Curry 101 for a newbie

[LisaR]

I make something at home that I call curry but I know if isn't anywhere close to the real thing. I am looking at a take out menu for a new Thai place and they have red curry, green curry and panang curry. The red and green list the exact same ingredients except the type of curry paste used (coconut milk, red & green peppers, snow peas, bamboo shoots, & basil) The panang adds zucchini, squash, and peanuts.

This website explains the differences but I still have questions:
http://www.templeofthai.com/cooking/curry-by-color.php

My questions:
How spicy is curry?
Any preference of one color over the other?
Is there really a noticeable taste difference over red and green?

 

[Imzadi]

I haven't tried all the curries. I've only had the brown or yellow curry and really like that.

When you order, you can specify how hot/spicy you want it: mild, medium or hot/very spicy. I always order really mild. You can't undo an too hot dish. But, next time you order, you can always order it hotter.

 

[can84]

Green curry is my favorite just had it two weeks ago. Whenever I've had it, it's been really hot--but then again I love spicy food

 

[AKL_Megs]

It depends on the place as far as how hot "hot" is.

We used to get Thai in our old part of town... We'd get Pad Ped, same recipe, same ingredients as the Pad Ped we get in our new part of town, only where we would need to get "mild" before, we now need "hot" in order for it to taste spicy at all.

Yes, red and green taste different. We prefer red.