A.: Some dishes are inherently meant to be spicy. Though prepared with the heat intensity toned down these dishes will still carry some heat because the very essence of those dishes are ingredients that are spicy.

Dishes like curry are based on a curry paste and the base of this paste is either a green chili or a red chili. Luckily, each curry dish is prepared to order and we are able to tweak the spice level a bit. We make curries mild by adding less curry paste, but none the less, there is still curry paste added so there is still a degree of heat. There are many different types of curry and all vary in heat. A green curry is the hottest curry. If prepared mild it will still be spicy. Curries like the yellow or masaman will carry less heat if prepared mild.

Other dishes that are inherently spicy are the Hot Basil Leaves stir-fry and the Basil Fried Rice. The base of these 2 dishes is a chili paste made of pounding fresh red and green chili peppers with holy basil and garlic with a mortar & pestle. This pounding releases a lot of hot chili oil by breaking apart the seeds. The holy basil is a type of basil with spiy undertones, very different from your typical sweet basil found in supermarkets. Garlic is also spicy by nature. So these dishes has a 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 punch of heat. Made mildly, they still might have a significant punch on your taste buds.

If you are quite sensitive to heat, we recommend avoiding dishes that have a star next to them on the menu. The star indicates that the dish is meant to be spicy.