Sssss….I’m spicy hot!

I’ve always loved spicy food. In fact, the spicier, the better. I’m Korean, and the Koreans love their spice. What’s more, I grew up in Singapore, where there are plentiful aromatic dishes with lots of heat not just from chili but all sorts of other spices. These people enjoy their chili so much, there is a bucket of different sorts of chili sauce in every food stall which you can ladle onto your dish to your own liking.

Because I grew up dousing chili in my rice and soup and fries, I find myself scorning people who can’t bear spicy food. I get exasperated with people who think kimchi is spicy. To me, kimchi is merely a appetite-arouser, and besides, the coolness of the cabbage eliminates any heat from the chili paste. And I hate it when the menu of a restaurant promises a “warning: very spicy!” dish and it turns out to barely tickle the tongue at all. People who can’t bear the heat are sissies, and I was damn proud of my ability to smother my food with Tabasco sauce and still not feel a thing.

Thus it was with this attitude that I approached my lunch today. I decided to make a chicken dish, adapted from Zestycook’s spicy basil chicken recipe. I basically followed this recipe, except I halved the entire recipe, used cilantro instead of basil because I couldn’t find it, and also Thai bird’s eye chili pepper (aka chili padi) instead of the Jalapeño pepper. I also added a touch of maple syrup into the soy sauce and fish sauce mixture.

Now, this is when I got all stupid and gung-ho. I’m not ignorant with my chili, I know that these little red devils are incredibly spicy. But I was sure I could handle it. So I sliced up six of these little fiery pods.

The minute I tossed them into the skillet, I knew I made a big mistake. The fiery fumes leapt up into my eyes and nose, and I started sneezing like crazy. My eyes watered up and my nostrils stung. And I had not even tasted it! I hurriedly fished out most of the chili.

Well, I was not going to waste some good chicken. I was still going to eat it even if my tongue got scorched through. I served this up with a baked potato “fan”, cooked cabbage, and iced green tea:

Crossing my fingers that the dish was not entirely ruined, I took a bite. My nostrils flared up again, and my tongue burned, but not in an entirely unpleasant way. The heat was quite bearable.

This is only my second time trying to cook chicken. The first time I tried cooking chicken, it came out disgusting dry and sour. But this time, the chicken stayed incredibly moist and tender.

The baked potato “fan” helped counteract the spiciness of the chicken. I think this is my favorite way of eating a baked potato, as it has all the characteristics of a creamy baked potato in the interior, while also treating me to a crunchy “chip” exterior. I added a dab of cucumber-chive cheese spread on top.

For afternoon snack today, I tried a different flavor of Mr Bean pancake! I had two of these:

Mr Bean pancake with tuna filling!

This was every bit as good as the cheese pancake…You might be seeing this more often! Definitely happening again.

Wow, this feels weird to have such a short post today (in comparison to the ones before). Well, hope all of you have a great new week, and here’s today’s question: Do you like spicy foods? If so, which is your favorite?