Have you ever wondered where some of your favourite spicy foods originate, or why some of the spiciest dishes you have eaten come from hot countries, but cold countries often have plainer and blander menu offerings? We looked back through our past trips one evening to determine the spices we remembered and which ‘hot spots’ we should add to our travel list.
As I often wear an artificial eye, nothing irritates me more than when I touch an eyelid or the eye itself after handling spicy foods. After several occasions, you become very protective of your ‘false’ and ‘real’ eyes. I still remember the pain when a Dutch friend dropped their camera into a bowl of Tom Yum soup in Sarawak, sending a tsunami of spicey water across all the other diners. I was beautifully placed to receive a large flying dollop in my good eye! So, visually impaired travellers should be prepared for the risk of eye rubbing and eye-watering in these often beautiful, hot and spicey places.
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I must admit that neither of us is a ‘death or glory’ hot food chomper or possesses any knowledge about the Scoville Scale and its measurement of capsaicin, the chemical that causes spicy heat in chilli peppers. Nor do we actively chase that mouth burner of a curry or sweat-inducing ‘Pepper X’ dish. I have just been informed that ladies only ‘perspire gently’ or ‘glow’ in response to spicy dishes. All I know is that a false eye, although less painful than the contact lens I used to wear many years ago, still stings when you mistakenly transferred capsaicin onto its surface.
The link between hot places and spicy cuisine may be in response to the higher risk of food poisoning from meat and fish having a shorter shelf life between catch and table in hot countries, and since many spices have anti-microbial compounds, adding these fruits, leaves or seeds to the family cookpot could have reduced the risk of food poisoning. This theory that communities that developed spicy cuisines could have an advantage in reducing infection rates has been termed “Darwinian gastronomy”!
There are many cool or cold climate destinations that we have loved visiting or still plan to visit, but it seems clear that the colder the climate, the fewer spicy ingredients are present in traditional dishes. Sorry, Norway, we couldn’t think of a spicey dish we ate when visiting your wonderful fjords and mountains.
Ten Hot and Spicy Places to Visit
We have compiled a short list of hotspots where you can bask in the sun, explore their treasures, and bravely search for their namesake spices or sauces.
Cheongyang, South Korea
South Korea is one of the countries I hold dear to my heart; it is a fascinating and vibrant country that somehow seems to slip under the tourist radar. Don’t just confine yourself to the metropolis that is Seoul. Escape out into its heartlands to uncover its kind & friendly (but distinctly quirky people), rich historical past, some great walking trails, and the best four seasons of food in any Asia country. Add it to your bucket list.
The paste made from the spicy Chenguang chilli peppers is one of my favourite cooking ingredients for adding that touch of spice to dishes. However, the chilli that is now cultivated is named after Cheongsong and Yeongyang Counties!
Putting that minor inconvenience aside, Cheongyang-gun County in Chungcheongnam-do Province is a predominantly rural area renowned for its chillis, goji berries and shitake mushrooms. It also has extensive forests (which add to the gourmet food and herbs through chestnuts and snake’s beard. Several mountain national parks, temples and fortresses are scattered throughout the area, which add to the area’s charm. This is a quiet part of bustling South Korea with only a small population, but that doesn’t take away from the friendliness and willingness to communicate we experienced when visiting (despite our lack of any Korean and theirs of English) as several times whilst resting at hiking stops on Mount Gyeryong, other hikers came quietly over, bowed in greeting, and welcomed us through small offerings of tomatoes, fruit, and small cakes. Similarly, whilst walking down in the valleys and through a tiny farming village, we were invited by a group of farmers to sit down with them and share beers, chillis and tofu.
You will find the Korean custom of using metal chopsticks an interesting challenge after bamboo chopsticks.
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When to Visit: The best time of year to visit South Korea is between April and June (spring) and September and November (autumn); during these periods, the days are typically sunny and dry with comfortable average temperatures. South Korea has four very distinct seasons, and each season is quite dramatically distinct – a characteristic it shares with its close neighbour Japan.
Tabasco, Mexico
Situated in southeast Mexico, on the Gulf of Mexico, has become synonymous with the fiery red pepper sauce beloved by steal eaters. Bordering the Yucatán Peninsula to the east (the most touristy part of Mexico) and Oaxaca to the west, Tabasco is the less interesting sibling and is often forgotten by busy tourists to Mexico and receives significantly fewer visitors.
