When you imagine eating something “spicy”, there’s a big chance you’ll think of an Asian food. It’s clear that Asia often tops the lists of spiciest cuisines in the world. But what exactly defines “spicy”? And what makes spicy food so popular? Mick and I answered all that and more in our exploration of Asia’s relationship with chili.

I provided initial story angles, research on data sets, and analysis of the different sauces to come up with our chili sauce ingredient network–all driven by my own love for spicy food! The sauces were crowdsourced from our co-founder Peking’s network of Southeast Asian contacts, and our own friends and family.