Some like it hot. A guide to spicy dishes.

Ever since we started in 2015 we try to serve authentic Thai food to our guests. And one question keeps coming.

“How hot is this dish?”

That can mean many things. The guest doesn’t like spicy food and desires a mild dish. It can also mean that one wants to try hot dishes. The question then often means “this dish is not too hot, because I love spicy food, but not too spicy.”

The final category of guests are the Asians, most often Thai people who really want to have Thai food and not the mellow option that was made for Western people. Adjusted to the local tongue that is often used to sweet and salt and less to spicy and fermented for instance.

At Boi Boi we really try to make the food as real as possible. If you only want to eat sweet/salt options of actual Thaifood, you should go to Albert Heijn and buy some premixes there or got to a less wild restaurant. We do always give options to downgrade the hotness. 1,2,3 stars. Some think that 3 stars is still too spicy, others still want it more spicy.

Taste is personal, we cannot generalize it. It’s partially culturally determined combined with personal likings. The writer of this piece easily gets a purple mouth from hot good and a warm stomach. So genetically you also have to know what you can or dare to put in your mouth.

To give you some guide on what is actually spicy food, we made this list of the hot options. Because some like it hot. Do you?

Papaya salad

We combine a.o. Papaya, carrot, peppers, garlic and a lot of herbs. With a vessel all is grinded. Choose for 1,2 or 3 stars.

Combine with steamed rice and a fresh beer. For instance Asahi if you want to keep things vegan. In Thailand when people went out the night before they wake up and want to feel alive again. You make a fresh papaya salad for breakfast. It’s lifting up and makes you feel alive.

Tom Yum soup

Everybody knows the Tom Kha soup. The Thai mildly hot coconutmilk soup. The Tom yum is more like a bouillon/broth soup. But slightly more spicy. The reason is that Laos roots are added with serre and sambal made of dry chilli peppers and fresh peppers. The soup can be eaten veggie or like the Thai prefer it with chicken or shrimps.

Panaeng curry

This is a mild curry. But those used to mac and cheese every day, this is still spicy. It doesn’t contain bamboo sprouts. When you want to play it safe take the paneng or massaman curry.

Red curry

This curry is made from dried peppers ground with Laos roots, lemon grass and lemon leaf. At Boi Boi the red curry with chicken is very popular. A bestseller. Why not take a red curry with a nice glass of red wine?

Green curry

Green fresh peppers are used for this curry. These are the sharpest peppers. Also green bellpeppers are used and the same herbs as the red curry. Some doubt whether the green or red curry is more spicy. The taste is just  slightly different. This curry is wonderful with shrimps. We serve our curries always with season’s fresh cut vegetables, so you can easily take our curries vegetarian. Add a Singha or Chang and you feel the sun in your face.

Thai Basil dish

This typical dish from Thailand contains the delicious Thai basil. The meat is grinded. The dish is best when the peppers used are as fresh as possible. On top they normally want a baked egg, called Khai Dao, for a small surplus. Wonderful with IJbeer, to still have a taste of Amsterdam.