Least spicy food?

mangrove

Hey all,

Just had a goan curry for lunch at a local restaurant (in Canada) and it nearly burned my mouth off. Now I've eaten tons of Indian food and cook it at home regularly though I've never been to India. Since I'm going fairly soon, thought it would be a good time to ask - what foods are least spicy?

I know about the yogurt, naan, chapatis, rice, but the how's the rest? I've had plenty of dals, sabzis, chicken masalas here - they are normally fine, but I'm not sure what to watch out for while I'm there.

I'm going to Delhi, around Rajasthan, Punjab and Uttaranchal.

Thanks! Look forward to hear from you!

machadinha

I think there's little to say about it except that it varies greatly. I didn't find Indian food in general all that maddeningly hot (certainly not as compared to some other places) but then I like spicy food.

Don't ask for the extra pickles if you're not up for it With e.g. thalis (of which you presumably won't see too many where you're going) you'll get these standard but can easily leave them untouched, they're not mixed up with the food or will even be served separately. Food that's been left to stand overnight (apart from issues of hygiene) then heated again tends to gain (a lot) in spiciness, I think all capsicums tend to do that, don't ask me why. They do that when I cook them at home too, so a bearable dish at night may be intolerable the next day (much to the chagrin of those I cook for).

I think there are plenty meat and fish dishes which will tend to be milder (but they don't have to be, I think chicken vindaloo for instance is notorious). Lamb for instance is preferably eaten in a mild curry sort of way I think -- at least that's how I would have it when I still ate meat.

Kofta (veg. or meat balls) is usually more creamy than hot I think. Other than that it just depends on the cook. I guess saag or palak paneer (spinach + cheese), various types of dal (but certainly not all of them), alu ghobi (potatoes + cauliflower), and in fact a whole array of other (veg.) dishes are usually safe bets -- but again they don't have to be. Trial and error and all that. Ask for curd (yoghurt) if you're on fire, cools you down (or lassi if served, not the salty kind I imagine). For lack of that, suck on a handful of sugar. As you realized, more rice or bread (it's usually perfectly normal to ask for more of a given dish, may or may not be charged for, you pobably would be at the slightly more higher-end places I imagine) and less of whatever is burning you up may help. Water helps some, if not much (tea may as well (?), again, not masala tea I imagine); beer enhances the spiciness, nice with a mild dish, otherwise not.

Bon appetit!

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boundlesstraveler

When you're in Mussoorie make sure not to miss a Tibetan restaurant called Kalsang (not sure about the spelling). It's on Mall road, right next to the Himalayans Herbals shop. Great little place and great food! Some dishes are spicy, but you can always ask them to make your order less spicy!

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robotvoice

masala dosa can be un-spicy. but you have to make sure they dont put any peppers in.

icetea

You can try and find some eateries which serve south Indian food, in which case idli & plain/ghee dosa with coconut chutney or (plain) daal & rice should be a safe bet (these might not have any spiciness at all). Other than these, as macha says, curries with a yoghurt (curd/dahi) base will not be so spicy. Order yoghurt or raita (onion/other veg. salad in a lot of curd) and mix some of it in your curry, to cool it down. This should not spoil the taste much.

Fried items can be less spicy (or they have a spicy crust which you can remove): fried meat items, aloo & ghobi, etc.

Macha what you say is interesting, that curries are hotter if reheated, I never noticed anything like that! What I did notice, though, is that most vegetable curries can taste much better if reheated (the taste is better blended). Now of course all Indians (who swear by freshly made food) will tell you just the opposite.

machadinha

Hmmm, what, me? No, yes, I agree, many dishes and esp. many spicy concoctions will taste better if reheated next day (goes well with bland Dutch stews for that matter). Like you say, many of these spices take some time to blend. Although if you start out with baking or roasting the appropriate spices I think you should get a long way. I assume if there is an Indian hangup about freshly cooked food it's because of the same concerns us western visitors have. (Interestingly, many Asians elsewhere have no trouble at all with eating food gone cold, they may even think it's funny if you want it heated up.) Anyway, try it with a really spicy dish some time and see what you come up with. I'm thinking of one very early winter morning having had one of those Varanasi boat rides and being hungry, everything closed except for this one place where I could get puris with yesterday's curry. The combination of being absolutely frozen from the outside and burning down the house from the inside had, umm, something psychedelic about it so to speak. I believe there was no curd for miles around either. I didn't know where to run in other words.

