Send it back. Say it's too spicy.

I hate spicy food-I usually order food less or not spicy. But if the food was too spicy (or somehow not to my liking), I wouldn't hesitate to send it back. I usually ask for the food without peppers or not spicy if I want something and it says that it's spicy. But the surest way to lose my business is if it didn't indicate on the menu that it was spicy!

Normally when I order takeout I get something I know I'll like. Ordering delivery is not a time to experiment with extra spicy, etc. Learned that lesson when I bit into a piece of jalapeno on a pizza by mistake (I picked all of them off and forgot one)-I almost cried.

But then I mostly enjoy food that most will consider bland. I just like the subtlety of having something barely seasoned-and I usually try to get good, fresh ingredients so that I taste the ingredients, not the seasoning. My approach to seasoning is that seasonings are a tool to bring out the flavors of the ingredients in the dish-NOT the main event.

Getting off topic here, but anyway sugar helps. Milk helps. I usually just gargle.

Sichuan cuisine (川菜) is most famous for spicy hot dishes that really numb you, while Hunan cuisine (湘菜) for dry hot or sour hot (酸辣菜) among other things.

I would say for spicy hot food, it has to be Sichuan cuisine.
How can kipper send it back when that's exactly how he ordered it, extra spicy?

There's a fine line between extra spicy and too spicy. The latter numbs your tongue, the former supposedly enhances the flavor of the dish.

But then when I go for chinese I usually steer clear of sichuan or hunan altogether. If it's the only decent place, I go with fried rice.

How could you know, see below?

Anyhow, numbing your tongue, as in Szechwan food, comes from
a completely different spice, Xanthoxylum or hua jiao (as opposed
to Capsicum, la jiao).

I usually drink milk!

I myself have a big problem with spiciness. What many people think is mild to me is so strong you can't taste anything else.

Milk and Dairy products often times help after the fact, but I find that sugar is a real trick to taming the spicyness. In Indian restaurants, they usually have tamarind chutney, which you can use to control the heat to your own preference. At home I actually use a little bit of cherry or raspberry jelly - it actually tastes very good! In Chinese restaurants that's the role the sweet and sour (or duck sauce) plays - use a bit of that to control the spicyness.

It isn't much of a MR for me, but now I have to go! I have never found anything too spicy!

Like Kipper, I love extra hot Thai and Chinese dishes.

I had an interesting experience at a new Thai Restaurant in Cincy area.

I wasn't really hungry so I just ordered the marinated Thai beef salad, extra hot. Waiter said use 1-10 scale ..I told him 10

It came, delicious. Very hot but not overpowering. Even MrsM who doesn't like hot tasted it..very flavorful and although hot, not too hot for her.

As I was eating the salad, it kept getting hotter. I couldn't figure out what was going on. Hotter, then hotter, then really hotter!!!!

I was bright red, sweating like a pig. But I kept going.

I got to the very end and found out their secret. Hiding under that very last piece of lettuce were 5 tiny red hot Thai peppers!

Each time I would use my fork to get food I would squeeze the peppers and force the hot juice into the vinegar and sugar dressing. Lift the food to my mouth and the peppers would reload for their next push.

I love spicy food and the sournes of Hunan spices is yummy too.

If my extra spicy veers towards being too spicy, I try to view it as a challenge (and order medium next time I go to that place )

Hunan and Sichuan are both exceptional spice and flavor combos; I especially love the interplay of hot chili oils and cold noodles. I've yet to find a good Sichuan place here in Richmond, but may need to head up to DC to explore around.

Thai is the gold standard of flavorful Asian heat in the US, if only because (IMO) the heat is presented in a way that is far more accessible to the American palate.

Back on topic: if I'm in a Bad Way with something that I'm not quite ready for (happened once with a "Double Suicide" wing, I ate a pound of them and the sauce in the bowl), peanut butter is my personal go-to choice. Tablespoon, suck it off, wash down with whole milk. Repeat until the pain starts to subside.

Cheers,

-Andrew

Yep, in an Indian restaurant I got yogurt from the owner after eating something very spicy...

I mean the black one, but I believe white could work. I learned the trick in a Szechuan restaurant in Sydney of all places. It is the only time I have ever had anything that was too hot. It was actually the cook who came out with the vinegar and suggested using it. But I guess it could be taken the wrong way. I just will hope my luck contniues to hold and be careful when ordering down under.

Capsaiscin (sp?) is the chemical part of the food that makes it spicy. It is not water soluble so drinking water does not help get rid of it. It is however soluble in fat or alcohol. Therefore, if you can't find milk, may I recommend a cold beer.

Sugar also helps--Scoville Units (commonly used to measure spiciness) measure how much sugar it takes to neutralize the spicy taste.

Consume with Thai Iced Tea - http://www.instructables.com/id/Thai-Iced-Tea;

or a well chilled Spatlese (shpet-lay-suh) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sp%C3%A4tlese

I always thought the definition of Scoville unit had to do with how many
dilutions it took to make heat imperceptible. Never heard of the sugar
thing, which might perhaps be an alternate way of determining? Though
why a more complicated way would substitute for the easier way doesn't
make sense to me.

The sources that say stay away from water rely on the fact that as
capsaicin is insoluble, all water would do would be to spread it around.
That ignores a couple of issues, most notably what happens to the
receptors themselves when treated with any substance of a sufficient
coldness.

The East Coast Grill used to serve ice cream (for an inflated price,
as I recall) as an antidote during its Hotter Than Hell Nights, the
cold numbing the receptors and the fat helping carry away the
capsaicin.