# Chinese Restaurant Spice Scale Template

## Menu legend
0 — Not spicy
1 — Mild
2 — Medium spicy
3 — Hot
4 — Very hot
M — Ma-la: spicy and numbing from chile and Sichuan peppercorn
O — Chile oil: cooked or dressed in chile oil
F — Fresh chile: fresh chopped chile or green chile
D — Dried chile: dried chile, often aromatic and smoky

## Customer-facing note
Ma-la means spicy and numbing. Some dishes can be made less spicy, but dishes cooked in chile oil or spicy broth may not be adjustable. Please ask before ordering if you are sensitive to chile.

## Item-level fields
Dish:
Default spice level:
Type of heat:
Can be made mild?
Can be made not spicy?
If modified, what changes?
Will the dish still taste right if modified?

## Examples
Mapo tofu — 3/M — Can sometimes be made less spicy, but not fully non-spicy.
Dry pot — 4/M/O — Usually not a good candidate for non-spicy modification.
Steamed fish with ginger and scallion — 0 — Not spicy.