Chiles are wild. A number of species still grow without human help in numerous places between northern Mexico and northern Argentina, and they are among the hottest chiles there are. At least four totally wild species of peppers are still gathered and sold in South American markets. A proper Peruvian shish kebab (\o7 churrasco criollo\f7 ) has to be made with wild chiles.

Chiles are extreme. Some are so pungent they can be tasted (and even smelled) when diluted hundreds of thousands of times in water. They're all densely packed with nutrition: A fresh pepper has almost as much Vitamin A as beef liver and is second only to rose hips and acerola in the Vitamin C department. Chiles are also a hangover cure, an aphid repellent, a test of will and a thrill ride for the metabolism. The Aztecs used to fumigate their homes for rats by burning chiles.

And chiles are hot. We're living in flavor-mad, nutrition-obsessed and, consequently, chile-oriented times. Robert Spiegel, editor of Chile Pepper Magazine, points out that all the food crazes of the past decade--Cajun, Caribbean, Thai, Southwestern and so on--use chiles freely, and part of the reason is that people who are cutting down on meat and salt usually add flavor to their food with spices. (Chile also has an unexpected benefit for people who are increasing the proportion of grain in their diet; it stimulates the enzyme amulase, which begins the digestion of starch.)

Chile is altogether amazing. Is it a spice? Is it a vegetable? (What other spice can you stuff with shrimp and cheese?)

The people of the Americas began eating chiles four or five thousand years ago. You have to wonder how they ever started--every other mammal gives the chile pod a wide berth. Probably they operated on the same theory that inspired great-grandmother's spring tonic, the idea that anything with a fierce flavor has to have medicinal powers.

Whatever their reasons, they soon found that chiles are habituating. Over the course of a meal, you become less sensitive to the burn--and over the course of your lifetime as well. The more chile you eat, the less it bothers you, and ultimately the more you want.

We know they were eating peppers thousands of years ago because Mexican and Peruvian archeological sites dating back to 2,000 BC contain chile pods that show signs of domestication. Wild chiles are small and stick up above the leaves of the plant so birds can see them--in the wild, birds are the ones who spread chile seeds. We can tell from the shape of the ancient chiles that these had already been bred to ripen below the leaves, safely hidden from birds.