Larb

Real heat isn't a competition, it's a different way of tasting.

Chop the meat with a knife rather than buying mince: pork or chicken, coarse, so you feel the pieces. Fry it in a dry pan with no oil for about five minutes, breaking it up, and take it off straight away — overcooked it goes dry. The key is khao khua: toast a handful of raw sticky rice in a dry pan until brown and grind it in a mortar to a coarse powder; without it this isn't larb. The dressing is simple: fish sauce, lime juice, chilli flakes; proportions to taste, but there should be noticeably more sour than you're used to. Mix the warm meat with the dressing, the rice powder, thinly sliced shallot, mint and coriander — use twice as many herbs as seems right. Eat with lettuce leaves or sticky rice, with your hands; the heat is real, and milk won't help, rice will.

What do you normally call spicy — and how did you settle on that line?