Hi, my name is Li Ann and I’m a die-hard chilliholic… If there was a Chilliholic Annonymous support group in KL, you can bet that I would be the first member! Only thing is, I’ve no intention of giving up on this lethal addiction, unless my stomach lining begs to differ. Seriously, the humble chilly is such an integral part of Malaysian cuisine, transcending all racial and cultural barriers. Malays, Chinese, Indians, Eurasians, Peranakans, Sikhs, Ibans and other Malaysian cultures use it in their traditional dishes ; it’s hard to imagine how our food would taste like without this hot tamale to fire things up!

So small yet packs a whole lot of punch!

The chilly is non-native to the Southeast Asian region, thus it probably found its ways to our shores during the golden age of the Malaccan sultanate when the city was a major trading port between the East and the West. One theory on the reason why chilies are so indispensable to our cuisine is quite tongue-in-cheek. The water quality of those days was poor and chilies acted as a natural bacteria killer and food preservative. Hence the humble chilly probably started as a basic necessity; slowly but surely it found its way into local kitchens and proved indispensable thereafter. Another theory is that the chilly tends to raise your metabolic rate and burns calories at a faster rate; hence it keeps us Malaysians slim. Whatever the benefits, the chilly is certainly part and parcel of the spicy smorgasbord of Malaysian cuisine today!

As for me, I have been accustomed to this lethal time-bomb from a very young age. Growing up under a Nyonya grandmother meant that my tongue had become accustomed to spicy food from young. I remembered inhaling bowls of assam laksa even before I started school, and my laksa love affair has remained ever since. My grandmother was a commanding influence during my growing years as she ruled over the kitchen and Peranakan food were a part of my family’s staple diet. The annual Chinese New Year reunion dinner was her favourite time of the year to showcase her specialties as loved ones from near and far made the yearly pilgrimage to feast on her prized dishes. Forget about blenders and microwaves, everything was done by hand and done well on top of that. Nyonya chefs of yesteryears were master of their senses, relying on their acute sight, smell, touch and taste senses to determine the right balance of spice and flavor to make that perfect gulai or curry.

Chillies must be pounded to release their natural juices

From the freshest ingredients, the most aromatic spices right down to the sharpness of their kitchen knives, I marveled at my grandmother’s deftness as she finely sliced onions and chilies with the exact precision that today’s kitchen appliances could never match. I marveled at how her bare fingers could handle chilies with ease, without succumbing to the penetrating heat. This she said was due to experience as she had grown accustomed to the ‘burn’ and her skin had ‘thickened’ in the process. Maybe that’s how being ‘thick-skinned’ came about?

I am glad that my grandmother has passed her chilly legacy on to me. When I furthered my studies abroad, a bottle of her sambal belacan proved indispensable as I added it to any rice and noodle dish for that extra oomph. In fact, I would be contented to eat plain rice with sambal belacan or just a generous dollop on top of my Maggi mee. The locals would look at my dish with a mix of curiosity and disgust, commenting I must be sado-masochistic for subjecting my system to such a lethal onslaught!

Have sambal B, can travel!

In fact, Malaysian students are known for starting wars with unsuspecting neighbours or housemates unaccustomed to the pungent smell of sambal belacan and ‘customising’ mild dishes with our own spicy twist to suit our discerning palate. I’ve even been on a group tour to China where our thoughtful tour guide whipped out a handy bottle of sambal to pass around during our mealtimes! Goes to show you can take a Malaysian abroad but you can’t take the Malaysian out of us!

"I've no intention of giving up this lethal addiction!"

The beauty about our food is how we artfully combine so many cultural influences into our dishes yet make it uniquely ours. Our flavours come from combining fresh and dried chilies with aromatic ingredients like lemongrass, ginger, shallots, coriander, fennel, galangal, bunga kantan, pandan and kaffir limes to produce a host of intensely appetizing dishes. With chilies playing such an integral part in our diet, Malaysian cuisine has managed to perfect the fine balance between spice and taste to the point of tasting exotic yet looking sexy to the world.

Chillies play well with almost any other ingredients

Forget the double spicy Taiwan sausage, Szechuan ma la hotpot or habanero pepper where one tongue-numbing experience is more than enough. I’m proud to proclaim that our food is delicious and addictively spicy - the more you eat it, the more you want it. Our very own asam pedas, curry Kapitan, lemak masak cili api, gulai cili padi, sambal tumis petai, fish head curry, devil’s curry and a myriad others command second helpings and doggy bags from hungry locals and tourists alike. We should stand proud for our spicy legacy that is so uniquely ours.

Chillies are cheeky, the more pungent the stuff, the more it takes to it!

Here’s my Favourite 5 dishes whenever the capsaicin craving hits:

1) Kai Si Meen from Taiping
I used to visit my parent’s hometown often as a kid and eating the renowned Sisters’ chicken noodle soup was a morning ritual I looked forward to. Everything about the dish is simple; from blanching the silky soft noodles with bean sprouts, then topping it with shredded chicken meat, spring onions, fried shallots and finally pouring piping hot chicken soup into the bowl. The stellar ingredient is the pot of sambal sauce on each table. I add spoonfuls of this spicy sauce into my soup until it takes on a reddish hue. That sauce is constantly in demand; any table without it will draw the ire of loyal patrons. The spicy goodness is so addictive, my bowl is licked clean. Every time.

2) Portugese Grilled Seafood
I love the sauce that is grilled with the freshest seafood. Chilies blended with shallots, lemongrass, garlic and other spices to create a heady aroma that hits your face when you cut open the silver foil with the bubbling hot sauce. The spiciness permeates into the grilled seafood along with petai and lady’s fingers which makes eating it with rice a must. I say it’s a perfect combination in chilly heaven!

3) Nyonya Asam Pedas

Nothing beats my grandmother’s asam pedas where she grinds the herbs and spices into a well balanced paste mixed with asam jawa juice to create the spicy yet tangy broth. Perfect with fish and sweet pineapple, it complements plain rice so well. I usually flood my plate with the broth and slurp it all up to the last drop. The southern version is oilier and more gravy like which tastes just as awesome with rice. Yums!

If it's not in the dish itself, it's on the side, a perfect sidekick to any Asian dish

4) Chilly Pan Mee
My first taste of this dish had me running to the toilet. Thankfully, my stomach has been conditioned to the blazing heat and I throw in spoonfuls until the black noodles are uniformly dotted with chilli flakes. On its own, the noodles are no different from others. But when combined with the poached egg and dried prawn chilli flakes, the bowl takes on a whole new flavor of its own. Oooh the pain, yet I keep coming back for more!

5) Kota Kinabalu’s Fish Noodle
You have the option of Tom Yam, clear soup or kon lo (dry) as well as mihun, mee or their signature fish noodles. The tomyam soup is a unique KK creation and tastes fab. Sour, milky and spicy at the same time, it is absolutely divine especially with its succulent fish slices and fish cake soaking up the Tomyam flavor. Don’t forget to dip the fish into their homemade chilli dipping sauce which is so freakingly addictive, I requested to bungkus some back to KL! On a separate note, I kowtowed to KK’s chilli which packs a fiery punch compared to any in Peninsular. It definitely blew me away as a local friend said a food stall’s fame in KK depended on its signature sauce (the spicier, the better!) since KK food tastes rather mild in general due to local demand for the freshest ingredients and less MSG. Even their commercially bottled chilli sauce (consisting of chili padi and vinegar) packs a wallop… consume at your own risk!