I've been putting out fire/With gasoline... (-- Bowie)

btw I strongly disagree with the idea of mixing raita in your curry As a side dish, good idea though, tasty in and of itself too.

And pps you will have noticed that there's a marked difference between adding chillies from the beginning of the cooking process or at the end, I assume it's the same basic idea, that is they'll get hotter the longer you bake them. In fact with any herbs or spices in any cuisine it's essential to know when to add them, depending on the desired results. This in itself becomes a fine art in Indian cooking.

icetea

My impression is that it has more to do with most Indians not really used to fridges, even if they own one. I remember the girls in the hostel where I stayed being quite scornful of being served yesterday's dish (kept in the fridge), even if along with other fresh food. Keeping it for more than a day seems unthinkable here for most people, while back home I wouldn't even give it a second thought. What is the use of a fridge, then? But without a fridge, freshly cooked food is certainly a must, you can't keep anything more than a few hours in this heat. hmm, I do it all the time, I eat almost all my lunches at home with curd and when eating outside, I order raita with everything. It's more because I love onions, though, rather than not liking spicy food You don't have to actually mix it in the curry, but it anyway gets mixed on the plate. Or perhaps it's jst me, when eating rice I usually mix several dishes on my plate into one disgusting-looking thing! (you can tell that I don't like rice, hence trying hard to conceal its ...aaa...lack of taste)True, I've been cooking Indian food here for over a year now and I'm still experimenting with spices, mostly because I refuse to take advice and prefer to try out different permutations myself . But I find that it has to do more with the overall taste, than with the spiciness of the dish. I usually add spices in the beginning, in the hot oil, right after adding the onions, or even earlier, after garlic&ginger. But sometimes I would dry roast them separately and add them after adding the vegetables, or keep part of the chilli to be added after the curry is nearly cooked, so as to add color. I cook with powdered spices, but sometimes I'd add the real spices as well, or grind the spices together and then fry them. On a whole, it can be quite fun! (for the cook, at least...)

dhans

The spices aren't the problem, the peppers are. When we visited India with our kids we thought that they would eat Indian food, as we use all the spices at home, but not the pepper.

To cut a long story short: our kids survived on pizza, pasta and fish and chips (sigh). Un spicy is very unindian.

Hans

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machadinha

Well, yes, something I had meant to add but thought was too obvious, is that spicy doesn't necessarily mean hot. Ideally Indian cooking makes great use of this. Then again what you'll be served won't always be so ideal

icetea

While initially not being thrilled at all about the hotness of Indian food, I gradually discovered that this kind of food tastes best when it's spicy/hot. The chillies sort of fill a higher taste niche which enhances the overall taste of the dish. This, of course, doesn't mean that it has to be so hot as to aggress the taste-buds (especially if you're not at all used to spicy/hot food).

Noodle

Many restaurants will make a milder variety for you if you say 'no chili' when you order. It will still be little bit hot (because they can't imagine cooking anything without chili or peppers AT ALL), but much less. If I want to make sure that I'll be able to continue the conversation , I order malai kofta, not sure though if you get that where you are.

mangrove

Thanks for all the replies!

I agree that Indian food tastes better the next day, spices intensify and it is likely that the dish also gains heat. I often eat yogurt/raita on the side, mixing it a bit while I eat with the hotter dishes.

Thanks for the advice about the different food items to watch out for and what is not too bad. Oddly enough, I've found aloo gobi to be quite hot, the gobi absorbs a lot of the spices. I will definitely ask for less chili and order yogurt/raita with most meals. Are mango pickles (achar) common? I love those and don't find them too hot.

I never knew that yogurt and curd were the same thing!

I heard that dal can go bad/ rancid quickly? Are their other foods/drinks to worry about as a traveller besides milk, water, etc.??

Thanks a lot!

icetea

I honestly never noticed anything of the sorts, although I sometimes keep boiled daal in the fridge, but I can tell you that I have seen some Indians refusing to eat yday's daal, on account that the "taste is spoiled". Now daal doesn't have much taste to begin with, so I wonder how that is possible at all... There have been many similar threads on the forum and much useful info has been already posted, so I suggest you use the Search function of the forum.

Noodle

They are not, but in India both terms are normally used for yogurt.

osgeek

A culinary tip: Roast a teaspoonful mustard seeds until they crackle; grind and mix it to raita. It makes that hot air sorta thing come out of your nostril with each gulp. It doesn't hurt a bit. I remember a place on the way to Ranikhet/Almora called Garam-pani which is popular for raita. If anyone is going that route then stop by and have it at any of the restaurants there.

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