Unlike most other areas in Mexico, Tabasco is covered in rainforest and receives rainfall all year round; hence its landscapes consist of rainforest overlying coastal and floodplain wetlands, mountains, and valleys. The region contains some of the oldest Mayan Civilisation ruins, tropical white sand beaches, extensive rainforest, and fantastic southern Mexican cuisine and is rapidly gaining a reputation as a destination for ecotourism.
Tabasco, unsurprisingly, is famous for its spicy food, often based around the use of Salsa Chimay, a Habanos chilli pepper-based sauce that comes in four flavours varying from ‘very hot’ to ‘extremely hot’! However, if you are still fixated on the hot sauce and not the Mexican state that is manufactured in Louisiana in the USA.
You can read more about Tabasco in our travel teaser blog – Tabasco – An Eco Hot Spot.
When to Visit: Tabasco’s climate can be summed up in two words: “hot” and “humid”. The best time to visit Tabasco is March, or at least during its dry season (November and April), when the average temperature range is between 25-30°C (77-86°F). Outside this period, between June to November, Tabasco is exposed to hurricanes.
Devil’s Island by Cayambe – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
Cayenne, French Guiana
Cayenne is the capital city of French Guiana and stands on a former island at the mouth of the Cayenne River on the Atlantic coastline. French Guiana remains an overseas department of France despite its South American location, strangely making it part of the European Community and the Euro its currency!
Cayenne peppers are indigenous to Central and South America and have been cultivated domestically for over 7,000 years. ‘Cayenne’ derives from the native Tupi word for this chilli, and the town has been named after the pepper, which was brought to Europe by Christopher Columbus on his return from the Americas in the 15th century.
Although first explored by the Spanish in the 15th century, they found the region too hot and poor to be worthy of incorporation into the Spanish Empire. Who knew there were quality standards for what defined empirical acceptability? Leaving other European powers free to squabble over it and claim it for their own, leading to its transference over the centuries between the French, Dutch, English, and Portuguese until its formal incorporation as part of France in 1815. The two hundred years of French association are still visible in its Creole and French colonial influences in its architectural wooden houses and their painted weatherboards, shutters, and balconies.
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Cayenne pepper, with its pungent sweet and slightly smoky aroma, has become a mainstay behind many chilli powder or paste mixes, is a staple in Creole and Cajun cooking, and reflects its pass-the-parcel colonial past as an ingredient within many Spanish, Portuguese, and Mediterranean dishes.
To be honest, Cayenne isn’t your average ‘add-to-bucket-list’ or ‘fabulous places to visit in’ location, but it is worth spending a few days there and provides an interesting alternative for South America visiting francophone as there isn’t a lot of English-speaking tourist guides or written information. The city itself is dominated by its role as an important seaport and entry point into the continent, and its attractions are spread out across the city and offshore. The major attractions are visiting (or watching a launch) from the CNES Space Centre in Kourou, the Illes du Salut (Devils Island) offshore, the Marais du Kaw (the Marshes of Kaw), and the river and prison in Saint-Laurent du Maroni. Cayenne, in a way like Perth in Western Australia feels isolated, French Guiana and its surroundings is almost entirely jungle and savannah with most of the population living near the coast.
When to Visit: Cayenne is close to the Equator, and the temperature remains constant at around +25-30°C. It rains heavily here for most of the year! The best time to visit is when the Carnival occurs between Epiphany and Ash Wednesday (normally between early January and February or March, depending on the year.
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Sichuan Province, Southwest China
“If you are young, avoid Sichuan” is an ancient Chinese proverb; luckily for the tourist, it was an elder’s warning to their offspring against the dangers of excessively good living and abundance of Sichuan and a desire to protect them from morale-sucking vice. I wonder how well that worked, as Sichuan would have been added straight onto my 20-year-old bucket travel list, followed by a trawl through its Rough Guide!
Sichuan Province (or Szechuan) in China is geographically the easternmost part of the Tibetan Plateau, and quite simply for most visitors, this is Giant Panda country, with these emblematic creatures living in the bamboo forests and low-lying mountainous of Sichuan. There are many reservations with associated ‘panda stations’, such as the Chengdu Panda Base with its 100 odd pandas of different ages, which tourists can visit. Outside opportunities for panda volunteering and Sichuan cooking classes, this is an area rich in UNESCO World Heritage Sites, such as Jiuzhaigou Valley, Huanglong National Park and Dujiangyan with their terraced waterscape, waterfalls and crystal blue and green lakes. In autumn, these forested landscapes take on a brilliant mantle of red and yellow colours and are perfect for hiking or short-day trips. From Chengdu, the capital city of, and gateway into, Sichuan for most international visitors, it is also worth spending a few days exploring the city and visiting the nearby Leshan Giant Buddha.
