Victor Paul Borg gets fired up about thailand’s insatiable appetite for chilli

EVER gotten high from eating chilli? You could, as I do, and become addicted to the hot buzz (like me).

These pronouncements are not the mere fantasy of a chilli junkie. Capsaicin – the ingredient in chilli that produces the hot sensation – triggers a flush of endorphins.
And it is an endorphin rush so convincing that, coupled with the accompanying sweltering and reddening of the face, it has led to the belief that chilli is also an aphrodisiac – a precursor to hot love, you might say. This part is wishful thinking.

SPICE OF LIFE

Yet, sexual prowess is just one of many magical powers attributed to fiery peppers in folklore – chilli has been used in rituals, cures, and torture throughout the centuries. It is also the most popular spice in the world and its health effects are remarkable.

And nowhere must this be truer than in Thailand, where chilli consumption is among the highest on the globe and even among other Asian countries.

Only in the Chinese provinces of Hunan and Sichuan, and some parts of Indonesia, could the use of chilli possibly be higher. It’s not without reason that anyone who holidays or lives in Thailand can end up addicted.

Thailand also has the second hottest type of pepper known to man (after the Mexican habanero), called prik kee noo in Thai. Literally translated, prik kee noo means “mouse dropping chillies”, due their small size, and pack an incredible punch in both their green or red form.

“It’s the type of chilli I prefer,” says Waristha Mai-ngarm, chef and co-owner of the excellent Krua Aroy-Aroy restaurant in Bangkok. “The red version is spicy and colourful but lacks aroma, while the green version has a fruity aroma. So, in prik nam pla [chilli in fish sauce], I use red ones for colour and some green ones to improve taste and fragrance.”

Warita, who has been cooking professionally for 19 years, creates dishes that are finely balanced in spiciness and sweetness, including many coconut cream sauces, thus fooling the palate into believing that little chilli is present in the meal.

The truth is something else altogether – the restaurant uses about 3-4kg of chilli daily to feed 200-250 people, which is at least 15g per meal. This figure is for all variety of peppers, including the little-used long cone-like green or red peppers that are only mildly spicy. (The true amount each person eats may actually be a little higher; although there is wastage leftover on the plate, a lot more is blended into the many manufactured chilli pastes and curry pastes that Warita spoons into many dishes).

But it’s a different story for Vichit Mukura, chef of Sala Rim Naam, The Oriental Bangkok’s Thai restaurant, where 70 per cent of its customers are foreigners. The kitchen here uses only 1kg of chilli daily for 200 diners, which amounts to 5g per meal.

“Foreigners can’t tolerate it as much,” says Vichit, “so we have a different style of preparing food here. Many dishes we do are full of flavour but not spicy.”

In yam salads and som tam, which are among the fieriest Thai dishes, Vichit puts two or three prik kee noos, much less than the five to 10 that are used in traditional Thai restaurants. Although, interestingly, Vichit points out that he has seen foreigners slowly acquire a taste for hotter food in the two decades he’s worked as a chef.

FEEL THE EFFECTS

Chilli has strong health effects, both good and bad. On the negative side, a study led by a cancer researcher, Lizbeth Lopez Carrillo, in Mexico, where chilli consumption is the highest in the world, found that people who eat nine to 25 jalapeno peppers daily increase their risk of gastric cancer; while another research team in Chile also found that high chilli consumption can increase the likelihood of gallbladder cancer.

However, there have been no such conclusive studies made in Thailand and the positive effects on health, felt throughout the body, are far more established. Capsaicin catalyses the digestive system, making the food move more smoothly through the intestines, and also accelerates metabolism, burning the food more completely and comprehensibly.

A study in England, for example, found that 3g of chilli added to a meal increases the metabolic rate by six per cent – one of the reasons why people in Thailand, and the wider region to a lesser extent, have slim figures.

Contrary to popular belief, capsaicin is actually present in the skin of the fruit and not the seeds, and is beneficial in other ways too: it is high in vitamin C (the Thais get more vitamin C from chilli alone than is needed by the body); it aids the breakdown of fats in the stomach and veins; and it stimulates blood circulation and the body’s ability to restore itself to prime health.

Researchers in Bangkok’s Siriraj Hospital, for example, are interested in capsaicin’s anticoagulant properties as a preventive against blood clots that can cause heart attacks, and as a general preventive ingredient in cardiovascular diseases.

PASSION FOR PIQUANT

So why have the Thais developed such a penchant for piquant food? Several hypotheses have been put forth, but the most obvious explanation comes down to availability.

