Ted, I've been in exactly the same situation - I like Szechwan style cooking, but there are times that I want something really spicy - and then no chinese restaurant can make it hot enough for me. If I put several tablespoons of chile oil/paste on the food, the chile oil flavor will drown out the other (good) flavors. The only solution is to go to a Thai restaurant (that has Thai hots) or bring my own hab powder and/or PurCap solution. A 4-6 drops of PurCap solution makes the hot-and-sour soup really hot! Andy Ted Wagner wrote: > > Hmmmmm Now I know I've been missing out. Mrs. Chang's Szechwan > cookbook. I'll have to look for that one. > > Had Szechwan last night. They thought I was nuts when I said, double > the peppers and make it hot not wimpy. ;-) > > Ted > > --- Constance Allen <constance_allen@charter.net> wrote: > > I joined this list in 1994 because I liked spicy foods; Dianna > > Kennedy's cookbooks and Mrs. Chang's Szechwan cookbook were natural > > progressions for me because I cooked a lot of Chinese and Mexican > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Check out Yahoo! Shopping and Yahoo! Auctions for all of > your unique holiday gifts! Buy at http://shopping.yahoo.com > or bid at http://auctions.yahoo.com