I couldn’t decide how best to title this post so I figured why not include both ideas for the best of both wolds!
Being of Indian descent, I love my motherland’s food. Indian restaurants are known for their spice, but so many are “Westernized” that for a Heataholic like me, it’s not just a matter of getting my food spicy, but getting it spicy to “my desired level” so it’s not just “spicy enough for the average Westerner!”.
On this typical Sunday, I decided to do curbside again, this time from an Indian-Nepali place wifey had suggested to me a while ago but I’d never tried – Yak N Yeti. This is not to be confused with the chain “Yak AND Yeti” of similar cuisine in Colorado, that I have yet to try.
When ordering spicy Indian or Nepali food, it’s not enough to simply say “Very Hot” or telling them “10” when they give you that 10-point scale. Even in cases like this, they tone it down – maybe the restaurants don’t want lawsuits! 🙂
Rather, you have to be as specific as possible – they need to know that you’re serious about your heat level. So much so that you have to order like this. In all my years of ordering Indian takeout or delivery, especially in the age of online ordering, I’ve noticed this has worked best for me:
The power of a few simple words! They work. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. And this was no exception. Not only did they make my Dal Makhani and Samosa Chat so amazingly spicy that my mouth became a live-action tribute to Jerry Lee Lewis’s famous song, but they even threw in their own house-based spicy sauce (not listed on the menu) – for free! The owner was so gracious he even told me to tell him whether I did a good job (spoiler: he knocked it out of the park! Think grand slam!).
Just look at how nice and red the Dal Makhani is (it’s normally more black), the spice and raw peppers in the samosa chat and the nice orange-red color of the house sauce (likely from the peppers – guessing ghost and maybe, cayenne).
I have no plans to ever climb Mt Everest, but with Yak N Yeti, I know I’ve got the best of the Himalayas in my own back yard!
Note: At Yak N Yeti, you cannot see the menu until you click the “Order Online” button. Just a little quirk in their website.
Spice on, my friends!
