How Spicy Can You Take Your Thai Food
I like spicy food, I really do. When my nose starts to run and I get those little beads of sweat on my forehead, I’m eating well. Or so I thought. That was me before my first trip to Thailand. When I would go to a Thai restaurant and order a 4 out of 5 spicy dish and think it was just perfect. Bring on Thailand 2007.
I had been warned that American Thai restaurants toned down the spicy for their customers and I should ask for ‘just a little spicy’ when I was eating in Thailand to see how things went. Well my first couple meals were in major tourist hotels and restaurants and they were pretty mild. But what I didn’t realize at the time was that were catering to their crowd, pasty white farangs.
On my first day in Phuket I took a walk around town and stopped at one of the restaurants. The waitress didn’t speak English, and I knew I was in a locals hang out. I ordered a ‘little spicy’ just to be on the safe side. When I dug into my plate of food, I was soon sweating and my tongue was on fire. A little spicy had a whole new meaning. But I learned quick that authentic Thai is a lot spicier than what we get here in the states.
Now, enter Som Tum, or Papaya Salad. Sounds like a nice refreshing meal on a warm June day. Refreshing would not really be the word I would use to describe it. Hidden fire ball, with a sore ass the next day is more like it. I had trouble sitting down, and I feared having to take a dump because I thought my ass and toilet paper were to catch fire.
How did I decide to give this a try? I met a girl. Seem a lot of men’s dumbest stories start with either I met a girl or I was drinking one night and… Actually in this case it was both. I took her out to dinner where she asked if I wanted to try Som Tum with a cute little smile on her face. Little did I know she was up to something. I said sure and we ordered. It wasn’t long after the first bite that she could see I was in pain and giggling up a storm. But a few beers and too much male bravado and I kept eating to show her she didn’t get the best of me. That was of course a mistake I would come to regret later.
So how spicy can you take your Thai food? Me I’m a tough farang, but I’d be a wimpy Thai. “Just a little spicy” is how my orders have ended ever since.
