How spicy do you like your food when you dine in Asian restaurants? Usually, I just tell the waiter the number of stars I want for an entree. But I learned a better way from some Germans.
“How many stars do you want?” a waitress in the ID asked my guests. They said they could eat very hot and spicy food.
“Go with five,” I suggested.
“No,” the Italian German said. “Give me three, the medium one. But bring all the hot sauces you have in the house.”
The waitress did what she was told. She brought along three in-house hot sauces: red pepper, bean, and chili sauces. The aroma of the hot spices almost choked me. I don’t like spicy food. But the Germans, of Turkish and European descent, happily put all of the hot sauces on their already-hot dishes. Their eyes lit up.
Oh yes, that’s how they will remember Seattle’s International District — hot, hot, hot, and delicious! ♦