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The Sichuan pepper is one of the staple spices in Sichuan, Nepalese, and northeast Indian cuisine. Despite its name, Sichuan pepper is not closely related to either black pepper or the chilli peppers, as it originates from Zanthoxylum armatum, also called winged prickly ash or the rattan pepper), and is more an aromatic, deciduous, spiny shrub than a creeper or small bush.
Quick chemistry lesson: when eaten, Sichuan pepper produces a tingling, numbing effect due to the presence of hydroxy-alpha sanshool. This has the effect of transforming other flavours when tasted together. It is also added with chilli peppers to create a flavour known as málà (‘numb spiciness’), which is used widely in Sichuan cuisine.
When to Visit: The climate in Sichuan varies from subtropical to subarctic depending on your location and altitude. However, although generally suitable throughout the years, spring and autumn are our recommended times to visit as the weather is mild and comfortable.
Bajan Pepper Sauce, Barbados
Barbados is situated in the Atlantic Ocean, east of the other West Indies Islands, and is the most easterly of this group of islands that form the Caribbean. Obviously, Barbados met the strict acceptance criteria of the 15th-century Spanish explorers as, unlike Cayenne, it was claimed for the Spanish Crown, subsequently becoming part of the British Empire before its independence in 2021. While Barbados is technically an Atlantic Island, it is closely associated with the Caribbean and is one of its leading tourist spots.
Barbados is an ideal beach-dominated holiday with its soft, powdery sand and turquoise waters. Georgetown, its capital, has charm and a UNESCO listing; inland, it has lush green garden-dotted landscapes. Barbados makes for a welcoming tourist environment for disabled travellers, and its long association with the UK and the US has helped it go further than most islands in terms of accessibility.
Try out the Shark Hole in St Philip, an isolated bathing spot, best visited during the weekdays when it is less crowded with locals. It is an original beach on the island carved out by the ocean, its small bay enclosed by a natural reef located just offshore. The best way to find it on the less visited east coast by heading towards Sam Lords Castle, just before reaching it head down Marine Drive (about 2 mins from Shark Hole) and asking locals for directions. As for the name, probably more myth than reality.
Refreshed after spending the morning, try the world-renowned Bajan pepper sauce, which is a hot sauce made from Scotch bonnet peppers (also known as Bonney peppers or Caribbean red peppers) at your peril. These are a variety of chilli peppers named for their supposed resemblance to a Scottish tam o’ shanter bonnet, ubiquitous in West Africa and the Caribbean. Like their close relation to the habanero chilli pepper, they have a high rating on the Scoville scale. The peppers are combined with mustard (which gives its colour to the yellow sauce varieties), other chillis, black peppers, turmeric, and vinegar (and occasionally sea water) for taste. Bajan sauce is similar to other Cajun-style hot sauces and traditionally applied in Barbadian cuisine on meat, fish, and chicken.
When to Visit: Barbados has a tropical monsoon climate with two seasons, a “wet season” that runs from June to December and a “dry season” from December to May. However, the island has a moderately tropical climate outside the principal Atlantic hurricane belt, with steady sea breezes throughout the year.
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Padron peppers, Galicia
Situated in Spain’s northwest, Galicia is dominated by its wild Atlantic coastlines, fine white sand beaches and verdant, productive inland hills. The cliffs of Cape Finisterre in its western corner were considered by the Romans to be the end of the known world. The region’s capital and prime draw is the cathedral city of Santiago de Compostela which deserves to be on everybody’s bucket list or at least a target for a romantic city break. Other visually disabled travellers may prefer to travel here by plane, although the more adventurous should consider making it here via the Camino de Santiago, one of the great pilgrimage routes of Europe.
To my mind, Galicia (with its north coast cousins of Cantabria and Asturias) has some of the finest food (especially seafood tapas) of all Spanish regions, mixed up with that attractive blend of a strong living heritage, attractive towns, and a wealth of attractive accommodation options. Spend time in O Barqueiro, a small, quiet fishing village with multicoloured houses, eating some of the best seafood in Europe, drinking albanino wine and looking out over the bay; or visit Ribadeo’s Praia das Catedrais (Beach of the Cathedrals) and when the tide is low walk-through sea arches and domes carved into the rocks along this dramatic beachfront.
