Hot! Hot!
Sunday, 17 Jun 2007 4:38
I uncover some really cool facts about chillies.
Surprisingly, chillies were not known in South-east Asia - home to many of the world’s hottest cuisines - until the New World was discovered. The Spanish introduced them to Europe in 1514, and the Portuguese introduced them to India and South-east Asia almost 100 years later.
Natives of Mexico, Brazil and Peru used to drink chocolate spiced with chili, and colored red with annatto (a food coloring derived from the lipstick tree) which made their mouths red and bloody-looking.
