Departments

Area Restaurants Bring the Heat

While it’s crisp and chilly outside in January in the Fox Cities, that’s not so much the case for menus in the area.

The trend of bold flavors, especially hot and spicy, has been growing for quite some time—both on a national level as well as in the Fox Cities.

While the flavor blasts and pepper combinations prove powerful, it may not be all that’s pushing guests to order fiery food.

“I think it’s always been around but when you can present heat in a more fun and unique way, and not just slather something in hot sauce, people will be more excited to try it,” Aaron and Essa Cole, owners of Hot Biddy’s, say.

“I think it’s just a matter of people wanting to be more adventurous, and trying to push their palate,” Larry Chomsisengphet, General Manager of Basil Café in Appleton, agrees. “Whether that comes from an increased interest from cooking shows like Top Chef or just from inherent curiosity, we’re here for it!”

From Nashville style chicken and Asian fusion specials to favorites from Lao and Thailand, buckle up for some heat at these local eateries:

Hot Biddy’s

Aaron and Essa Cole, Owners

The difference between “hot” food versus “spicy” food to you: For us at Hot Biddy’s, spicy comes from a blend of different seasonings and different types of dehydrated and ground peppers giving someone plenty of different ways to make something spicy and still flavorful. Hot doesn’t always mean flavorful, just painful.

Most popular hot and spicy items on your menu: Our menu is great because we can make almost all of our menu items spicy if the guest prefers. Our most popular menu items are our Biddy sandwich, the Biddy Bowl, and the Dirty Mac which you can get as crazy spicy as you’d like.

Which is the spiciest? How does it get its heat?  All of our heat levels are the same blend of seasonings but it’s the amount of cayenne that we add to each level that makes it spicier. However, our “blistering biddy” seasoning also has pure Carolina reaper powder added to our hottest seasoning to take it to the next level!
Varying spice levels: While our “naked” fried chicken has a ton of flavor, it isn’t truly Nashville style. I challenge those who usually get no spice on our chicken to start off with our mild heat level to truly get the full experience of Nashville style. I’d say the heat level is a 2/10 so almost everyone can handle it!

Fun fact: The story behind “Nashville Style” is one of revenge! Thornton Prince of what’s now Prince’s Hot Chicken came home late so his lady friend angrily doused his breakfast fried chicken in cayenne for payback. Prince loved the dish and later on opened the BBQ Chicken Shack and the rest is history.

Basil Café

Larry Chomsisengphet, General Manager

The difference between “hot” food versus “spicy” food to you: I think obviously the terms get used interchangeably. Spicy food is essentially spicy and has heat in terms of a flavor profile. Where as “hot” food is just food that is served warm/hot. We have a dish, Papaya Salad, that is spicy, intense with so many flavors and fresh chili peppers in there, but it’s a salad that’s served cold, not hot.

Most popular hot and spicy items on your menu: Most popular spicy and hot dishes on our menu would probably be Spicy Basil or Spicy Lemongrass. This is a dish that contains spice and is served hot. Unlike our Papaya Salad which is spicy but served cold (and is technically the only dish that is spicy and served “cold”). But spice for 99% of our dishes can be adjusted, since everything is made to order. The only thing that you really can’t adjust the spice on would be our Tom Yum Soup or Kow Boon Noodle Soup where the broth is already made with spices and that can’t be removed. Or our last featured Noodle Soup, Luang Prabang Khao Soi, where the broth isn’t spicy, but the Bolognese we put on top is spicy and intense and rich with flavor.

Which is the spiciest? How does it get its heat? I’d say the Papaya Salad is the spiciest because as a diner, you can choose how many peppers you want in your Papaya Salad, We’ve had people order regularly 17 peppers (while the standard is about 3), and a few people have ventured into the 20+ pepper range a few times. But most people stick to the standard or lower. The Papaya Salad gets its heat from the fresh Thai Birdseye Chili Peppers and the capsaicin from the seeds of the chili peppers. The peppers are mashed in a mortar with a pestle along with fresh green unripened Papaya, Lao Eggplant, Cherry Tomatoes, and our house Papaya Salad Sauce comprises Fermented Fish Sauce, Fish Sauce, and Tamarind. A very traditional Lao/Southeast Asian Dish varying from region to region and country to country like from Lao to Thailand.

Varying spice levels: There are varying degrees of spice levels in 99% of our dishes, with the exception of our Tom Yum Soup and Kow Boon Noodle Soup, as stated earlier. Most people like the standard spice or a little bit spicier. You have a few folks who order the highest level as well, and others who don’t want any spice in their dish.

Fun fact: I think the most important thing about our hot and spicy dishes, and the feedback that I get the most, is that even though it may be a little spicy, there’s still so much flavor. It’s not like when you go eat spicy buffalo wings and it’s just intensely hot or spicy and so vinegar-y, and you can’t taste your food, and there’s no actual flavor to it. Our cuisine, and Southeast Asian food in general I feel, is spicy yes, but there is also a great deal of flavors that accompany that spice. Lao food in particular is known for hitting on all the flavor profiles, Bitter, Spicy, Sour, Sweet, and Umami/Savory. Flavor is key, we’re not just spicy for the sake of spicy.

MAD Elephant
Sarah Jitmaiwong, Manager

The difference between “hot” food versus “spicy” food to you: Hot is when something burns your mouth and spicy is when something makes your tongue tingle. Hot is a feeling while spicy is a flavor.
Most popular hot and spicy items on your menu:  We provide customers with a choice of spice levels one through five. They get to decide how hot their dish is. While we don’t have anything that is specifically spicy or hot, curries are a naturally spicy dish while other dishes aren’t.
Which is the spiciest? How does it get its heat? We can make the food as spicy as customers would like. We only use dried chili from Mexico.
Fun fact: We can make our food as hot as you like it. We can use dry chili or fresh chili, and it goes up to one hundred levels.
In Thailand, all food is spicy, so people will think of Thai food when they are looking for something spicy. Thai food is famously spicy. Our Thai food is delicious because of our authentic ingredients.