Of spice and Britain

The other day I went out with friends to this Thai restaurant . Now its not at all a bad thing to go out to a Thai restaurant with a few friends especially since all I've eaten over the last few days is rice and curry. But the problem was that it was the same case with all the other 7 people I had taken out for a birthday treat and those others were 7 hunks. 7 hunks who have only done 2 things in the past few years. Eaten rice and curry and forwarded e mail porn over the internet. So it was going to be one whole long evening at the best Thai restaurant round the corner.

Now I consider myself to be fairly good at judging good food and bad food. One of the reasons I think the British left this country in the search for better kingdoms was their cuisine. I used to think it was only because of the climate. The example the English dictionary gives for climate is 'the dank climate of Wales'. They would have said UK and come off as best seller. The weather here in the UK is as cold wet and depressing as all the Hindi soap operas put together plus Mithun Chakraborthy in shorts and earrings. It was reasons such as the climate that the British went over to places like remote Africa where there were two tribesmen who were living happily, put a flag there and claimed it their own.

The British cuisine consists of Chinese,Mexican,Indian and meat. Some traces of British exist in jacket potatoes but I am not sure its a specialty. Oh yes fish and chips but I also believe one gets it in around a 100 other countries. So basically there's not much the British can rant about their food.

The point I'm trying to make after all this hulabaloo is what the British call spicy. Everything Indian right from Chicken tikka masala to Bombay potato comes in the category ' spicy' to the extent its classified as 'cannot eat with anything but 3 full jugs of water and a pot of curds as a backup'. Now spicy means anything which has a taste. Lets take for example Bombay potato. (Note the subtlety in which I've chosen potato, the easier of the dishes).

1.3 potatoes ( Bombay???) a few colours and chilli

Process: Cut one chilli into 27 pieces. Take out one piece. Add into already made paste. add potatoes. Put more colours if necessary.

Serve hot. Warning: Spicy!

So you see that's what they call spicy. I took this friend out with me to an Indian restaurant , and apart from gasping for oxygen in between dabs at his watering eyes , he would take mouthfuls of water after every bite. He had gone so red I could easily use his upper torso as those red flags matadors use to excite bulls. I did manage to get him out of the gastroentritis ward of the local hospital the next day. Tastes are a funny thing and coming from a place where there's such a variety its a pity other cultures don't appreciate these varieties and differences.

All said and done the food at the Thai restaurant was real spicy and I don't think I will ever go there again. Too many chillies basically.