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Too spicy for me

3 min read

Do you like spicy food? Maybe the better question is how spicy do you like your food?

We’ve been discussing this subject the past few weeks because of a strange experience we had at a downtown Pittsburgh restaurant a few months ago. I ordered a General Tso’s tofu dish, which I know can pack a little zing depending on who’s cooking. I’ve had that at other restaurants many times before and always enjoyed it.

Our server this night promised it wasn’t very spicy. Well, this one had much more than a little zing, and it got hotter and hotter with each forkful. I tried to be polite and just scrape off the sauce, but at a certain point I just couldn’t take it anymore. (Just for reference, I never send food back at restaurants and we had dined at this place several times before and always love it.)

I asked our server if I could please have them just remake it with plain tofu and rice, no sauce. She sent the manager over to say she didn’t think the chef would feel comfortable sending the dish out that way and that the entire staff had tasted the dish and no one else thought it was too spicy. I didn’t know what to say. All I knew what that it was too spicy for me. I wound up just ordering a different side dish (that I knew from previous visits was delicious), ate that and let it go.

How much heat is too much? Even experts on television cooking shows can’t agree on what level of spice is correct and often argue when they have different tastebuds or can’t agree what’s over- or under-seasoned. What they may think of as too much or too little salt or heat may not be the same as someone else’s opinion.

I personally can’t handle very much heat. Cayenne, jalapeno, habanero … no, thank you. Just leave that off of mine completely. I can tolerate and enjoy mild Buffalo wings if I have some blue cheese or ranch dressing to mitigate the heat, and I always order the lowest level on a heat scale of 1 to 10 at our favorite Indian restaurant.

I’m still undecided on what the right answer is, though. Are a chef’s tastebuds or pride more important than giving a customer what they’d like to eat or know they can tolerate? Whose level of spice is right?

I did learn that when I go to that particular place next time, I won’t order anything with even a hint of heat. Instead, I’ll stick to their other delicious, mild-mannered dishes!

Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.

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