SPICEPUSSIES!
Hairy and I ate for the first time at Dosa in the Mission on Saturday night. Their specialty is the dosa which is like an Indian burrito (with veggies inside) and the crepe/pancake is made out from fermented rice and a certain bean. I found the accompanying chutneys to be too spicy, but the lentil dipping sauce was pretty good. I also had a beet soup that was super tasty, not spicy, and much like butternut squash soup. The fried chennai chicken was really yummily seasoned, but was a bit too spicy for me, even with the raita. My favorite dish was our surprise dish. Our server warned that we were ordering too little food, so we quickly made the decision to order the Channa Bhatura, a chickpea curry that came with a huge puffy bread. The huge puffy bread was sooo yummy (and so fried...!) and the chickpea curry was very well and interestingly seasoned, and not too spicy for me to eat. Overall, I was fairly impressed with Dosa, since all the food just had a really great SMELL and it was different than the usual Indian food you eat.

After eating the chicken, though, I was sort of prompted to start a blog about restaurants and recipes for people who are just really sensitive to spicy food. Hairy is not sensitive to it at all, relishes it in fact, and it is a terrible indicator of whether or not I will be able to eat something. He just can't tell.

So it would have been cool to know, going in, that maybe I shouldn't have ordered the chicken, but that the chickpea curry got a thumbs up for not setting anybody's tongue on fire.

I have also, since I was little, had kim chee envy, since I always thought it smelled good (I like pickled stuff!) but knew I couldn't eat it due to spice.

The problem is I can't think of a good name for such a blog/website, or a good term for those of us who can't eat spicy stuff.


Um, spicepussies.com is already taken..... and also, it's just not a term I could ever say around my mother.

I was trying to find a technical term for sensitivity to spice, but haven't dug anything up from yahoo yet.

Hairy thought of Spice Sissies....but that doesn't appeal to me, nor does Spice Wussies. Wussies of Spice?

However, I do enjoy coming up with names for the sister-website...the one for those who want to conquer all the spiciest of foods:

SPICELORDS

SPICEANNIHILATORS

SPICEINVADERS!

There's always... IsItSpicy (the question I'm always asking)... NoSpiceForMe ... I don't know.

Anyway, then you could host Spice Wars, where you pick a dish that is typically spicy, and have someone from both factions make the very best recipe they can, and then a panel of neutral judges (who can tolerate spice) can decide if spice truly enhances that particular dish.

SpicePhobes?

TooHotIntheKitchen?

I think I in fact might refer to myself as a Spice Wuss in real life...but I think there is a better, fun term to be found.

Also after Dosa, we watched The Ruins. Both Hairy and I morbidly enjoy stupid, bad, horror movies. (Hello, NOBODY would see The Descent with me in the theaters when it was out way back when...and Hairy went!) I was surprised at how basic and unexciting the form of evil was in the movie, but whatever. I have no regrets!

Tonight, Hairy made a cassoulet in the slow cooker. IT WAS REALLY YUMMY. I challenged him to not put bacon in it, because he puts bacon in everything for flavor. So it was still yummy without the bacon. He used chicken legs, white beans, potatoes, a fennel bulb, spring onions, carrots, a sachel of herbs, and I don't know what else, but it was delightful. I am a lucky lucky gal! (Except for the expanding waistline.) But I think my lungs are almost ready for the treadmill again.

When he bought the chicken, we also got a big ol' chicken drumstick for Bibi, which she will eat tomorrow night. She has eaten chicken necks and backs before... but I thought it would be a nice treat for her to have a little more meat.

She is as cute and delightful as ever. I haven't posted many videos lately. I don't know if everyone is sick of them!