Is is just me, or does there seem to be a correlation with spiciness and the general climate the dish originated in?

If so, one reason why hotter countries tend toward spicier food is that it's harder to preserve food there, so the spices where originally used to hide how close to rotten the ingredients where.

These days that's not true of course, these days spices are there to hide how close the ingredients are to cardboard.

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