Red Chilli House – Albuquerque, New Mexico
Red “Chilli” House…doesn’t “Chilli” read like a misspelled word that knocked a spelling bee contestant out of the competition? Or like someone added one too many letter “l’s” to the already misspelled word “chili?” Actually, that spelling (which some of us purists consider Texan) is by design. The delightful Chinese restaurant sporting that appellation–which opened its doors in June, 2024–wouldn’t change it. Among other things, it illustrates just how important Capsicum is in some provinces of China, particularly Sichuan and Hunan. Capsicum, as most New Mexicans know, is the genus to which all chili (chile in New Mexico) peppers and bell peppers belong. The fruit of the capsicum plant contains a chemical called capsaicin, the active ingredient that gives chile its piquancy. Historians widely agree that capsicum was unknown outside the tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas before 1490s. That’s when Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue and brought this red-fruited plant along with other food plants, such as maize, beans and squash, from the New World to the Old. When introduced to China in the 16th Century, chile peppers were called “barbarian peppers” on account of their foreign origin. Eventually the province of Sichuan developed a profound…
