much spicier food than most Americans, I don't crave food that gets hard to eat and that leaves my lips on fire for hours.

I wish I could find some analogies to help me understand that way in which what sounds exactly like food-pain works like pleasure for many people. Maybe it's like enjoying dissonance in music, or spanking in sex play? I really don't get it.

That said, I do have the odd propensity of appreciating skunk smell when it's not too strong, plus a few other aromas that are commonly disliked...

[stilldontknow]

Capsaicin, the spicy element of the chili, causes the brain to release endorphins.

[Mangobob]

Lots of people appreciate "skunk smell" when it's not too strong. The aroma derives from mercaptan, and has been used in perfumes for many years! In stronger doses, it's used to give propane its distinctive odor.
As to not understanding why some of us like to set ourselves on fire with peppers, I recall an anecdote from a book on peppers I read many years ago. The authors reported on a study made by a medical doctor who was asked to determine why people would eat hot peppers that burned their mouths. The doctor, in his summary, noted that "...medical terminology fails me. I can best describe what they're doing as 'mouth surfing'". To date, that's the best, most articulate explanation I've come across.

[Perilagu Khan]

Hell, people do all sorts of irrational things. A certain tincture of irrationality is part of human nature.

[linguafood]

I'd venture a guess that you also like the smell of pot, which smells amazingly close to skunk.

[babette feasts]

Bhutanese. Chiles are used a vegetable, not a spice.

[BobB]

I think you may be right - I've not been there, and it's quite rare to find Bhutanese food outside its native habitat, but from all I've read these guys make the Thais look like wimps.

http://foodtravelbangalore.wordpress....

[tavegyl]

I shared a house with Sri Lankans, Bhutanese and Thai students. Bhutanese food made me cry, and I'm no wimp.

[Perilagu Khan]

The yak butter scares me more than the peppers.

[BobB]

I thought yak butter was Tibetan?

[babette feasts]

Bhutan has yak butter too. Yak herders aplenty in the high mountain valleys, like Phobjikha, around Gangtey at almost 9000'. They come down to Paro for a mild winter at 7000'. Yak meat was far more delicious than any yak butter I had, though I did not have much yak butter. To be fair, there are mild dishes in Bhutanese cuisine, and there are natives who don't love chiles. But those mild dishes are usually better with chile sauce or spicy ezay dried chile mix. There are always fresh chiles with salt available, and often some pickled chiles and possibly chile oil. Food options may be limited, but there is no shortage of flavor.

[pine time]

While A.P. is hot food, the hottest Mr. Pine and I had in India was the "extra hot" curries in Madras (Chennai), known for their already hot foods, but the extra hot was truth in advertising. Somewhere I have a 100 Pepper Chicken Masala Chennai recipe--must find it one of these days. (And the Chennai dishes even beat my bhut jolokia experiments at home last year.)

[Perilagu Khan]

What did 100 signify in that dish (he asked with baited breath)?

PS--Guntur is the chile pepper capital of India. I hope to build a summer home there someday.

[pine time]

the 100 peppers was a bit of a misnomer, but did have a melange of hot chiles and bunches of whole peppercorns. I think it was the peppercorns that pushed it to the 100 pepper bit. Will see if I can unearth the recipe.

[delys77]

Hi all, my vote is for South Indian. I've just returned from a trip to India and I was floored by some of the dishes. Tasty, but in a few cases almost inedible due to the heat. I had a pork vindaloo that could easily have been any type of meat really as I could taste nothing but scorching fire.

[GH1618]

I would say South Indian or Sri Lankan. Years ago, I used to go to a restaurant in Minneapolis called Sri Lanka. This was a place where the stars meant something. Americans who liked hot food would order two stars, and those who liked it fiery would order three. I never knew anyone to try five stars.

[Perilagu Khan]

If I ever find myself in Minny, I'm makin' a beeline for that place.

[soupkitten]

oh that restaurant ruled. but it is no more :(

[Perilagu Khan]

Sri Lanka Curry House, right? I did some research and its absence is much lamented.

[soupkitten]

yes. great people, great food. always hoped to see them open up somewhere else. that same weird little strip-mall limbo land between uptown and the near-burb of st. louis park where the sri lanka curry house was located also housed a great tuscan place for a couple-three years. i wish both restaurants were still around.

[luckyfatima]

I thought of Sri Lankan, too. I don't know much about the cuisine, but whatever I have had has been pretty hot, though.

[Querencia]

I used to work with a Sri Lankan guy who always said "You cannot get food too hot for me!".

[luckyfatima]

Just out of curiosity, peeked at a handful of Sri Lankan food blogs and looked at the recipes. I didn't find that any of the recipes called for an exorbitant amount of the usual heat sources in South Asian cuisine.

I saw the typical fresh green chiles (whole, slit, chopped, ground), dried red chiles which are whole, crushed, or powdered. The normal amount was prescribed: 3-4 whole chiles (dried or fresh or both and could be more depending on recipe, maybe upper limit would be 8), 1 tsp-1 tbs ground chiles or chile powder is added (I tend to go for 1 tsp but in families that like it very hot 1 tbs is like the upper end limit, 2 tbs or something would cause intestinal distress), and these are the typical chile combos and variations that I use cooking my regular Indo-Pak food. I think some of their sambol (chutney-like accompaniments to meals) can be pretty hot, but same with many Indian pickles and chutneys.

I was wondering what typical chiles Sri Lankans use. Their food is reputedly extra hot and it could be because their daily chile variety is hotter than they varieties of chile that I typically use. We get a very limited variety of Indian fresh and dried chiles at the Indo-Pak grocery in the US and it is not representative of the large variety of different chiles used in regional cooking in S. Asia. Although I am not familiar with all of the varieties, I know that some are reputedly hotter than others. We need some in put from someone who knows that kind of chiles are used in Sri Lanka.

[Perilagu Khan]

Perhaps some obscure Sri Lankan chile will be the next great pepper find like the bhut jolokia several years ago.

[luckyfatima]

I doubt they are using something like the bhut jolokhia but I figured it would be something more similar to some of the hotter S. Indian varieties of chiles which are grown in particular regions. Some S. Indian food is quite mild in other regions or in particular ethnic communities...I can only imagine that there must be a lot of diversity in Sri Lankan cuisine as well, even in terms of heat level.

[luckyfatima]

http://www.chilly.in/Indian_chilli_va...

Just to give you an idea of what I mean, see the list of a few typical regional varieties of Indian chiles here. Some regions are known to have hotter food because their daily chile variety is a hotter type.

[Perilagu Khan]

Fascinating stuff.

[Steve]

Only two times have I not been able to eat something because it was so spicy - both times were at Indian restaurants in Washington, DC.

[gembellina]

In general the spiciest food I have eaten was in northern Thailand and Laos, but the single spiciest dish I've ever eaten was a pizza topped with Dorset Naga chillies in little old England. I don't think we can claim the spiciest cuisine overall though!

[beevod]

I'll go with authentic Thai.....killer stuff but wonderful.

[Foody4life]

agreed. some 20 yrs later I still recall a wonderful soup I had in some little Thai place in Paris. Just inhaling the steam from the bowl, produced instant beads of sweat on my forehead and blinding tears.

[tastesgoodwhatisit]

The hottest food I've ever had was a yellow chicken curry, eaten in a temple complex in Southern Thailand, for breakfast.

[Perilagu Khan]

I bet that was quite an experience.