There’s A Wide, Tasty World Of Spice Out There

One time when I was in college, my roommates were ordering Chinese food. At the time, I was pretty convinced that I didn’t like Chinese food because I had had it twice and it was very subpar and bland. (It ended up being that I had just had bad places.)

I had a Thai aunt who made delicious dishes at family gatherings, but I didn’t know what any of them were. I knew my favorite was a very spicy chicken. (She used to joke that she was trying to make it so spicy to kill my stepdad because he always said it was never spicy enough.)

So, when I was asked what I wanted, I asked them:

Me: “Can they make chicken that will burn my face off?”

The restaurant complied, and it was delicious. And it led to me trying Chinese food at various places and finding out that I did, in fact, like Chinese food from good Chinese places, and it did not have to burn my face off.