Thai Chilies Hot, Raw and spicy
Hot chili peppers…never has there been a food to inspire bith wonders and wariness, love and hate. If just the sight of some hot chilies in your Thai dish makes your stomach spasm, here is good new for you: not all chilies are created equal. In fact, some are actually good for your stomach and can help heal it.
In Thailand there are at least 79 separate varieties of chili that have evolved from three species:
- Prik Chee Fah (chili pepper) for example, is a Thai pepper that isn’t too hot and is often used for its color and spice. It comes in green and red varieties.
- Prik Yueang is another fairly common pepper from Thailand, It is pale green and really isn’t hot in any way.
- Prik Kee Nuu (bird pepper) is perhaps the most famous one of the major peppers from Thailand; its name literally means “mouse poo peppers” in Thai. This tiny hot chili leaves unseen evidence in the food but once you have taken a bite, your tongue will know with no doubt that it is there. It will probably be the one you think about when you hear “Thai chili pepper”, because that’s the hot one. This chili pepper is so spicy that only the Habanero and Scotch Bonnet Peppers can send you sky-high and straight to the nearest pitcher of water if you bite right into it. Maybe that is why it is often referred to as Thai Dragon Pepper.
When you taste or cook Thai chili, there are a few things to always remember:
- Red chilies are typically hotter than green.
- Chilies are rich in Vitamin C, originally eaten by sailors to prevent scurvy long before oranges ware discovered as the tastier alternative.
- The seeds are not what makes the chili hot. While the capsaicin is present in all parts of the pepper, it is concentrated mainly in the membrane. Removing the seeds and as mush of the white membrane as possible can alleviate some of the heart of chili.
- One of the main theories why Thai people have spicy tastes maybe because of the sweat. Spices stimulate sweating and, via evaporation, cause an increase in cooling the body down in hot climates.
- If you do not want your dishes to be spicy, just say “mai phet” to the waiter. And if it is still too chili-infused, don’t start drinking a lot of cold water, it will not help. Instead, try to eat white rice or yoghurt-based drink which will calm your burning tongue quicker.