You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

I am tearing into some Chinese takeout today for the sake of this.

These were the goods we got from Pandegorme.

Oh my god.

This looks great.

Ask anyone in DC.

Pandegorme is an institution.

A Chinese restaurant, a fixed to a days in, off a highway, with a replica of a Sian

Terracotta Army Warrior out front.

Our food is known for being authentic, delicious, and yes spicy.

This is Bishfulay with silk tofu in hot chili.

This is like one of my favorite dishes of all time.

My dinner guest is Ruth Tam, a DC-based food journalist and co-host of Dish City.

A podcast looking at the city changed through the region's iconic dishes and cuisines.

Ruth grew up eating Cantonese food in the Chicago area, but it wasn't all that spicy.

She really got into spicy food when she moved to the district.

So she's not the type to smother hot sauce on a dish just because.

Eating spicy food doesn't have to be like a competition, but so often I feel like spiciness

gets used as like shorthand for how like tough you are and also like how culturally authentic

something is.

And I think that that's like so off base.

And yet from the celebrity web series Hot Ones to condiments with names like California

...