I made Sparkly and Sparkly Jr cry last night

I made Singapore style curry noodles. Rice vermicelli, shrimps and calamari, garlic and ginger, spinach and bean sprouts and scallions, soy sauce and chicken broth, an egg, salt and pepper, sugar, and ........ hot curry powder.

As in Hot

Red Hot.

It was a curry I'd never tried before. From the Asian grocer.

Sparkly Jr picked out all the shrimps and calamaris that made it through her food filter and put 'em on my plate.

Then she chopsticked up a mouthful.

And cried.

Too hot, she said.

Sparkly ..... no food filter ..... similar sized chopstickful. Same reaction.

Sparkly Jr went for some milk. They both bathed their lips and tongues in it.

Then came back for more.

It got 'less hot' as they ate it.

Me? I was in seventh heaven.

It was real good!

And hot, too.

I don't do hot. Ever. The other half has an asbestos mouth so he does it all and the hotter the better as far as he's concerned. How exactly is burning your face off a good thing? ;)

overpower the taste.

Hot actually has flavor. Some hot has a great flavor. So great you almost wish you could have the flavor and not the hot.

While I can eat red hot 'hot', I prefer finding that sweet spot where hot is another flavor layer.

it got "less hot" for the intrepid diners at your table, but did it get "good"?

"Yummy"?

"Delicious"?

Would you fix it for them again?

I love hot, but I like flavor, too. That's always the tricky balance.

I wish I had some Singapore noodles............ ::::: sigh :::::

This recipe is part of our standard repertoire. It was just the different curry that threw it off last night. If the dish were less hot everyone whould have been right there with me in seventh heaven.

It's still madras curry, but not hot, thankyewverymuch.

I ordered something similar at a publisher's lunch once. As much as I loved it, I almost regretted ordering it, as I didn't look all that professional with tears in my eyes.

Those are my all time favorites-- I swear they're better than homemade. Very hot, so you have to learn how to use them for your personal taste. I like my curries fiery, so no worries. :-)

I liked it, however.