I heard today that when Chinese food is hot (spicy) it is much hotter than Mexican food. Is that true?

Answer 1

It depends on the spices used.

Answer 2

The mexican Habenero chillis are much hotter than the Chinese Chillis they have in Sichuan or Chongqing. But the hotness also depends on the food that it is eaten with. Mexican food has a lot of beans which help take the edge off eating a chilli meal. Chinese food generally does nothing for taking the edge off.
So generally I find the western Chinese food more spicy than mexican. If however you can convince your mexican chef that you can handle it, nothing will be spicier than a good mexican meal.

Answer 3

Mexican food can be very spicy if hot chillies are used. For example the habanero chilli has much more capsaicin (the heat chemical), than halapeno peppers. Habaneros can rate a 9 or 10 in Scoville units (the standard measure of heat)., versus 4 or 5 for halapenos. The hottest Chinese food is not found in Szechuan province. (though authentic Szechuan dishes can be very hot). Adjacent Hunan province food can be much hotter. Some of the Chilli varieties found in those provinces are hotter than habanero peppers. The very hottest chilli varieties tend to be small and green. There is a chilli in Hunan, called "to the sky",
9it curls upward), which is one third to one half hotter again than habanero peppers.
There are few American and Canadian restaurants that cook authentic Szechuan or Hunan food. Many of the chefs are from Canton that has no or very few hot dishes. (I don't know of any), and are just playing games to unsophisticated Westerner's taste. The dishes often bear no taste resemblance, whatsoever, to the authentic dish or are poor imitations of them. They are also frequently toned down, in heat, to spare North Americans the agony of an authentic Hunan beef, General Tso's Chicken or Korean Bulkoki Beef. These three recipes when authentic, should just about be dissolving the plate.
The way to get authentic ethnic hot food is to visit a culinary center such as New York City, San Francisco, Montreal, Quebec,
or cook the dish yourself using a good recipe book. I can recommend examples of the later. There are many superb English language ethnic cookbooks.

Answer 4

Yes.
This is because in the colder regions of China, extremely spicy food is used to bring 'heat' to the body and also, it's a good 'warmer'. It tastes and feel extremely good as well.

How do I know? Well, of course, through first-hand experience. I can eat jalapeno peppers raw, red and green, even bird's eye chillis, so forget about Mexican food, that's child stuff when it comes to heat.

IF you've tried some of the wonderful Mongolian, Szechuan and Northen dishes, you'd be blasting off into space like a rocket with all that heat.

I'm a chilli eater and the dishes I've tasted, including the ones my grandma used to cook - was so hot that even when it was being cooked the fumes used to sting your eyes till tears came out, and it hurt like crazy.
So usually in those places which serve such food people tend to eat outside so that the fumes don't sting their eyes.



Jenova

Answer 5

Yeah, when Chinese food is spicy, it is spicy. I once had this dish with a name that translates to "water cooked lamb." It was basically tender pieces of lamb meat in a soup-like red pepper sauce. It was delicious, but I could only eat one little bite from it until my entire mouth was on fire. Like, painful fire where my eyes were watering. It was a lot worse than any Mexican food I have ever had, or any food for that matter, and I'm from Texas.

Answer 6

Not in my experience, but some of the moderately spicy thai dishes I'm come accross were hot enough to put all others to shame. The difference is definitely in the ingredients and all 3 of those cultures tend to use a lot of peppers and chiles. Living close to Mexico, I've gotten accustomed to Mexican cooking and don't notice the heat as much, but when my French husband arrived, he was all but overwhelmed by table salsa. It depends on what you're used to, my Dad was a hothead and used to eat habeneros raw with his lunch. People taste things differently and react to things differently.

Answer 7

Jalopeno is the most spicy thing I have ever tasted. I get diarrhea after eating jalopenos. Chinese food? I don't know. Vietnamese and Korean food can be very spicy.

Answer 8

Sichuan food can be completely mental - some of the dishes i had in Chengdu and Emei were completely hardcore.

Incidentally, my chinese teacher (in the UK) is from Chengdu, and whenever she goes out for an Indian in the UK she orders the hottest curry on the menu, and extra chillis on the side. And she actually eats it, too...

Answer 9

Usually not unless it really traditional Szechuan or Hunan cuisine. The hottest food I've ever had was at a thai person's house though.

Answer 10

Kung Pao chicken is pretty spicy. Although, Mexican food can be even spicer.

Answer 11

Actually, it depends upon the person. I like them both equally.