The Fiery Import

It is a uniquely human trait to find enjoyment in the disquieting: a horror movie, looping rollercoaster or fierce chilli that teeters just close enough to pain to bring pleasure.

We are Sensation Seekers, Hungry for Adrenaline.

This addictive rush saw the chilli fruit, whose heat is paradoxically designed to be aversive to animals, become the fastest spreading and most used spice on earth.

Spicy heat is a defining feature of much Asian cookery, but for millennia the food was considerably milder. Chillies only arrived from the New World in the sixteenth century, when the use of them was fervently adopted. The crop was well suited to the monsoon climate and was soon being cultivated locally, its fiery fruits finding their way into piquant broths, enlivening sambals and hot curries.