The Hotter The Better

"Kecil-kecil cili padi" is a Malay proverb which means don't underestimate the size, it can pack a punch. That aptly describes the 'cili padi' (also locally called cili api, cabai burung, and I don't know what else) or a person with similar characteristics. The rule of the chilli is the smaller the hotter.



I'm a person who needs a dose of chilli in every meal or I'll declare the dish too bland for my taste. I still remember when I got bored of hostel food (when I was in boarding school), I'd bring few of my friends, some of whom learned eating chillies from me, to pick some fresh 'cili padi' in front of our head warden's house. I'll normally bring back 'sambal ikan bilis' from home when the semester begins or my mom will bring some whenever she comes for a visit but that will normally not last very long. The hostel food can get very boring after some time that plain white rice with 'cili padi' and soy sauce can taste very good. We are OK the first few times until the warden chased us away. She scolded us for taking even the 'baby' chillies when the mature, ripe ones are gone.



I've also taken to nibbling 'cili padi' when I have the urge to snack. That caught the interest of some friends and they give it a shot too. Some survived the experience, but some has repented to never ever touch chilli again hehehe... Those were the days.



All my siblings did quite well in school that one headmistress (from my youngest brother's school) asked my mom how she brought us all up. My mom had no answer to that question at that time. We're not well to do financially back then and we eat normal food with no expensive vitamins or food supplements, no tuition, not even kindergarten when we're at the right age. Thinking back, my mom said probably she feeds us fiery hot food :) There's no scientific evidence between chilli and brain but there's also no scientific evidence that it didn't exist. There are however, some writings about chilli and increased metabolism rate, and as lung cleansers.

Dr Ziment, a British doctor, now residing in California, changed his diet from bland English meal to hot Mexican sauces, Japanese wasabi, Szechuan chili peppers, spicy Indian curries, and Thai foods saying it's good for the lung. He found an international concurrence of thought on the way drugs are utilized as expectorants from ancient Egyptian, to the Romans, the Middle Ages, 12th century Jewish, 17th century English and Russian's famous physician, that one has to consider their validity.



He noted that capsaicin; the mouth-burning stuff in chili pepper is derived from a compound that is the basis of the chemical structure of a drug called guaifenesin. The Physician's Desk Reference lists guaifenesin as an expectorant and an active ingredient in about 75 over-the-counter and prescription cough syrups, cold tablets, and expectorants.



Dr. Ziment's prescription: Eat hot pungent foods if you have a cold, sinus problems, lung congestion, asthma, bronchitis, or emphysema - or if you think you are vulnerable to any of the above.



Source: The Food Pharmacy by Jean Carper (ISBN:0-671-71502-X)

Low in calories, peppers contain twice as much vitamin C, per weight, as citrus fruits and more vitamin A than carrots (especially red chiles). As well, peppers aid in digestion and speed up metabolism. There are actually diet books on the market that outline a "chilli diet" that will speed the burning of calories.



Source: Tears of Joy Hot Sauce Shop - Pepper Facts

Here's an interesting history about chilli or pepper.

Christopher Columbus, in his unproductive search for riches across the Atlantic Ocean in -1492, mistook America for India. He named the natives Indians, and he also took the liberty of placing an improper label on what was to become one of the Southwest's most popular vegetables.



Believing he had found an exotic form of black pepper, Columbus took plants back with him to Spain and told the Europeans it was "the world's finest pepper."



Source: Chili Pepper Facts

If the chilli is too hot for you, the remedy is taking milk, yogurt, ice cream, rice, bread, tomato juice, fresh lime or lemon. Don't drink plain water. Even I had a too hot to handle experience every now and then. One that I still remember very well is when I was in a Matriculation Center. I bought Young Tau Foo in one of our Pasar Malam trip. Who'd have thought the big green chilli can really blow my ears. The burning sensation of chilli is from compounds concentrated in the white veins in the chilli that hold the seeds.



Who remembers one of the earliest Malaysian Bahasa speaking cartoon where a mouse deer took pity to a monkey that says he has not eaten for three days. The mouse deer said the monkey can eat anything from the vegetable garden. Upon seeing the beautiful red chilli, the monkey insists on eating that despite the mouse deer's warning. Guess what, fire came out from the monkey's ears after greedily gobbling up a few chillies. That's exactly how I feel after eating that chilli in the Yong Tau Foo. I really jump up and down not knowing how to lessen the pain. None of the item that can be taken as remedy is available then.

The Scoville Unit is the measurement of heat in a pepper or sauce. It is named after a chemist in the early nineteen hundreds by the name of Wilbur Scoville. While working for a pharmaceutical company, he decided to devise a scale of heat for chilli peppers. It's a bit complicated to describe in detail, but basically, the test involves the dilution of a quantity of pepper until it can no longer be detected. It is recorded in units of 100. The test is called the "Scoville Organoleptic Test." This highly subjective method is no longer employed. These days, a sophisticated device called a liquid chromatographer is used. Out of reverence, it is still called the "Scoville Unit."



To date, the hottest chilli pepper in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records is the "Red Savina" habanero. It measured an amazing 577,000 Scoville Units. To put it into perspective, an average habanero is around 100,000 to 200,000. A jalapeno ranks from 5,000 to 7,000. The hottest product on the market is The Source made by Original Juan. This pure extract is a mind-blowing 7.1 MILLION Scoville Units (Tears of Joy sells this, but at the store location only). Pure crystalline capsaicin is 16 million Scoville Units.



Source: Tears of Joy Hot Sauce Shop - Pepper Facts

Check out these interesting websites related to chilli/pepper:-

1. Chili Peppers!!

2. Tears of Joy Hot Sauce Shop - Pepper Facts

3. A Plethora of Peppers