Sunday, January 24, 2010

Spicy and Hot food. What is the difference?


When you go to an American restaurant, you order "Extra hot".
But when you go to an Indian Restaurant you say "Extra spicy"
What is the difference between "Extra hot and Spicy"?
People commonly use the words “hot” and “spicy” interchangeably. However, is that these two words represent two different taste sensations in our palate.
When we talk about a food being “hot” in taste, we really mean that it produces a burning sensation in one’s mouth. On the other hand, “spicy” traditionally describes savory and flavorful foods.
For example, we all know that Tabasco sauce is “hot”. Right!!!!
Add a tablespoon of Tabasco sauce to scrambled eggs. It would inevitably produce a strong burning sensation in one’s mouth. However, one would not call that scrambled egg spicy. By the same token, you can eat some well-seasoned "Chilli paneer", that may have all kinds of seasonings and flavor, but you would not necessarily call it “Extra hot”. You would call it "Extra spicy".


Hottest Peppers in the world

Then what  is the hottest peppers and hottest recipe of the world?
And how is the "hottness" calculated?
Hottnes of a food is calculated on a "Scoville" scale which was developed by Wilbur Scoville in 1912, was created to measure the heat level in chillies and is used world-wide today. To have an idea on peppers Hottness scale, see the following list:

0 - Bell Pepper
100-500 - Pepperoncini
1000-1500 - Poblano
2500-10,000 - Jalapenos and Chipolte
5000-23,000 - Serrano
30,000-50,000 - Cayenne
80,000 & up - Habenero, Scotch Bonnet

The most Hottest chilli pepper acknowledged by "Guinness Book of World records" is "BHUT JOLOKIA" which weights at 1,001,304 Scoville heat units, the Bhut Jolokia chili from India has been named the world's hottest pepper by the Guinness Book of World Records. It is found in the northern part of India in  Nagaland, Assam and Manipal.Just to put that into perspective, the jalapeno sits at a meager 10,000 SHU.


Then what is the "Hottest curry" available on earth.
Then go to UK and try "Lamb Phall Curry"
As anyone who has tried Phall Curry will tell you, eating this dish is quite a challenge. It is known across the world as the hottest curry available, and some restaurants even provide customers who finish a whole bowl, with a certificate.
This dish is a regular indian curry adopted by Indian restaurants in  UK.
This dish contains 12 different hot chili's including the worlds hottest peppers the habanero, scotch bonnet and Bhut Jolokia, the hottest chili pepper on Earth.
It contains spices like ginger and fennel seeds, but with your mouth on fire, you probably won’t even taste them.
Just a side note:
you will not get the same punch as the dried chili's and the chef has to were a gas mask for protection or he can be overcome by the cooking fumes, 60 minutes of the recipe above will not kill you.

1 comment:

Gita Jaishankar said...

Hey very informative post Mishu...nice to know the diff :)