Why do the spiciest food originates near the equator while away from it the food gets bland. Example in the Indian subcontinent – Food up north in Delhi or Calcutta will be more spicy than food in Afghanistan but way less spicy than somewhere like Tamil Nadu or Sri Lanka

Question

Why do the spiciest food originates near the equator while away from it the food gets bland. Example in the Indian subcontinent – Food up north in Delhi or Calcutta will be more spicy than food in Afghanistan but way less spicy than somewhere like Tamil Nadu or Sri Lanka

In: Other

Answer 1

Roman and Medieval European cooking used a lot of spice (for those who could afford it) the move to sweet and savoury dishes in preference to spicy ones was due to changing fashions and ideas around health.

The access to spice wasn’t the issue, there are plenty of native plants that can be used and the move away from spicy food happened when importing spices was getting cheaper.

[https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/03/26/394339284/how-snobbery-helped-take-the-spice-out-of-european-cooking](https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/03/26/394339284/how-snobbery-helped-take-the-spice-out-of-european-cooking)