Full bird’s eye chilis thrown into a mortar and pounded for somtam. Krapao, begun with garlic and chili on a hot pan before ground meat and holy basil are added. All the various kinds of naam prik, its base containing chilis. All the various yum, tum, and larb, with slices of hot red chili.
Thai food is almost unthinkable without chili peppers. Yet, it may surprise many hardcore patriots to learn that this hot little kicker veg isn’t native to Thailand, Asia, or even the entire Old World.
Indeed, the chili pepper originated from Central and South America. But how did it make its way all the way over here, and change Siamese (and world) cuisine?
“Thais are so proud of our food, and we think that the ingredients for it are all originally from around here, or at least somewhere in Asia. But most of it is from somewhere we think is so far away, Latin America,” Pasuree Leusakul, professor of Spanish Language at the Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University, said.
She raised the example of somtam, the quintessential Thai “salad.” “Nothing in somtam is native to the region: not the chilis, tomatoes, papaya, nor peanuts,” Pasuree said.
Blazing a Trail
Pasuree, who is also the director of Chulalongkorn’s Department of Latin American Studies, took us on a journey back in time, and
across the Pacific.
Chili had been a part of the human diet since 7,500 BCE in the New World and was widely consumed by Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Aztecs, Incas, Mayas, and other indigenous peoples. The word for “chili” comes from the Aztecs’ Nahuatl language for the vegetable, while the Taino, indigenous people of the Caribbean, referred to chilis as “aji.”
In the 16th and 17th centuries, Spain and Portuguese colonization were in full swing in the New World, while the Ayutthaya kingdom was reigning in Siam. The Columbian Exchange — that is, the exchange of food, trade, and disease between the Old and New Worlds — brought back brand-new fruits and vegetables to Europe, including tomatoes, potatoes, corn, and chili.
While many of these took root in European cuisines, especially in the south, the reputation for Europeans being averse to spice rang true. Pasuree said that Christopher Columbus presented his patrons, Isabella and Ferdinand the chili, but they weren’t the most receptive to its heat. Thus the chili in that time became more of an exotic, ornamental plant andnot widely consumed, Pasuree explained. European countries, especially those in the South or Hungary, would use the chili more commonly in the form of ground paprika.
The chili pepper made its way to Asia as Spain settled the Philippines. As Spain established their Asian foothold, the archipelago became a crucial trading hub in global trade routes and facilitated the distribution of New World crops. Pivotal to them were Manila galleons, or Spanish trading ships that sailed between the Viceroyalty of New Spain in Mexico and the Spanish East Indies, the capital of which was Manila.
“But their New World cargo didn’t reach Siam, which stumped historians on account of the usually detailed trade records kept by the Spanish,” Pasuree said.
That is, until they turned to the other great colonial power in Asia — the Portuguese.
At that time, Portugal’s Asian empire was notably active with their desire to control the spice trade, establishing trading hubs in Goa, Indonesia, and Malacca. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to establish relations with Ayutthaya in 1511.
Yet unlike Europeans who first brought back the chilis to the Old World, the Siamese got to work embracing the hot pepper. Siamese were already eating ginger and peppercorn at that point, so spice wasn’t a stranger.
Not all New World crops were as popular in Siam as the chili. While the Portuguese introduced chocolate during Narai the Great’s reign from 1656 to 1688, the Siamese did not develop the same cacao craving. Meanwhile China, India, and other parts of Southeast Asia also readily adopted the chili, while Korea mainly used it for kimchi and Japan used it less, Pasuree said.
Fast forward to the Rattanakosin Era, in 1854. Eastern Siam’s vicar apostolic Jean-Baptiste Pallegoix publishes the first four-language dictionary in the kingdom to facilitate understanding between Thai, Latin, French, and English.
The dictionary showed how New World foods had integrated themselves firmly into the cuisine of the Siamese, Pasuree said. “Prik” is listed as an umbrella term for both piper (peppercorn) and capsicum (chili peppers). To narrow them down, “Prik Thai” is used to describe the former, and “Prik Thet” the latter. Potatoes, pineapples, sugar apples, peanuts, and corn were also listed as entries.
Pasuree also referenced how the first Thai cookbook, Mae Khrua Hua Pa (1908) by noblewoman Lady Plean Passakornwarong had recipes using potatoes, guavas, tomatoes, and chilis. However in terms of prik, most of the recipes used spur chilis (prik chee fa) and dried chilis, rather than fresh chilis or bird’s eye chili (prik kee noo). In comparison to present day’s ubiquitous use of all types of chilis, we now know that our spice tolerance as a whole got higher. Well, the bravest of us, at least.
Embracing the Heat
“Elders used to say, ‘when you eat rice without naam prik, then you’re not full and lack the strength to do work,” agricultural academic Adulyasak Chayarat wrote in “Chili: A Thai Kitchen Staple and Medicine” in Technology Chaoban magazine.
Nowadays the varieties of chili peppers grown in Thailand are usually in the Capsicum annuum family, wrote Adulyasak. Smaller chilis have a higher spice level, such as spur chilis, bird’s eye chilis, tabasco peppers, and so on. Chilis are used fresh, solar-dried, ground into powder, made into sauces, curry pastes, seasonings in instant noodle packets, and so on. Agriculturalists are also experimenting with plant species that yield larger chilis.
According to a 2022 report by the Department of Agricultural Extension, provinces that grow the most chilis (with more than 10,000 rai of dedicated land in each) are Chiang Mai, Phetchabun, Ubon Ratchathani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, and Phatthalung, with the most popular chili variety being the Bird’s eye chili.
After harvest, it’s a race against the clock of freshness to the Bangkokian’s plate, since chilis rot fairly quickly.
Agricultural academic Sakda Suaprasong wrote in a report about Thai chili production for the Department of Agriculture that fresh chilis are quickly transported from farmers to regional agricultural hubs in Bangkok’s Pak Khlong Talad and Rangsit’s Talad See Moom Muang. (Other chili market hubs in Thailand are in Khon Kaen and Nakhon Ratchasima in Isaan, Ratchaburi, and Nakhon Si Thammarat and Songkhla in the south.) Vendors at the two major veggie markets in Bangkok then sell to retailers, restaurants, exporters, and chili processors.
Chilies in Thailand are in the moderate heat range, from 35,000 to 75,000 Scoville units, said Adulyasak. To compare, jalapeño peppers are from 2,500 to 8,000 Scoville units, while habanero peppers can go up to 100,000 to 350,000 units. This makes the local varieties grown in Thailand a moderate amount of spice within the realm of enjoyment. But ever had an eye-wateringly spicy dish? That’s due to how huge of a handful the cook decided to grab that day.
“When people purchase them to cook, no one can really quantify how spicy something is, it’s all about using guesswork from visual cues: the color, shape, and size of the chili,” Adulyasak wrote.
Naysayers to spiciness may contend that eating spicy is torture and mouth-burning for its own sake, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
Chili peppers have various health benefits, including aiding in digestion and stimulating appetite. Capsaicin, the spicy compound in chilis, also has antibacterial and antioxidant properties that slow down aging, improve mood, support immune function, and promote heart health, Adulyasak wrote. Chili peppers are also rich in Vitamin A and C.
So the next time you’re eating pad phed or lheng zaab, take a moment to appreciate how far chili pepper came across time and space – from the Andes and the Aztecs, across the great wide Pacific in Spanish galleons, into the hands of Portuguese seafarers and Jesuits, sown on fertile tropical jungle, grown by a local Ubon farmer, and rushed from a transport truck to your hot, hot, hot plate.