Photos; THINKSTOCK

BUFN UNIT

In 1912, a pharmacist called

Wilbur Scoville created a tesl

that measured how many

drops of sugar water were

required to mute the heat of

a chilli

=t*";*EW INDIANS are particularly fascilated by

,:: ." lchillies. Our attitude to them is largely matter

,']t-',,,': of fact. We know they are hot but we recognise

,l: i that the heat is not the only point of the chilli...i::,* Sometimes we use chillies for garnish; some-

times we use them to colour gravies (as in rogan josh, forinstanee); sometimes they become important constituentsof pickles; often they are cooked like sabzis (as in Simlamirch); and chilli powder seryes many different purposes

in our cuisines.

course, cultivated in India - and began to,call allchillies, peppers. I

So it is in the rest of Asia. The Thais like their chillies.But no Thai dish is judged merely on the basis of its heat.

The point of Thai cuisine is the interplay of fresh anddried herbs. ?he chillies only add a layer of flavour on topof the herbs and spices or they are sprinkled like tiny atombombs on aromatic and fragrant salads.

That Asia shoultl not be terribly fascinated by chilliesmakes sense. They are not really Asian ir origin. Theywere discovered in South America, where they had been

cultivated for ceaturies, by Chri:stopher Columbus and hismen. Given that Columbus was not the worlcl's brightestguy ancl believed that America was really India, it is nosurprise tlat when his men saw the ehilli theyimmediately linked it to the hottest plantthey knew - the pepper vine which was, of

even further.But the chilli is a completely different plant from

the pepper and botanists classify it as a fruit and not avegetable. Chilties can look beautiful (in Italian cuisine,the flavour is sometimes less important than the coloursof the big chillies that are often used) and don't have to be

hot. What we call the Simla mirch is not particularly hotand even the chilli that Italians associate with heat (thepepperoncini) would be regarded by most Indians as beingmore or less neutral.

But chillies contain a secret weapon and it iscalled capsaicin. Capsaicln has the ability to clingto the pain receptors on your tongue and producea burning sensation. One theory is that naturegave capsaicin to the chilli to deter predatorsbut to allow friendly creatures to enjoy it. (Birtlscannot detect capsaicin and can easily eat thehottest chilli without feeling a tling.)

By that reckoning, human beings are clearlypredators because capsaicin can burn the hellout of our tongues. But it can alSo - and perhaps

this was nature's little joke - cause the body to release

endorphins, giving rise to a kind of chilli high, one reasonsome people crave hot flavours.

Though Columbus and his gang of Iooters and coloniststook all versions of the chilli back to Western Europe, ithad litile impact on the local cuisine. (Except perhaps inItaly) But then it travelled to Eastern Europe, where onebreecl, the paprika, came to typify Hungarian cuisine. Andthen to Africa, where Portuguese colonists used cross-

breeding to create the now world-famous peri-perichilli. (They brought it to Goa as well, which iswhy you probably know the name).

But it was only when t}le chilli reached Asiathat it found its true atlopted home. You can't

think of Indian foocl without the chilli. Itbecame an integral part of East Asiancuisines and only the Japanese seem tohave turned it away In China, the moreinteresting local cuisines (Sichuan andllunan. for instance) make abundant useof ehi[ies.

IT'S ALL IN THE LOOKS

Chillies can look beautiful and don't have to be hot.

What we call the Simla mirch is not particularly hot

The confusion persists today iargelybecause even when it became clear toColumbr,rs aud his merry band of clodstH a biE: faf effi}i and a peppereorrrcould not possibly be the same thing,

:. they started calling them 'chillipeppers" (chilli was the Mexican nameof the plant), thus muddling the issue

I$fElllillH'tii,nti nres TANUARy26,2014

hindustantimes.com/brunch

TOO HOT TO HANDLE

India is nowa maior player in this chilli craziness because of the bhut iolokia *re chilli ltnl is the pride of lhe North Easl

It is funny, then, that given how the chilli travelledfrom the Americas to Europe and then to Asia, it shouldnow be one of Asia's most successful exports to the West(re-exports, that should be). From the Sixties onwards,English curry-houses run mainly by Bengalis from theSylhet itistrict of East Pakistan (now Bangtadesh) createdrubbish curries with made-up names that reflected thechilli-content. A shahi korma was the basic curry withclahi or cream; a vindaloo was the basic curry with morechilli; and a Madras curry was the basic curry with a hellof a lot more chilli.