Santiago de Compostela, is I believe one of Spain’s most beautiful and attractive cities, and its tapas culture within which you will find Padron peppers, is reason enough for any visually disabled traveller to make a pilgrimage to this region. Padron peppers (or Hebron peppers) are a delicious abnormality of the Capsicum annuum pepper originating from the municipality of Padron, 25 miles south of Santiago de Compostela, and a Marshall family favourite. Padron’s are small peppers and are often sold to be eaten unripe when green. Their taste is generally mild, but about one in twenty is quite hot. It is rare to play vegetable Russian Roulette whilst eating but it is the ‘will it or won’t it be’ aspect that makes it a fun family dish and has given rise to the Galician rhyme “Padrón peppers, some are hot, some are not”). Padrons become spicier as they mature and if they have undergone drought stress increasing their heat and the percentage of ‘hot’ padrons, as we found out last year on a road trip in Portugal.
When to visit: Like many Atlantic coastal regions, heavy and prolonged rain can fall at any time of the year, but Galicia is a good all-year-round location to visit, although June to September are the hottest and most attractive time for outside dining.
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The Habanero Pepper, Havana, Cuba
I must admit to the fact that Havana has been on my bucket list for years, as the thought of cruising through Old Havana with its mix of Spanish colonial houses and others of the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements with their colourful baroque facades viewed from the interior of a vintage old American automobile has always appealed to me, although now I will have to be a backseat driver to the experience. For those looking for more than a Caribbean beach holiday, planning a few days exploring Havanna before heading out into the Cuban countryside and exploring its beaches may be the perfect compromise. With the increasing relaxation of its communist state restrictions, it now seems an exciting time to visit Cuba at a more personal level rather than being restricted in its coastal resorts.
Outside its reputation for art, lively street culture, rich food, and colonial treasures, the major tourism image is of its 1950s Chevrolet cars. These classic motors act as “taxi particulars” around the city and can be booked for distinct trips and city tours. Unfortunately, their value is such that it seems impossible to hire one as a rental for a few days (unless you have the driver/owner as well). Outside Havana, some roads are so uneven that a modern vehicle is probably a much better suspension choice.
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The habanero pepper (it seems that in chilli pepper nomenclature, only the seriously hot chillies on the Scoville scale are allowed to use the ‘the’ suffix) is named after the Cuban city of La Habana, known in the English world as Havana. The name arose as the trading in chilli peppers featured so heavily in its stock market and trading futures in previous centuries. Yet traditional Cuban cooking now rarely uses habaneros or any other hot spicy ingredients. The habanero chilli is thought to have originated from the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico from where it spread outwards through the rest of
Mexico, Belize, Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia and Cuba. The habanero chilli was so globally disseminated by Spanish colonists that 18th-century taxonomists mistook China for its place of origin and called it Capsicum chinense (“the Chinese pepper”). The Scotch bonnet chilli is often compared to the habanero since they are two varieties of the same species but have very different pod types.
When to Visit: Late November through to May tends to be the optimum period to visit as these months are relatively cooler and drier.
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The Jalapeno pepper, Xalapa, Mexico
Xalapa (Xalapa-Enriquez, or Jalapa) is an under-the-radar tourism destination in Mexico. Although the capital city within the State of Veracruz, it is less well known than its better-named sister city of Veracruz. Xalapa is a major centre for education and arts in its own rights within Mexico and is often called the City of Flowers either because it is so blooming with plant life or through the fact that there are 52 edible flower varieties grown in Veracruz and the locals tend to cook more with them than flower arranging. The city’s historic centre, with its attractive colonial-style buildings and streets, makes an attractive base from which to explore nearby attractions and pueblos mágicos (magical towns) such as Coatepec and Xico, but the real beauty of Xalapa (and in fact the entire region of Veracruz) is its cuisine and markets in which you can savour and sample the wealth of fruits, vegetables, and, of course, jalapeños present as fresh chillis, chipotles (smoked jalapeños) and as a mole (sauces made from chipotles).
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The jalapeño pepper, a cultivar of Capsicum annuum, is more commonly picked and consumed when green than many of its competitors. Despite being as Mexican as a dash of pepper can get, the jalapeño has been designated as the ‘State Pepper of Texas’ in the US and,, to date,, is the only chilli pepper that has made it into space after hitching rides on the Space shuttle since 1982.
On previous trips to Xalapa and Oaxaca, I have spent time visiting the local native markets and attending a cooking school there. Add in trips to local sites, and it was one of the best vacations I ever took as I learned so much, ate so much, and friends laughed so much. The markets are a wonderful combination of stalls and small cantinas lining its perimeters where you can sample the best of the local cuisine in the mornings and cook with your discoveries in the afternoon. Xalapa has three markets located in the city centre, the first two at La Rotunda and Mercado San Jose are food focussed, whilst the third at Mercado Jauregui has a wider range of goods and crafts amongst the food stalls.
