When is spicy food at its best? At 2 a.m.? After a breakup, when you’re ready to feel the pain? Spicy food is appropriate whenever you need it.
We did some of our own sleuthing and got tips from several chefs for what they order when they’re feeling spicy. Chef Sarabjit Singh Assi of Sanjh told the Observer that with Indian food, spicy isn’t so much about heat, “It really means food that’s well-seasoned and layered with spices. Heat is just one part of it. I like to focus on depth, aroma, and balance.” He added that at his restaurant, sourcing spices directly from India and grinding them in-house gives his dishes a bold and fresh flavor, rather than aggressive heat.
Chef Nikky Phinyawatana of Asian Mint warns that ‘spicy’ means different things to different cultures. “Let’s say, if spicy was a scale of one to three, where one is mild, two is medium, three is spicy, then Thai spicy would be like a four or five.”…