Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
As was mentioned before, Mexican food usually adds heat with a sauce or condiment that is added to the food. The dishes themselves is rarely too hot to handle. Other cuisines like Thai are different in that respect.
So do a lot of Asian cuisines. Hot thai peppers, chile oil and the like are served on the side.
This is an interesting thread, because I like spicy food. However, I can handle only Mexican spicy dishes. Asian/Thai/Indian spicy dishes are too hot for me. Even when the heat level (Scoville units) is similar. I'm pretty sure the difference is in the peppers used.
Thai and Indian food uses spices other than peppers as well. These spices add a different kind of heat to the food.
There are many different qualities of spiciness. Straight heat that burns usually from fresh peppers.
Most Asian hot sauce comes grinded either into a paste or chunky style. Then there are fermented peppers where it is mixed with salt then grinded and let it sit to produce a very pungent and potent spice.
Then another one my favorite is chilli oil, where certain peppers are roasted then grinded and cooked in oil. With oil, it provides a longer effect and enhances meats and soups.
Mexican spice is great, I prefer the variety of Asian spices in a variety of different style.
Trying to keep this G rated, but as someone who grew up eating Thai and Asian spicey, and now dating someone who loves jalapeño....
There is an important difference have discovered, a lingering burn the night after eating a lot of jalapeños...
Also, we just inherited a treasured pepper plant ( some kind of jalapeño ) in a pot, and I made the mistake of putting Four in a pan of enchiladas and I accidentally burned my hands just handling the pan last night, I'm serving it for lunch- using gloves to serve it now!
Originally Posted by cb2008 View Post
Many Asian dishes combine lemon, tamarind etc to hot peppers, even a bit of sugar, to round out the taste. That makes the hot pepper more complex and tasty. Mexican food has sour cream and cheese to modify the heat which is not as balanced.
I also think there is more variety in Asian cuisine.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bg7
I don't get that statement. You're saying there is more variety in the cuisine of a continent versus a single country? You don't say.
Actually even a country has many varieties of cuisines, including Mexico. I was responding to the original post that compared Mexican spicy to "Asian" spicy but it was clear what was meant was mostly SouthEast Asian.
The ingredients used in these regions of Asia, including the way heat is handled, have similarities and differ from the method in Mexican cuisines.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
