Close Menu
    [OC] Asian Countries Ranked by Spice Affinity
    Data

    [OC] Asian Countries Ranked by Spice Affinity


    Sources:

    1. World Population Review: Spicy Food Countries 2025​
    2. TheTopTens: Countries with the Spiciest Food​
    3. Little India: Spice Tolerance by Country​
    4. SplashTravels: Ranking Countries Spiciest Cuisines​
    5. Gastro Obscura: Ema Datshi (Bhutan)​
    6. Alibaba Spice: Vietnamese Heat Levels​
    7. Fremont Kabob: Afghan Spices​
    8. BangkokJam (Singapore): Spicy Food Guide​
    9. WorldAtlas: Countries With the Spiciest Food​
    10. CambodiaFoodGuide: Cambodian Cuisine Insights​
    11. TopTravelsights: Mongolian Food

    Tool Used: Perplexity Research

    Posted by chmod-77

    Share.
    View 22 Comments

    22 Comments

    1. burninhell2017 on

      As a Korean I always thought i could handle spicy food, until I had my Thai wifes “normal” spicy level. I was sweating profusely, watery eyes and in actual pain. Thai spicy is really on another level. Its the real deal.

    4. kompootor on

      I don’t understand your methodology — how did you turn your sources into a numerical scale? How did for example sources #5, #7, and #11 become comparative?

    5. elephantineer on

      Is this a composite index made from subjective lists? I know we cant really get mean scoville measurement for dishes, but we could also have used weight of chilies eaten per capita, adjusting for fresh and dried chillies.  

      But honestly, it’s use cases like this that we should just use expert judgment. 

    6. Annabloem on

      Surprised Cambodia is so low, from what I know from my Cambodian friends, they love spicy food/spices. One made me a “not-spicy” sauce that was 90% pepper 😂

    7. GreenGorilla8232 on

      I’ve eaten a ton of Korean food and none of it compares to the spice level of some Chinese dishes. 

    8. creativeasf on

      What kind of peppers do thai people use regularly? Do they have something similar to ghost peppers (c. chinense)? Asking because classic thai peppers are c. annuum and are not that hot.

    12. MyOtherRedditAct on

      I’m surprised the Philippines is as high as it is on this list. While there are a handful of spicy dishes, they aren’t that spicy, and they aren’t the norm. I’d guess that 95% of foods actually eaten on a daily basis in the Philippines are not spicy.

    14. Remarkable-Ad-4973 on

      This list may not be helpful to someone unfamiliar with the cuisines listed.

      Large countries like China and India have multiple divergent culinary traditions. For example:

      * Cantonese cuisine, a subset of Chinese cuisine, has extremely low level of spice usage.
      * Sichuan cuisine, another subset of Chinese cuisine, is known for its spice.

    16. Shoogled on

      Terms need to be defined for this to start to become meaningful. What is ‘spice affinity’? OP appears to be equating spiciness with ‘heat’ but the two aren’t the same. You can load a dish with a wide range of gorgeous spices, resulting in a delicate and subtle meal.

    19. tashkiira on

      On some monitors, the colours for both ‘Low’ and ‘Very Low’ vanish into the white and are exceedingly hard to tell apart. an adjustment is necessary–maybe making low less pale yellow and the very low a pale green?

    20. Myrialle on

      Spice or spicy? English is not my first language, but aren’t there lots of spices that are not particularly spicy? 

    21. ThickChalk on

      So this is just a meta-analysis of other food blogger’s subjective opinions?

      Does this actually represent reality, or does it only show up the stereotypes that food writers have?

      How is this objective? What is the methodology?

    22. grain_farmer on

      How is Japan on this list. They have the blandest food from a spice perspective, even items marked as spicy or hot with three chillies 🌶️ 🌶️🌶️ do not taste even slightly spicy.

      Maybe because I’m a Brit and we [eat a lot of spicy foods](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curry_in_the_United_Kingdom) but even in Indian restaurants in Japan (most are Tibetan) with Indian colleagues we ask for very spicy and then when the food comes we look at each other confused as it’s not spicy at all.