Hot or Not: How Restaurants Cater To Your Changing Spice Palette
Neat, expansive arrays of spices line up a local epicerié’s front window. Stepping in, wafts of aroma and rich, deep flavor compel you to explore each nook and cranny of the store. What does Berbere, an Ethiopian spice, bring to your dish? What about a conglomeration of Chinese five spice — a blend of star anise, fennel seeds, Schezuan peppercorns, cloves, and cinnamon sticks? These tiny jars of seamlessly ground spices don’t just merely pack in flavor, but they bring about character and personality to your food — certainly a spicy personality.
The spice trade began with the movement of cinnamon from Sri Lanka to the Arab Peninsula and Iranian plateau, and kick-started an era of discovery that changed the way the old world looked at gastronomy. Spice became an integral part of food from diverse cultures — and continues to hold such significance. Yet retaining a certain kind and level of heat in traditional dishes around the world continues to remain a dilemma, as these original culinary dishes are constantly adjusted to fit the taste preferences (or allowances) of the audience in question.
In a city that boasts some of the greatest food in the world, New York City’s reputation for food is built through its embrace of local cuisines from diverse countries. Foodies from all over the world flock to New York for its local restaurants and unique “fad” foods like fish-shaped Japanese waffles from Taiyaki and hundred-layered croissants from Lafayette Bakery become increasingly popular.
However, are localized restaurants able to retain certain authentic elements of their traditional food, like the intensity of their spice levels, for such an widespread audience?
Stepping inside for a serving of Sunbudu Jjigae Tofu, a Korean soft stew made with kimchi, anchovies, and garlic, SoGong-Dong BBQ is a grab-and-go barbeque place located on Third Ave. Leslie, a restaurant worker at SoGong-Dong who prefers using her first name, shares that the eatery welcomes a variety of people with differing spice tolerances since they opened.
“We see a lot of Korean people, since it is a Korean place — a lot of South Asian, East Asian and Hispanic people as well!,” said Leslie. “Because we are a go-spot, we do hear from older Korean customers or people who have immigrated recently that a dish would be cooked different traditionally.”
Leslie also adds that their customers have the option to alter the spice level of their dish. “We’ve got hot, medium, and spice because we also want to cater to everyone’s tastes — and not just feel the ‘heat.’” Other restaurants such as Sigiri, a Sri-Lankan eatery in the East Village, also follow suit, offering such customisations to their spiciest dishes.
Spice is the crucial element that truly finesses a dish, bringing in rich flavor and aroma to food — breathing life and energy into it with its piquancy. And local restaurants will try and retain this life source into their cuisine — even if they do it with a twist. Some eateries attempt to retain the flavor of their traditional dishes by preparing it in the same manner using the same ingredients but by adjusting the spice tolerance to a milder level — to cater to a wider audience. DesiGalli, a popular Indian takeout restaurant located on Lexington Avenue, stands by this principle: If a customer would like a dish spicier, they can request to do so specifically.
Bhavna Ollie, a DesiGalli restaurant worker, says that their customer favorite Chicken Tikka Masala — a traditionally spicy, sweet, and savory creamy curry simmered gently with mounds of fresh coriander, turmeric, and cumin — is made in a specific way.
“But, if you are from North India, you can tell the difference between how spicy it is served here and how spicy it would be served there,” said Ollie. “We make things mild also to be on the safer side of health concerns, too.”
They also serve variations of traditional dishes from other countries too. “Our desi-poutine is also a favorite which is an Indo-western fusion of fries, a gravy made of Indian spices, and grated paneer [Soft Indian cottage cheese],”added Ollie.
These fusions and mélange of spices have become increasingly popular as people try and experiment more and more with their food. Spice shops have begun boasting a wide variety of spices and condiments from all over the world given a wider acceptance of seasoning. Americans are welcoming spices like Kimchi, Sriracha, and Gojuchang to their palettes — with over one-third of Americans identifying as spicy food aficionados.
Spice Corner, a spice shop located on Lexington Avenue, stands between numerous South Asian restaurants. Walking past the shop’s locality, one’s senses are overcome with an aura of zest, flavor and herbs, redolent of traditional South-Asian comfort food. The shop, spanning across two levels, sells spices and sweets from different countries attracting a diverse variety of customers with separate sections for each region’s specialities.
Rashad, a worker at Spice Corner who’d like to use his first name, says that it has become more common for people to experiment with spice in their food now. Rashad points out that Middle-Eastern, South-Asian, and East-Asian spices are a customer favorite. “Gojuchang is an important ingredient for Korean food, and Ras El Hanout is a traditional Moroccan spice that customers love.” Rashad adds that berbere is an Ethiopian spice that combines chili pepper, coriander, ethiopian spice, and garlic — and people use it for different kinds of dishes because it is an extremely versatile spice. Gojuchang, a fermented savory and sweet Korean condiment, has become a popular chili paste while Ras El Hanout, an earthy Moroccan spice, is widely used in soups and tagines.
Rashad adds that some of their spices offer a milder and a spicier version of itself — specifically if it’s popular. He specifically points out Madras Chilli powder, a popular Indian spice from the southern state of Madras.
“We’ll definitely see more South-Asian customers loving the spicy version more,”laughed Rashad who hailed from Bangladesh himself.
Certain cultures, especially East Asian and South Asian cultures, ingrain the importance of spice into the diet of children from a young age. Capsaicin, the receptors that lie on the surface of your taste buds, essentially determine how much of the “burn” you feel. Spice tolerance, however, is conditioned and maintaining a spice tolerance means regularly indulging in spicy foods.
Carrying her own spice rack in her suitcase from Gujarat, India, Zalak Patel, a sophomore at NYU, says that it’s the nostalgia of spice that brings her one step closer to home.
“Spice and flavor are words I associate with my kitchen back at my house,” said Patel. She smiles as she adds a pinch of Garam Masala [A hot Indian Spice] to her Basmati rice, coughing a bit as she does so. Every atom of her dorm kitchen has now been permeated with the palatable aroma of the spice. She gently stirs her steel pot, preciously plucking coriander leaves to enhance her rice.
“Food is comfort, and food is home,” Patel adds while taste-testing her rice.
