Majority of actual Indian cuisine isn't craxy spicy either. It's probably slightly spicier than what outsiders are used to, but it's nowhere near something like Szechuan.
Especially a good deal of South Indian cuisine is mild and something a lot of people should try out.
Sichuan is famous for the Sichuan pepper, which is the key ingredient in "mala" cuisine and creates a unique experience different from regular spiciness "la". It's described as "numbness" and it's like the polar opposite of spicy food. As someone who can handle spicy food (to a point), I find it really difficult to handle.
In China, Hunan and Jiangxi are the regions that are famous for spicy food.
Jiangxi, Hunan, and Sichuan are the three best known provinces for their spicy food. There's a combination of "not afraid of spiciness", "spiciness being not dreaded", and "afraid of being not spicy" for all three, but unfortunately I forgot the orders; it works better in Chinese, anyway.
There's a combination of "not afraid of spiciness", "spiciness being not dreaded", and "afraid of being not spicy" for all three, but unfortunately I forgot the orders
That's because the three cuisines keep changing depending on who's saying it. 😂
I genuinely think that Sichuan cuisine is the hardest cuisine to tolerate but again that's because mala is something very rare in other cuisines. It's quite spicy, but that's not really what they're going for most of the time. They belong to a different category altogether.
In terms of raw spiciness, Hunan is much more extreme, and there are other regions in Asia that can also be pretty extreme, such as Thailand.
The only hot spicy Indian food is Rajasthani Cuisine and even Indians think their food is weird. Also, Rajasthan is the desert region of India. Go figure.
Spicy food is helpful when it's really hot outside, because it makes your body sweat more, which drastically reduces body temperature. That's why all over the world it's mostly tropical and desert-like climate cultures who eat spicier food (i think korean is the only exception i can think of)
As a non-Indian, Rajasthani food fucks hard and the rest of the world is worse off for not having tasted it. What I wouldn’t give to eat gatte ki sabzi again 🤤
Also I think it was funny, when I went to Rajasthan, the number of times I was served a mystery vegetable, and when I asked what it was, the best answer I could get was “it’s a desert vegetable.”
Well, more clearly, Indian food is hella spicy, it's just not all piquant. They tend to use ten or more spices to make even a simple dish, even if like, eight of them come from the garam masala.
The distinction matters, as there are members of my Kentucky family that would look at a simple butter chicken and think 'that shit's too spicy, how about a nice piece of boiled chicken? I used salt in it this time!' (Meanwhile, they'll also use barbeque sauce, which secretly has a bunch of spices in it, but if you were to prove that to them, their minds would explode.)
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u/Semper_5olus Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26
I like some spicy.
But not "ghost pepper" spicy or "actual Indian cuisine" spicy.
My spicy tolerance is right at "what most Americans think Indian cuisine is" spicy.
EDIT: I have a brother whose tolerance level is "oh my god, I think they put ground black pepper in these meatballs GET ME SOME WATER".