The way plants evolve is kind of a big mystery. For example, a big question on the mind of Joshua Tewksbury, a professor of ecology at the University of Washington, is one I’ve kind of wondered about myself: Why are chili peppers hot? What purpose does it serve for a plant to be so spicy, yet still deliciously edible?
In case you can’t tell, I love chiles in all their edible varieties, though I don’t go much hotter than habaneros routinely. I have eaten the hottest flavors of sauce at BW3, and the hottest sauce you can get at Hooters. I’ve put crushed red pepper on everything from canned vegetable soup to popcorn. When I was in college, a guy who slept on our couch a few nights a week brought us a restaurant-sized jug of hot sauce as rent. It was the hottest sauce I’ve ever poured on my food, and if I knew the name of it I’d hunt it down and buy a tub.
If I’m not sweating, then it’s not spicy. If I don’t have to blow my nose at least three times during the meal, then it might as well be baby food to me. Maybe one day I’ll completely burn out my taste buds, but if it hasn’t happened by now, it won’t happen. There’s nothing a little fire won’t improve, even cookies. Chili peppers burn my gut, in the best way possible.
Tags: chili peppers, Joshua Tewksbury, chiles, hot peppers, food, nature, unusual plants