Chilli grows naturally in the tropical regions, making it readily available all year round. The plant itself is actually native to Bolivia and Brazil, and only brought over to Southeast Asia by the Portuguese in the 16th century. It was then rapidly incorporated into Thai cuisine.

Chef David Thompson, author of the best-selling Thai Food, thinks the Thais took to chilli so wholeheartedly because of “a similar pre-existing flavour that was already popular, namely galangal and peppercorns which, when combined, taste like chilli but with a somewhat drier heat.”

It is also an easy plant to grow. Farmers cultivate seedlings, and then transplant them into open fields. Bearing fruit after two months, each one yields about 5kg of chilli over its year-long lifespan.

“But it’s not a very profitable crop,” admits Thongsuk Unpim, a local chilli farmer. “Last year’s price was 20 baht per kilo. When there is a glut in the market, I dry the chilli as the dried form sells at 60 baht per kilo.”

In the wild, the plant grows for many years and sometimes to a height that’s taller than a man. The seeds spread by a fantastic design of nature: birds do not feel the hotness in chilli, and they eat it avidly, excreting the seeds in their droppings. Particularly voracious feathered consumers in Thailand include sooty-headed bulbuls, white-rumped shamas and common mynas – more famously known for their ability to mimic voices than their eating habits.

“Thais believe that a bird that is fed chilli can learn how to speak,” recounts Siripong Thonogto, an ecologist who took me around Ban Rai province to show me a rare variety of chilli that he believes is the hottest in the world. “And that is why the myna talks.”

Strangely, this is one of the very few myths featuring chilli here; a dearth of legends about such a ubiquitous spice seems strange, given the superstitious nature of the Thais. The only ritual I came across in extensive research is the burning of salt and chilli to rid the house of evil spirits or curses.

This also extends to neutralising a malicious neighbour: salt and chilli is burned when the wind is wafting towards the offensive neighbour’s direction.

The practice is most common in the northeast, where people also believe that eating spicy food makes you stronger and that people who can’t tolerate lots of chilli are uncourageous.

Appropriately, this region is home of the som tam (papaya salad) – one of the Kingdom’s spiciest dishes.

IN THE MIX

Chilli is used in many forms in wider Thai cooking. Commonest is the fresh, chopped prik kee noos, followed by a milder type of pepper that is roasted or deep-fried.

More chilli also goes into the food in the form of pastes. There are dozens of varieties all made from similar ingredients – mostly chilli, tamarind, garlic, sugar, salt, dried shrimp or other fish, onions and fish sauce – with a chilli content that ranges from three to 20 per cent.

The same applies to curry pastes – all have the spice in varying quantities, and are made from base ingredients of chilli, shallots, galangal, garlic, lemongrass, kaffir lime, shrimp paste and salt.

“For a good curry paste, it is essential to use quality ingredients,” says Preedawadee Laksanawisit, owner of Nittaya Thai Curry Products, producers of premium curry pastes. “The maturity of chilli is important. Old chilli is soggy, and immature chilli is bland. We have a lab at our factory where we test the ingredients for quality.”

Further amounts of chilli are added to the food as condiments. Virtually all restaurant tables have jars with chilli in fish sauce, chilli in white vinegar, and dried ground chilli.

There are also dedicated condiments: the fish dipping sauce (a puree of green chilli, lemon, lemongrass, fish sauce and salt); sauce for grilled meats (dry ground chilli, lemon, fish sauce, roasted ground rice and shallots); sauce for spring rolls and patties (chilli, vinegar and sugar); and chilli fried in oil until it is a dense and dark red paste with a pungent, roasted flavour.

Meanwhile, new ways of using peppers are being invented by the foreign chefs that cook in the international restaurants of Bangkok’s upscale hotels who like to spike Western dishes with Asian spices.

Among these innovative fusions is a chilli chocolate cake at the Conrad Hotel. It’s mildly spicy, giving the cake an extra layer of taste. “We do it by putting chilli in coconut oil for two weeks before melting in the chocolate,” explains Dietmer Spitzer, the pastry chef. “It’s one of our best-selling chocolate cakes.”

And so, as long as chillies grow, Thailand’s love affair with the hot stuff is only set to continue and spread like wildfire.

BANGKOOK BITES

Krua Aroy-Aroy – an authentic, hole-in-the wall Thai restaurant, open daily from 10am to 4pm. Staff do not speak English, but there is an English menu.
Intersection of Pan Road and Silom Road, tel +66 (0)2 635-2365 or tel +66 (0)1 695-3339 (English-speaking)

Sala Rim Naam – The Oriental Bangkok’s stylish riverside restaurant, open daily for lunch and dinner.
Oriental Avenue, tel +66 (0)2 236-0400