Universal Chilli Scale

So I haven't really been out anywhere of late- well that's a lie- I have... but I have completely forgotten to take photos as I was too focused on eating and not focused on documenting my experience.

But I was having a conversation with Irish the other day about chilli. You see, he loves particular dishes to be hot, really hot- but we always have this issue when we order the dishes, they either come out way too mild, or they go overboard with the heat and its inedible. The latter happened at a thai restaurant we went to last year in the city. Irish made a massive effort to get across to the waitress that he wanted it hot, 'Hot hot'- he emphasized it so much, that the pad thai came out and I could not stomach one noodle of it, it burnt so much that I was sweating chilli.

So we thought there should be a universal chilli scale- from mildest to hottest. Be it numerical in representation or not, but probably easier if it was. So that next to each dish, it has a ranking of heat and EVERYONE knows exactly what that represents. What is hot to me may be mild to you, or vice versa, but with the chilli scale, we all know that a 7 to you is the equivalent of a 3 to me and then we will never get unpleasant surprises or crushing disappointments ever again.

I liken this to something I saw at a cafe a little while ago. I went to Zar Bar in Crows Nest. I was drawn in by the small crowd but I was impressed by the fact that it had a vegemite to butter ratio scale pinned up on the coffee machine. Grade 1 was a lot of butter, not so much vegemite, grade 2 was even quantities of both, grade 3 was toast with a sheet of black vegemite on it, very little butter. There were photos to help customers with their choice, and everyone was appreciative of the vegemite scale.



I have no idea how the chilli scale would be implemented or who would decide on the categories because I always forget that not only are there different levels of heat, there are different types of heat. There is the lingering heat, which stays with you long after you have eaten the dish. There is the intense but short kind of heat, it hits you hard but goes away within a few minutes. Then you have wasabe- not sure how to describe the wasabe effect other than to say if you get a big enough chunk it will make you cough involuntarily... twice.


Are we the only two that have the chilli issue when dining out? Any other unsatisfied chilli lovers out there? No? Well then... maybe we are getting all 'hot' and bothered over nothing!

Cheers,
Alana