Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner. When my gf is out of town and I'm forced to fend for myself, I take it as an opportunity to try places she probably wouldn't like. Generally, that means spicy: Immm Thai came close to breaking the girl. Over the past few months, I've made several visits to Red Hot Chilli Pepper, the (relatively) new Indo-Chinese restaurant from the owner of the nearby Mt. Everest.
It's a bit surprising to me, considering how much I love Indian and Chinese food, that I'm not as big a fan of Indo-Chinese. It's its own thing, though: there's
a lot of cornstarch (at least in my limited experience, and also borne out here). The good news is that, perhaps to thwart psychic spies from China, Indians add lots of chilis, garlic, etc. I like pleasure spiked with pain and this place will deliver legitimate heat, if you ask. (If you're a true masochist, they even do that circa 2010 gimmick where you have to sign a waiver before trying some super-hot "ghost pepper" or some such dish. I mean, whatever, you do a little dance and then you drink a little water. Big whoop.)
Anyway, I think the way to go here is to try to avoid too many saucy dishes and make sure you balance them out with some dry ones. Dry gobi Manchurian is good here (if you know any Indo-Chinese dish, you probably know that one), as is dry chilli chicken (both far preferable to the sauced versions, to me). The Hakka noodles have been highly recommended, although I've yet to try them. The "Hot garlic New Zealand lamb" was a big miss: too much (boring) sauce and the meat itself was not very good. I had just a piece of leg to bite on and moved on to other stuff.
Prices are pretty high (it's Evanston), especially considering you're going to have to add $3 for rice. The lunch specials are more reasonable and pretty filling: you get a plate containing the entree, spring roll, fried rice, and a bit of cabbage in chili oil (although I prefer to separate my sides).
Anyway, I've been remiss in not posting about this place. While I've yet to find a dish I truly crave, there are good (and relatively unusual) ones to be had here. Where I go I just don't know, but I'll try to explore more new places. Gonna keep on trying till I reach the highest ground.