What I Learned About Chile Peppers While I Was in Thailand

I had spent the entire day on the beach and had gotten a little too much sun. I knew that I needed to find something to do the following day that would keep me out of the sun. I wondered how, in Phuket, which is world-famous for its beaches, I could justify staying away from the beach and how I could best spend my day. I had already come to the conclusion that I was in need of a half-day at a spa for some pampering, and I’d scheduled a four-hour appointment for 2:00pm the next afternoon.

So the second half of my day tomorrow was set. I began reading through the numerous pamphlets and flyers at the tourist desk at my hotel, trying to find the perfect way to spend the first half of the day. Most of the brochures advertised activities that involved the water, or being outside, and I knew that my skin couldn’t handle a second consecutive day of that. Finally, I came across one promoting a cooking school located only about a fifteen-minute walk from my hotel.

Everyone that knows me, knows how much I love to cook, and while I was planning my trip to Thailand, I’d actually thought about doing this very thing. So I decided to go for it. The class began at 6:30am the next morning, and would last six hours, so it would fit in perfectly with my spa plans. Even better, when I made the reservation through my hotel’s reception desk, I found out that I wouldn’t have to walk to the class, because the school would send a mini-van to my hotel and pick me up.

I had a feeling that this class was going to be exactly what I wanted, because in addition to the cooking lesson, the group that I would be joining would actually be going to an outdoor market together, and we would be purchasing the ingredients that we would be using to prepare four authentic and traditional Thai recipes. Under the supervision of our cooking teacher, who would also serve as an interpreter between our group and the vendors, we would do what most Thai women do every day, that is, to buy the ingredients needed for that evening’s meal.

The next morning, the van picked me and my fellow class members up (there ended up being five of us) at our various hotels, and we headed for the market. Once there, our teacher gave us some choices/suggestions for four recipes and as a group, we chose them. We decided on the following menu:

· Tom Sum—a hot and sour soup with fish and kow neow (sticky rice)
· Panang—a chicken curry dish
· Pad Thai—a stir-fried noodle dish with chicken, tofu, and vegetables (the most popular Thai dish there is)
· Gai Sateh—marinated chicken, skewered and then grilled with a peanut sauce

So, we were going to make a traditional Thai soup appetizer, a typical Thai curry dish, the most popular Thai dish of them all, and one of the tastiest Thai dishes in existence. And if my previous experiences of eating Thai food in Thailand were any indication, we would have plenty of food to eat when we were done, and we’d have plenty of leftovers as well.

The market was definitely one of the highlights of the class, as we haggled with the vendors over prices, which is expected in any Thai market, no matter what you’re buying. The actual cooking of the items was fun, but nothing new really, to someone who is used to barbecuing, stir-frying, and wok-cooking—I was familiar with the methods. Eating what we had made was definitely rewarding. But for me, learning about the ingredients was the best part of the class.

I’d rarely, if ever, cooked with ingredients such as fish sauce, tamarind, turmeric, lemongrass, rice noodles, and chili oil or paste. These ingredients are all present in many Asian foods, but one thing that sort of stands out in Thai cooking is the extent to which chile peppers are used in Thai cooking. And since spicy peppers are one of my favorite foods to play with in my own kitchen endeavors, I really focused in on what our teacher had to say about them. And since chile peppers were used in all four of our menu items, she actually had quite a bit to say about them as well.

Here is some of what I learned.

First of all, Thailand has the highest chile pepper consumption in the world, per capita. There are regions of other countries, where chiles are eaten, in some form or another, at a slightly higher rate, but for entire countries, Thailand is Number One.

It is a medical fact, that chile peppers have some notable, beneficial health effects when eaten. They are high in Vitamin C and they help stimulate blood circulation. I had heard that they were good for you, but now I learned in which ways this is indeed true.

Capsaicin is the component in chiles that produces the hot sensation you feel when you bite into one. It also triggers a flush of endorphins that help in the efficient flow of food through the digestive system, and that accelerate metabolism by helping the body burn food more completely. It aids in the breakdown of fat in the body. Capsaicin is also extracted from chile peppers and used as an anesthetic in creams to treat muscle aches and pains. Apparently, the nerves in the affected area are unable to report pain to the brain because they are engulfed by the burning sensation the capsaicin causes. (Oh...and pepper spray? Yeah. That's capsaicin too.)

In Thailand, there are other, more spiritual powers, that are associated with chiles, as well.

