Reflections | How Asians embraced the chilli pepper

Brought from the Americas by Europeans, the spread of the chilli plant was slow but by the 19th century it had conquered cuisines across the region

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Chilli peppers dry in the Sichuan sun. Photo: Alamy

Wee Kek Koon

Published: 12:30pm, 4 Jul 2019Updated: 2:10pm, 4 Jul 2019

I spent the greater part of June in Seoul, where I bonded with Korean food in the most sublime way. I love the little plates of banchan that come with every meal (though I noticed that quantities have significantly reduced the past few times I visited). My favourite side dish is geotjeori, a salad that is sometimes referred to as freshly made, unfermented kimchi.

The chilli pepper is famously present in Korean cuisine to the point of near ubiquity, and yet the plant is not native to Asia.

It was the Europeans who brought the plant from its native Americas to the rest of the world. Before the late 15th and early 16th centuries, Asian palates were strangers to the heady piquancy of the chilli pepper.

It is difficult to imagine the cuisines of Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Korea – or the spicier Chinese culinary traditions of Sichuan and Hunan provinces – without fiery chilli peppers, either in their raw form or in pastes and sauces.

A 19th century engraving of a caravan on the Silk Road. Photo: Alamy

Chilli peppers reached China both by land, via the Silk Road, and by sea, carried on ships from Spain and Portugal.