When to Visit: For warm weather seekers, the best time to visit Xalapa is between mid-March to late May. Xalapa stays cool all year round, making it the ideal place to escape the heat within other Mexican states for a while. Xalapa’s sub-tropical climate delivers two distinct seasons, a warm and overcast ‘wet’ season and a comfortable and partially cloudy ‘hot season’ with an average temperature throughout the year between 8 to 28°C.
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Tellicherry Black Pepper, Kerala
Ground, dried, and cooked peppercorns have been used since antiquity for flavour and in medicines, and black pepper is the modern world’s most used spice in cuisine. Pepper’s spiciness derives from the chemical compound piperine, rather than the capsicum chilli’s capsaicin.
Black pepper is native to South Asia and Southeast Asia and has been used in Indian cooking since at least 2000 BC. Its most important source was India, particularly the Malabar Coast, in what is now the state of Kerala, India. Today, most of the world’s supply of pepper comes from Vietnam, but the Tellicherry black pepper, which originated from the Malabar coast of India, is regarded as the finest black pepper in the world,
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There is little linkage now between Thalassery (formerly Tellicherry), in the state of Kerala, India and the cultivation of black peppers, the association probably growing up in association with its long history as a spice trading port an where the finest quality of black peppers could be bought for shipping westwards. Instead, Tellicherry black peppercorn refers to the size and mode of cultivation. Tellicherry peppercorns are larger than regular black peppercorns because they are left longer on the plant to ripen naturally. Today’s cuisine in Thalassery is better known for the type of rice it uses in its biryani dishes rather than for its heat!
Kerala is one of the tourist spots we were all supposed to go to in our twenties and thirties but often missed out on. Kerala’s long coastal strip, bordered by beautiful beaches and lush jungles, remains a popular destination with bucket list travellers visiting to fulfil trips they never made in their youth. Friends who would never dream of washing their own car have come back praising their skills in washing elephants, proudly passing around shots of their brightly coloured beachwear and telling stories of how quiet the region was when compared to the frenzied madness of other Indian states.
As for Keralan food, whilst it has a reputation for assaulting your taste buds in various exciting ways, its curried dishes are semi-spicy and notable for using coconut milk to give it a creamer rather than a spicey taste.
When to Visit: It can rain anytime in Kerala, so be prepared. Between September and March is the best time to visit the region. The rain has refreshed and rejuvenated the land around you from September to November, and the weather is hot and pleasant. The driest months, December and January, are the high season and bring the greatest numbers of tourists into the state, and some sites can become crowded. February to May is the shoulder season when the temperatures can reach 35°C. Unless you are a duck, we would suggest avoiding the monsoon months between June and August, which unsurprisingly have torrential rain and widespread flooding.
Photo by Rafaëlla Waasdorp on Unsplash.
A Malabar Peppercorn, Luxor, Egypt
Egypt is not necessarily renowned for its spicy hot food, but it is hot during summer. I have included this location because of the curious historical fact that back peppers were found stuffed up the nostrils of Ramesses II, as part of the mummification process his body underwent in 1213 BCE. Little else is known about the use of black pepper in Ancient Egypt or how it reached the Nile from the Malabar Coast of South Asia. Although Rameses II was initially buried in the Valley of the Kings, his body was later moved to the Royal Cache for safety, a royal necropolis outside the now city of Luxor. Poor Rameses’s body has now been moved again and is displayed at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo.
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Malabar pepper is a variety of Piper nigrum (black pepper) is a flowering vine that originated in the present-day state of Kerala in India. Malabar pepper was one of the commodities most sought after by the ancient Roman and Arab traders and later by the early European navigators.
Luxor is not usually the tourists first call when visiting Egypt for the first time, Cairo is where people usually want to go for the pyramids and museums. Situated 670 km south of Cairo on the banks of the Nile, Luxor (then called Thebes) was one of the most important cities in Pharaonic Egypt. Today, it’s a modern, easily accessible city with a strong tourism infrastructure and a quieter, more laidback atmosphere than Cairo.
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Luxor contains one-third of the world’s ancient monuments and intact temples dating back 4000 years, and what is often overlooked by many first-time visitors is that Luxor’s main monuments and sites are also closer together than Cairo’s making a trip here, one in which more sites can be covered at a slower pace with more enjoyment during your trip.
When to Visit: October through to May are the best seasons to visit Luxor and Egypt, but it is also the high season for both Arabian and European tourists, so book early for the best discounts and ratings.
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