A lot of restaurants tone down their food for that reason

Here’s a little anecdote:

I used to work for a company in Utah that had a subsidiary in London. One day, two of our UK colleagues came to visit us. In the evening, we invited them to the local Indian restaurant, because they said they liked a good curry.

We sat down at the table, and our colleagues kept quipping about how US Indian food is bland compared to what can be found in London, that the best curries in the world can only be found in London, and yada yada.

The waiters arrived, took our orders, and asked each of us how spicy. Feeling cocky, the Brits said “Nuclear!”. The waiters paused a bit, then said “Are you sure?” “Yeah yeah! Bring it on!” “Okay then…” and they disappeared into the kitchen.

We asked why they asked that, and they said it would probably end up mildly spicy here.

Then our orders came : the two waiters served us, then served the Brits, then they simply stood them and waited. They didn’t go, they just waited, with absolute deadpan composure.

Uh oh… The Brits had a worried look on their faces all of the sudden…

Long story short, they got exactly what they wanted. We had trouble not laughing out loud 🙂