Thais view chile peppers as an aphrodisiac that adds to sexual prowess, a precursor to exceptionally “hot” love, so to speak. For centuries, Thais also used chile peppers extensively in rituals, cures, and tortures. Thais are among the most superstitious people in the world, and even today, they burn salt and dried chile pepper to rid their houses of evil spirits and curses. Salt and chile pepper are also burned to neutralize a bad neighbor’s behavior—if the wind blows in the right direction, salt and chile will be burned so that the smoke they produce will waft toward the offending neighbor’s house, and hopefully, end the bad manners or conduct originating from there.

In Northern Thailand, especially, it is believed that eating spicy food makes you stronger, and that people who cannot tolerate lots of hot chile are cowardly. I guess I’ll never turn them down again. Appropriately, Northern Thailand is the home of som tam, a papaya salad, which is one of the hottest, spiciest dishes in all of Thai cooking.

Chile peppers grow naturally in the tropical climate of Thailand, making them readily available year-round. The plant that produces them actually originated in Bolivia and Brazil, but was brought over to Southeast Asia by the Portuguese, in the 16th century. It was rapidly incorporated into Thai cuisine.

One reason that the plant grows so voraciously throughout Thailand is because of a perfectly designed act of nature. Birds are not irritated by the capsaicin present in chile peppers like mammals are, and so, they eat them avidly and do not have to compete with other animals for them. The seeds within a chile pepper contain the highest quantities of capsaicin, thus deterring mammals from eating them, as well. The seeds pass through the birds’ digestive systems unharmed, and then are subsequently deposited elsewhere.

The myna bird is a species that is one of the prime eaters of chile peppers. Thais once believed that birds that eat chile peppers can learn how to speak, an idea that, if you believe it, may explain why myna birds are so adept at mimicking human voices.

The hottest chile pepper known to man is the Mexican habanero pepper. But Thailand has the second-hottest. It is the “prik kee noo”, which means “mouse-dropping chile”. It gets its name from its small size and shape, but it packs a major punch, in both its red, and green versions. The red version is spicy and colorful, and lacks any aroma. The green version is a bit milder and has a distinctive, fruity aroma. Thai cooks often use both the red and the green chile in the same dish, using the red to add color and the green to add fragrance.

The most common way that chile peppers are used in Thai cooking is to simply chop them up and add them to a dish, followed by a milder, roasted or deep-fried pepper. Then, there are dozens of different chile pastes, in which chiles are combined with tamarind, garlic, sugar, salt, dried shrimp, fish, onions, and/or various forms of fish sauce. Curry pastes also include chile pepper in varying quantities, which are added to combinations of base ingredients such as shallots, garlic, lemongrass, kaffir limes, shrimp paste, salt, and ginger.

Chile pepper is so important in Thai cuisine that it is also used as a condiment, in its dry, ground form, and is served as such with every meal, much like salt and pepper are in America. In addition, almost all Thai meals are served with small bowls of chiles in fish sauce and chiles in white vinegar. There are also dedicated condiments which are served with particular dishes that include chile peppers: fish-dipping sauce (pureed green chiles, lemon, lemongrass, fish sauce, and salt), meat sauce (dry ground chile pepper, lemon, fish sauce, roasted ground rice, and shallots), spring roll sauce (red chiles, vinegar, and sugar), and chiles fried in oil until they are rendered into a thick, dark red paste, with a very pungent, roasted flavor.

Thais believe in balance when it comes to cooking, just as their Buddhist beliefs promote balance in their daily lives. And because chile peppers are such a staple of Thai cooking, Thai foods will usually contain three other distinct flavors (salty, sour, and sweet), all meant to balance out the spiciness of the chile. Ideally, it is not possible to detect how much chile may actually be present in a meal, because the other three flavors often fool the palate as it tries to detect the spicy chile pepper, which is almost always there in some amount, at least.

One of my favorite details of a traditional Thai meal is what is almost always brought to the table as the standard accompaniment to the meal. When meals are served, a small lazy Susan-like tray or basket is brought out, containing items which represent the four balanced flavors. Salty, is represented by a ramekin of soy sauce; sweet, by a ramekin containing sugar; sour, by one containing vinegar; and spicy, by what else? Dried, ground chile peppers. Small amounts of all four are spooned over everything from rice, to noodles, to vegetables, to soups, and then mixed in. And I’ve got to tell you, there IS a difference when food is eaten without these four additions, and the meal is just barely, discernibly better with them. You can’t quite taste any of them singly, but together, they somehow improve the dish’s flavor, however slightly.

After learning so much about chile peppers, and eating so many different meals that either included them, featured them, or tried to hide them, I have discovered that it is quite possible to get high from eating chile peppers. And like the effect that a drug can have on some people, I fear I could have become addicted to them just as easily. No matter how long I might have remained in Thailand, I don’t think I would have ever become tired of eating Thai food…or Thai chile peppers.

See my Thailand photos at:

www.flickr.com/photos/zatarain