Wingstop

[Hammerskjold]

We used to eat dishes like Nasi Goreng served with sambal at least once a week.

Sambal has one awesome property IMO. It's more of a slow and lingering burn, compared to say a fast burn like wasabe. If someone can handle the first 5-10 seconds of wasabe, chances are they're over the worst part and it's done.

With sambal, it's not necessarily the amount of heat, but how it works up to it. It's like a ramping damage over time. I have no scientific data and only anecdotal evidence, but my guess is that sambal's initial slow burn can lower some eater's 'spicy hot defense rating'.

I base that only on a somewhat funny incident (well funny to me) involving a relative who fancied himself a global gourmand, never tasted sambal before but declared how bad could it be since he's eaten genuine roadside Mexican tamale, eaten the spiciest Jamaican cuisines etc.

So at the start of the meal where he wanted to try sambal, he was quite underwhelmed. As the meal progressed however, he started to empty his water glass more often. By the time the meal was over, he was gasping and nearly in tears. He asked what kind of sambal was that, and someone said 'mild'.

On whatever hot scale you want to use sambal is probably not the highest, but it's probably one of the more unsuspectingly devious ones, and hilarious in the right circumstances.