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Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

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Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#421

Post by jackhack »

fouc wrote: post #275
monocasa wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously, I've been to an Indian restraunt where I've ordered something spicy, and the server asks "are you sure". After responding yes, he asked "are you really sure". This whole thing goes on a third time before he finally goes back into the kitchen. About five minutes later his manager comes out "so I heard you ordered it spicy, now I'm not sure you know what that means". I went to school in New Mexico, we used t…

Might make sense to have a card or phone app that basically says "This user has a tolerance of blahblah, and is fully qualified to eat spicy food"

There is a hot-sauce shop in Austin Texas that makes you sign a legal release waiver before purchasing some of the sauces they keep in a locked case. Apparently there is a real risk of airway collapse -- a fine line between "hot sauce" and "military grade chemical weapon / bear deterrent spray."

Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#422

Post by GordonS »

ttcbj wrote: post #276

I don't think I'm exactly in your target market, but I have a related problem: We cook a lot of healthy foods at home (e.g. skinnytaste), and Indian recipes are the only ones that never come out. I suspect it is because we never get the spices right. We went to an indian cooking class many years ago, and the woman who taught it hand ground all the spices herself. The results were amazing, but who has the time? If you…

> the woman who taught it hand ground all the spices herself. The results were amazing, but who has the time?

I have an electric spice grinder, and it makes this process really quick - just drop in the spices and push a button! It grinds them to a powder within just a few seconds.

If you're interested in making your own spice blends, I highly recommend getting one.

Also, if there are blends that you particularly like, you can make a bigger batch and store them in an air-tight container, and they will retain the majority of their flavour for up to a few months.

Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#423

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

faragon wrote: post #404
cbhl wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdote: Had a (caucasian) friend who spent a four-month co-op term as a student in India, and when they came back they also had to insist to the local Indian restaurants "yes, I want it extra spicy, like you would serve to an Indian person". (Like, I realize this is frustrating, but how is the waiter going to know -- from your appearance -- that you spent four months eating Indian food in India?)

Indians are caucasian, too.

More to the point, "caucasian" is an obsolete and ill-defined term that was interpreted in various ways throughout its history:

The Caucasian race (also Caucasoid[1] or Europid)[2] is a grouping of human beings historically regarded as a biological taxon, which, depending on which of the historical race classifications used, have usually included some or all of the ancient and modern populations of Europe, Western Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa.[3]

Since the second half of the 20th century, physical anthropologists have moved away from a typological understanding of human biological diversity towards a genomic and population-based perspective, and have tended to understand race as a social classification of humans based on phenotype and ancestry as well as cultural factors, as the concept is also understood in the social sciences.[8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_race

Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#424

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

foobar1962 wrote: post #316
learc83 wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Warning customers that your food is spicy is one thing. Refusing to accept that your culture isn't the only one on the planet that enjoys spicy food is something else entirely. There are white people who don't like spicy food, and there are Indians who don't like spicy food. There are probably more white people who don't like spicy food than Indians who don't (percentage wise). But if you use this heuristic instead o…

> Warning customers that your food is spicy is one thing. Refusing to accept that your culture isn't the only one on the planet that enjoys spicy food is something else entirely. When I was waiting in a Thai restaurant (in Australia) I too started do the "are you really sure" thing after a couple of customers ordered the hottest dishes on the menu, then complained they couldn't eat them and wanted a refund. People wo…

Well, why can't you just make the food less spicy, but advertise it as more? I don't mean you should lie- just slide your spiciness scale down a bit so that what you call "hot" is actually mild and what you call extra super hot is just sorta-hot, for you, but not for the customers.

I don't reckon anyone has ever requested a refund because they could actually eat what they ordered.

As to those customers who only order hot food to brag to their friends, they can pretend their food is really hot and nobody has to know the truth.

Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#425

Post by learc83 »

ForrestN wrote: post #296
learc83 wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Warning customers that your food is spicy is one thing. Refusing to accept that your culture isn't the only one on the planet that enjoys spicy food is something else entirely. There are white people who don't like spicy food, and there are Indians who don't like spicy food. There are probably more white people who don't like spicy food than Indians who don't (percentage wise). But if you use this heuristic instead o…

I think you're looking at this from the wrong direction. Instead of starting from "what is my ideal experience, and why are people failing to deliver that to me," try thinking "what does the existing equilibrium have to teach me about this situation?" If you stop and think, you'll realize that the ubiquity of this "problem" for you is proof that your intuition is wrong, that you are an outlier, that the vast majority…

That's not proof at all. Stereotypes and confirmation bias are well documented phenomena.

It's very easy for people to take a few examples of behaviors by people from a certain group and apply that behavior to the entire group when they aren't members of that group--despite what the actual statistics show.

An example that happens all of the time in food service is assigning racial heuristics to tipping. A waitress has 2 customers who leave small tips, customer A is the same race as the waitress, customer B isn’t. The waitress dismisses customer A as a generic asshole, but she uses the example of customer B to reinforce her belief about customer B’s race’s tipping habits. The waitresses behavior (even multiple waitresses across multiple restaurants) certainly isn’t proof of anything about any group’s tipping behaviors.

People from hundreds of different cultures will insist that their cuisine is the spiciest and that no one else from any other culture could possibly handle their food--they can’t all be right. Clearly there are a lot of people overestimating their cuisine’s relative spiciness.

Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#426

Post by learc83 »

magic_beans wrote: post #330
learc83 wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had the exact same thing happen a few months ago at an Indian restaurant. The server just flat out refused to let me order bullet naan. I had to insist 3 times before he gave in. Unless you're stuffing those things with Carolina Reapers, I can handle it (even if you are, I still probably want to try it :) Another time I grabbed a bottle of the house hot sauce at a Jamaican restaurant, and the older lady behind the co…

People only know what they have experienced. You have to just forgive.

That's good advice for any situation.

Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#427

Post by learc83 »

vram22 wrote: post #274
spunker540 wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems many cultures think their culture is the spiciest! I've heard similar boasts from friends of mine who are Mexican, Chinese, Korean, and Indian among others.

I've been reading about cuisines and it seems that Korean can be pretty spicy. Not got a chance to try it, except a dish or two (bibimbap, IIRC, and that was not hot). I like the fact that they use a fair amount of sesame seeds and sesame oil, based on what I've read. Got to try it more some day.

Find a good Korean fried chicken place. Most of them will have a pretty spicy option.

Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#429

Post by js2 »

pacificleo11 wrote: post #379
js2 wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bunch of us Westerner looking types went to a Thai restaurant in Mountain View. This was many years ago and I don't recall the restaurant. We ordered some shared dish and were asked how spicy we wanted it, 1-10. We said 10. The whole "are you sure?" thing a few times. They brought the dish out. We said "this really isn't 10 spicy." The server said, "next time say you want it 10 on the Thai scale". Sigh. I live in N…

Was it Amron Thai On Castro Street ?

No. My recollection is that it was a block or two off Castro on either Villa or Dana. This is over 5 years ago though.

Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#430

Post by astura »

enno_au wrote: post #365
astura wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should probably know that chicken tikka masala is British, not Indian then. :)

Sure... and Vindaloo is derived from a Portugeuse dish. Which is not to say they aren't associated with India today.

The difference being the government minister Robin Cook to claimed that chicken tikka masala was "a true British national dish."
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