No self-respecting Indian would eat tlis crap but Britsbegan to treat hot eurries as a proof of virility If a lagerlout could eat areally hot curry then he became a real stud.(Not sure hoq frankly His mouth would have been on flreso how could he possibly have done anything stud-like afterdinner?)

Now, it is America that is in the gripchilli-mania. According to a fine article byLauren Collins in The New Yorker's foodissue lastyea4 hot sauce is among America'sfastest-growing industries. There is anAmerican hot sauce tradition (labasco is themost famous) but Asian sauces are growingin popularitlt Sriracha, a South-East Asianhot sauce (it is a kind of sauce not a brandname and you get clifferent variants inThailand, Vietnam and other neighbouringcountries) is so popular that some years agothere was a three-month national shortagebecause Americans bought the stuff fasterthan anybody could make it.

And India is now a major player in thischilli eraziness because of the bhut jolokia, thechilli that is the pride of the North East. To understandwhy the bhut jolokia appals, you need to understandthe American erypto-scientific approach to t]te chilli.In 1912, a pbarmacist calletl Wilbur Scoville created atest that measured how many fuops of sugar water wererequired to mute the heat of a chilli. They now use liquidchromatography to tlo the same thing in a more high-techfashion but the Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) is still the basictest of the hotress of a chilli.

The ltalian pepperoncini is about 300 SHU but to getthe kind of heat that Indians could recognise as a propeichilli flavour you need something like 40,0t0 SlfU. (Our rect

chillis can go upto 1,00,000 SHU withoutoureven noticing.)

A chillithat is 2,50,000 SHU is hotbymost Indian standards.In 2000, according Io The New Yorker, an Indian

scientist, RKR Singh from Assam, tested the local bhutjolokia's heat and came to the conclusion tlat it was hotterthan tlre red savina, the chilli which held the GuinnessWorld Record for world's hottest chilli. The red savina had a5,70,000 SIfU rating but the bhut jolokia seemecl to be muehhigher.

An American professor of horticulture was scepticalof the numbers claimed by tfle Indian seientists butprocured some bhut jolokia seeds and planted them.When his American-grown chillis were on the branches,he submittecl them to Guinness and got the new worldrecord. His American bhut jolokia rated at 10,01,300 SHUor signifieantly more than the red saviaa's 5,70,000 SHU. So

it was ofhcial. India had the world's hottest chilli. Even ifsome American guy took our seeds and planted them.

Except that in the world of eomparativechilli-heat, no record stays unbrokenfor long. In February 2011, Guinnessannsunc€d that a chilli grown bv anEnglishman in Lincolnshire hacl beatenthe bhut jolokia. (Obviousl]t the Brit hael

developed a taste for Sylhet-style Madrascurry) Two weeks lateq another Brit (yes, it isall tfiose curry houses) claimed a new recordwith a chi1li grown in the North of Englandcalled the Naga viper. This rated 13,82,118

SlfU versus the bhutjolokia's 10,01,300 SHU.

Since then, the record has been regularlyrevised upwards. In 2011, the Trinidadscorpion butch T came in at 14,63,700 SHU.

Ln2012, it was claimed that something calledthe Trinirlad Moruga scorpion (scorpion butch's

cousin, perhaps) had exceeded two million SHUs. And so itgoes. Now people are regularly breeding chilli plants onlyto beat the world record - unlike the bhut jolokia, whichoccurs naturally and is used in the local. cuisine.

So you've got to ask yourself: what is a chilli for? Towin comBetitions? Or to flavour food? I think I know theanswer. And it tells us about the difference between Asiaand the West. The West stole the chilli from South Americaand never knew what to do with it. On the other hand, Asiabuilt a whole cuisine around it. And now while we enjoythe chilli flavour in our food, the West wastes its time onstupid competitions featuring chillis that most people willne\Ferear.

of

BREAKII,IS RECOROS

In 2011, the Trinidad scorpion

butch T came in at 14,63,700

SHU on the chilli-heat meter

Clrillipowder(above) serves

many differentpurposes in our

cuisines.

Tabasco (left),

is an American

hotsauce

|T5UFTERi$T

ffiJANUARY 26, 2014 hir