6 WAYS TO AVOID SPICY FOOD IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Chili is the main essential ingredient here in SouthEast Asia. In Thailand, where I lived, and here in Indonesia, where me and Milia are currently living, would be unthinkable that someone eats anything without adding at least a bit of spicy-magic-touch.
So that’s why usually the vegetables are cooked stir fried with oil, garlic and fresh chopped chili, while the meat often has on the side a thick red sauce called Sambal. The soup will be served with a small bowl of a light-red-fire liquid. The fried will be wrapped together with some fresh green chili to chew with some regrets. On the table you will always notice the Kecap Pedas, a very spicy tomato sauce, and other powders that will make you believe you will spit fire as a dragon soon.
In other cases, such Thailand, you will find in everywhere a grated dry chili seasoning to grab-and-add with unnumbered spoons.
There are short chili, long chili, red, yellow, green and orange. Then there is the ginger, that if you crash it and stir it into the hot water and drink it after any meal, it will firework all the spicy in your mouth and call the firemen by itself. “Why should I drink ginger”, you should ask? Because it is super good, moreover into the coffee, as you will find it often on the menu.
Well, if you like to eat spicy or not, everyone would always have the power of the choice and the full control of the situation, a power and a control that could fail for many language and cultural matters. So on, if you are traveling or attempting to live in here, I will try to reveal the 6 ways to avoid spicy food in SouthEast Asia:
#1 Order food by asking specifically “Without Chili”.
(It could not work)
It would seem the most obvious solution, but so obvious it is not. The problems could come from a simple language barrier. The classic example is when a customer asks to the waiter a kind and smily “Please without chili” and it will get back a super spicy meal with a lot of smiles. Why? Simply because the waiter wasn’t able to understand properly English, and that Asian culture background made of shyness blocked him to tell you a honest “I do not understand, sorry”.
The best solution of the case is to learn how to say “Not spicy” in the local language. Here those two I know:
• Thai: Mai Pèt (Not Spicy)
• Indonesian: Tampa Cabai (Without Chili) o Tidak Pedas (Not Spicy)
• You can try using Google Translate for any other language (it works even offline if you download before on your device the language you need)
Basically with that you will be sure to deliver a correct information and your desire to eat a food without chili, but you will be not sure it will happen for real. Why?
Because for example the chef could forget to care about the extra note in the moment of cooking.
#2 Repeat persistently and emphatically the words “Without Chili”
(It could not work)
After you learnt the magical words on the local language, it could greatly help repeating them hauntingly, maniacally, restlessly. During the order, even after, making sure of it underlining other two or three times. It could help also moving the hands while repeating again and again “Chili No No No No No”.
That, it could make the difference even at the cost to appear a bit fool, try it.
I’ve tried too once, around the mountains behind Manado, North Sulawesi. I took 1 hour to eat a Nasi Goreng (fried rice with veggies and chicken), until I called to the waiter “Sorry, didn’t I ask you a not-spicy food?”. And he innocently answered me ”Yes! Indeed! They only put three chili for you!”
#3 Eating only Food-Exposed, inspecting it and ordering by sight.
(It could not work)
Around Thailand, but even more around Indonesia, there are plenty of choices of small restaurants in every corner. Most of them expose the food into some shop window. Ready-to-eat food and delicious.
That could be an excellent solutions, because the Warung, as called in Indonesia, is a very easy concept. They will give you a plate with some white rice, and you will choose the rest just pointing your finger on the favorite choices. You will only need to avoid whatever is red, or it contains red spots, and you can have a feeling of sureness.
A feeling uh! It doesn’t mean it correspond to the reality. For example the curry could be yellow, and it hides hot surprises inside.
Try, memorize, learn and you will get the rules of the game in your hands.
#4 Asking a help to an expert friend.
(It could not work)
If you have expat friends, or even locals, it would be amazing following them and asking a help. Asking a suggestion about what to choose, or how to ask it, rises the hope of eating a normal meal, but it will never arrive to a 100% level of safety. Because of what we had previously mentioned, but also because sometimes chefs could use pre-cooked sauces and seasonings that cannot be removed from the order. So…
#5 Eating merely white rice, fried food and fruits.
(It could not work)
This solution verges on perfection. Ordering only white rice, fries and fruits gives a high feeling of protection. If fried fruit, wow!
About the rice, you can be sure, it is never spicy. Steamed without sauces, seasonings, neither the salt. Well, what is sure too, you can not survive eating only this precious cereal. If you want to add some veggies, tofu, tempe, fishes or meat, so, well, choose those are the most fried and floury! For some not-written rule, the chili, in any shape it could be served, will be always served apart when with a oily and butter food. It will be enough to resist on dipping the fried food into any of the sauces you will see around, and it’s done.
Unless you are at Malalayang beach, where once I’ve ordered some fried bananas, and they arrived covered with Sambal, so much they’ve become red and with no trace of taste.
#6 Eat only in Western Food Restaurants
(It could not work)
If you are desperate, if you can resist no more so much that you prefer to quit with local food and take a pause with a succulent hamburger or pizza Margherita, well, that will give you a huge feeling of hope. But…
Be sure to choose the proper restaurant for that. Avoid for example anything promises the best pizza bolognaise, or macho mexicanos with cheese, or any amburgher, because you will never know what inside, desease included.
Rise a little more your budget, and treat yourself to a dinner worthy of resting your taste buds.
Last extra-rule:
#7 EXTRA! Get used to the spicy and let it flow.
(It works!)
Because Asia is also that. Learning how to live in the chaos, while dancing with all your energies, showing off the best of your smiles in your wardrobe.
Matteo & Milia
About the Autors: Matteo, digital nomad. Milia, pharmacist. Happily married, living in Bali, often traveling around.
