Tracing the spice route

Colonialists may have introduced chillies to our cuisine but the genius of India is in the way we made it our own

About the only foodie-related fact that annoys Indians more than the origin of the samosa (we did not invent it, the Middle East did) is the suggestion that chillies are a colonial contribution to our cuisine. When you tell people that there were no chillies in India till the Europeans got here, they look disbelieving. And when you point out that as chillies were only discovered in the Americas, they could not possibly have been an indigenous food group; they ask the obvious question: if Europeans gave us the chilli, then why are there no chillies in European cuisine?

The so-called ‘peppers’, near to what we prefer to call capsicum, are found in Italian cuisine.(iStock)

The chilli family is vast and extends far beyond the red chilli. (iStock)

The famous paprika of Hungary is really an Indian chilli and is closely related to the Kashmiri mirch.

It is believed that the Portuguese fleet commanded by Vasco da Gama brought seeds for the plant to Goa. (HT file)

Nando’s was created after the hot peri-peri sauce was created from the peri-peri chillies planted in colonies of Africa by the Portuguese.

The Bhut Jolokia, also known as Naga chilli, can repel elephants, fell terrorists etc.