If you are, then so am I. But I don’t think we are.
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Soups and stews. Try yukaejang, a spicy beef soup. Or any number of chigae (spicy stew with a kimchee base). Spice level will vary, of course. Those should definitely not be sweet at all.
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Sounds like tangsuyuk. Should be slightly sweet, in a typically gloopy sauce with no char.
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That’s so interesting you would say that. I much prefer Thai over Korean food in terms of heat (and overall flavor, TBH, I find Korean to be two-dimensional - salty & sweet, and not very spicy), but I’ve been lucky to have Thai food where the balance between salt, acid, heat & sugar was so that the sugar wasn’t noticeable. Just a perfect combination of all notes 
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Oops I accidentally deleted my post. Oh well. @Babette Stick with soups and stews, such as yukejang and chigae. But of course, the heat level will vary according to the cook and one’s willingness to experience pain (the good kind!). 
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Hi folks. It seems this has been a great thread, addressing cuisines of the world, which can be nuanced depending on the eaters’ expectations. Unfortunately, it seems to have take a turn towards personal attacks. Several posts have been removed, but we ask that all please stick to the subject at hand (knowing of course drift is inevitable) and avoid personal comments.
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Most Korean food should not be sweet or have much of a sweet component. A lot of it has a fermented component (in addition to fish sauce), far more likely than you’d find with Thai food.
And a lot of garlic.
Bo Ssam is a DIY wrap in leafy greens, typically boiled pork, fermented vegetables and whole cloves of garlic, as well as other choices. Bo Ssam Gui is with raw oyster is added.
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I thought the point was the alleged generalization that Indian or Thai or other countries mentioned are inherently spicy, when there are many dishes that are not. Which was never disputed by anyone, least of all me.
The poster’s example of “ordering boeuf bourguignon spicy” would be the opposite of what you imply.
I thought it was a reasonable and fair point to make that nobody would consider ordering a classic French dish other than it is traditionally prepared, whereas the expectation at a THAI place ordering som tam would be that at least some level of heat is to be expected. Which I suppose one could ask to be toned down, or… order one of the many non-spicy dishes available.
I also clarified that I wouldn’t expect just ANY dish at a Thai (or Indian) restaurant to be made spicy just because I want it that way, when the dish is not meant to be spicy traditionally.
That pretty much sums up my entire points made thus far, the supposed contentiousness of which I am still digesting. >burp<
Fair points, @digga .
On a tangential note, I had an epiphany about Hungry Onion, or from a macro perspective, the entire interweb–
A cliché would be to say that I’m enjoying reading through the dogma in these threads so much that I’m going to “get the popcorn.” On Hungry Onion, there would undoubtedly be a rebel group wanting to know if the proverbial corn is heirloom, and if the butter is real or powdered 
.
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It seems like everything is customize-able now - all the milks for your coffee, accommodating all the allergens and diet trends, bending over backwards to make customers feel special.
At the same time, more restaurants have reached their limit and say no substitutions, this is how we make it. What’s that place that gets flak for not allowing ketchup with your burger?
“Ethnic” restaurants are also getting more regional - less pan-Asian, more specialties of one province (for example), maybe they will adopt the same ‘this is how we make it’ attitude.
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Good point about spice being flavorful. I feel it is a matter of choice of words. If someone says, spiceful, then I think of many spices and aromatic flavors. If someone says spiciest, then I immediate think of being hot. Good point.
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I think it’s not about the food per se but about which people are expected to yield or change to accommodate which other people?
Idk. From a chef’s perspective, accommodation is a considerable part of the business. Give people something they will like. Early immigrant restaurateurs made do with substitute ingredients and came up with chop suey to make money from a steak & potato demographic.
It’s just hospitality to not inflict pain on people (unless they like it).
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Thank you for clarifying what I thought I had explicitly stated and yet was misconstrued / rewritten multiple times.
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I’ve not read that question anywhere in the OP, which was about the spiciest cuisine any of us have eaten. Why it went where it went from there is anyone’s guess 
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My experience with Korean food is limited to what I’ve had at local restaurants, one of which being the most popular with the Korean population in town. Perhaps I’ve mis-ordered each time, but any soups/stews that were advertised to me as spicy weren’t - to my palate, and I was missing the complexity I like in other cuisines. I like kim-chi & garlic, but I’ve been underwhelmed by each Korean meal I have had, which is why I generally prefer Sichuan or Thai to scratch the heat itch.
This is why many places have a secret menu or foreign language menu or post additional dishes on the wall in another language. Even if someone out there might like it, they don’t want to deal with a bunch of folks sending things back.
However, I have found that restaurants from the subcontinent do not usually do this. For some dishes, a really good chef does not want to reserve the spices and just throw them in raw at the end. I know places that do this, and they are not very good. They risk losing their best customers who will be able to taste the difference.
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Sorry to do this, but it appears this thread has just become a circular argument. It is probably best to lock it now.
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To break things up a bit, this is the oldest photo – digital or otherwise – I have of a food that I specifically recall being damn spicy.
It’s a Lao dish transliterated as tum mak hoong; this particular culinary oeuvre rendered me without speech for about 10 minutes.
I’m not at all looking for superlatively spicy things on this list. I just like some heat every now and then
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