How do you cook something to be "thai hot" ?

Question

At thai restaurants they have a heat rating from 1 to 5 with 5 being "thai hot" but what do they do to alter the spiciness of the recipe? I've also heard you can order things to be "beyond thai hot" or say a 6 or even up to 10 on the scale of 1 to 5, is there really any differentiation once you go past 5?

Answer 1

Thai heat comes primarily from Thai bird chilies, they may be tiny but can pack a punch.  The higher the heat level, the more Thai bird chilies used in various forms depending on the dish; fresh green, fresh red and dried red:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_pepper

http://food-in-thailand.blogspot.com/

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My tangent (I dont normally do this):  and it is true!

When I was living in NYC (and much younger), I used to eat at a really good Thai place named Jaiya Thai.  Traditional, authentic and excellent food.  My friends and I were there for dinner and decided to order Level 10 food once, the waiter thought we were nuts and sent the Thai Chef out to talk to us!  The chef told us it was VERY VERY CRAZY MAD HOT (exact words and tone).  We assured him we were Indian and could handle it, but we settled on 1 dish at level 10, 1 dish at level 9, 1 dish at level 8....so forth (upto levels 6-7).

The 10 was pretty d**n spicy (I dont think I could eat anything at this level now, my spice level tolerance is shot after having kids), but believe it or not  ---- at least half of us were able to handle it.  The 8-9 levels were pretty spicy but edible, levels 6-7 were what we were used to eating.

Basically, I dont think there is a standard level of measuring heat across Thai restaurants.  Level 3 in one resto may be equal to Level 5 heat in another Thai place.  Bottom line, eat the level you can handle and ENJOY the food!  I dont see the point where people order such hot food (they're sweating bullets, face flushed, guzzling gallons of water....you know the type) -- I cant believe they are actually enjoying the taste of food, how can you taste anything after you've singed your tastebuds?

Answer 2

Hotter recipes have more peppers added. Lots of red peppers can make food very hot. However, adding hotter peppers can make foods extremely hot, even to the blistering stage. There are some peppers that make red peppers taste tame.

Regards,

Dan