Here is another story in our series on spicy food. One time my wife and her friend, a native of Alabama, went to a Indian restaurant. When the waiter took their order, he asked, “do you want your order prepared mild or hot.” The friend replied, “hot.” My wife said, “girl this is Indian food, are you sure?” The friend responded, “I got this, I’m from Alabama and we love spicy hot food!” When their meal came they were chatting away and laughing. Then girl friend ate a mouth full of her dish—suddenly she stopped talking, her eyes got big and started to water, she started coughing, and her face turned several shades of mocha red. Next she drank some cold water—this compounded the problem turning her mouth into an even more intense spicy hot volcano. The waiter quickly intervened with some milk and bread which disarmed the spice and cooled her mouth. The moral of this story is, when it comes to food, hot is a globally relative term.
