I have a classic Thai restaurant story that happened to me back in the late 80’s early 90’s. I was in a Thai restaurant in San Antonio with my mother. It was my first Thai experience. Now, at the time I was into hot food; I ate habaneros for kicks. So anyway, the nice Thai lady is there to take my order and I ordered and said I wanted it spicy, 4 Stars. (They had a 4 star spicyness scale, 4 being the hottest.) She asked if I’d had 4 stars before and I said no, but I told her that spicy food was old hat to me… She said she’d give me 1 star. I said, no I want 4 stars. This went back and forth for a while and she finally agreed and said, OK I bring you 4 star.
So the food comes and man it’s frick’n hot. I mean, I’m dying. It’s almost too hot. But, of course I eat it. The lady comes to the table to ask how everything is and I say it’s great, which it was. She asks if it was spicy enough and I said, with an emphatic nod, that it was. She looks at me with a smile and says, I give you 2 star…
I’ve never been able to find good Thai like that since. They had a fish sauce dipping sauce that was awesome, nam prik? All the other Thai I’ve found has been dumbed down for American palates…