Until 500 years ago, the spice as we know it was confined to Central and South America. Matt Gross travels to Jamaica, Hungary, and Thailand to uncover how that heat wave came, saw, and conquered. Oct 23, 2018 · 33 min read Words by Matt…

The kitchen is old. It’s all tiles. Blue, white, and gray ones on the floor, yellowish ones on the walls, and rust-colored ones on the countertops. There is a beige refrigerator next to a single-burner stove attached to a gas line. Sitting on top is…

For nearly 40 years, I've been gleefully setting my face on fire. It started when I was 9 or 10 and visited a farmers market with my mother. I spotted a display of cherry peppers, asked the vendor to try one, and bit in deep and hard. My reaction was…

In the middle of a recent Thursday dinner, my 13-year-old daughter, Sasha, had a question for my wife and me: Can I skip school tomorrow? This seemed pretty understandable to me. Middle-schoolers in New York City — and elsewhere — have had it rough…

Twelve minutes into the second episode of the first season of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, the Travel Channel series that transformed the chef turned writer into a bona fide TV star, our host…

We’d driven three hours already, down icy, foggy roads that snaked along frothing rivers and through mountains covered in snowy conifers. And now, as we finally emerged into a high desert of sandstone bluffs and wide-open skies in Elk Bend, Idaho, it…

"Sambal," chef William Wongso told me when I arrived in Jakarta in the summer of 2016, "is a state of mind." At first, I thought I knew precisely what Wongso, the 73-year-old chef and Indonesian TV personality who happens to be the island nation's…

When I was a teenager in early-1990s Williamsburg, Virginia, I looked down on runners. I was a skateboarder, addicted to baggy pants, Taco Bell, and rebellion, and runners’ discipline, parental approval, and short-shorts were to me as loathsome as…

With the help of two Southeast Asian chefs, a distant memory in Malaysia comes to life. The freshly baked bread and fragrant curry come together beautifully, and is best shared with a large group. Directions Heat oils in a large pot on medium-high…

Over the past decade, I've watched with joy as America has finally figured out what I (and the rest of the world) have known all along: Spicy food rules. New hot sauces are debuting almost weekly; Mexican, Thai, and Korean cuisines are as mainstream…

A look into the anything-but-bland origins—and the fiery future—of a famously bland cuisine. If you grew up as I did — an American Jew with little faith but lots of historically informed anxiety — you have a “When they come for the Jews” plan.…

Chinese cuisine is almost unimaginable without chile peppers. From Beijing to Chongqing to Shanghai to Hong Kong, you find chiles fresh, dried, and pickled, chile pastes, chile oils. Sometimes they dominate, as in the fiery food of Sichuan province;…

The one big thing that guarantees whether your new habits—from bread-baking to windowsill scallions—will survive the apocalypse. In July of 2006, I wound up in Tirana, the capital of Albania. This was a few weeks into my tenure as the Frugal Traveler…

Back in 1984, Steve Ockerman was a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps, stationed at Quantico, Va., when he noticed an ad campaign for Soloflex, the resistance-based home exercise machines. The ads featured model Scott Madsen, shirtless and ripped,…

At the moment, all of our plans are on hold. But that doesn’t mean we here at Bloomberg Pursuits aren’t planning the experiences we’ll rush out to enjoy when it’s safe to do so. We’re sharing our ideas with you in the hopes that they will inspire…

Can’t stop, won’t stop! But can and will modify my routes and my behavior. This year started off so well! After a 2019 where I was sick, injured, and frustrated, and finally DNF’d at the Seattle Marathon, I began 2020 feeling awesome. For three…

One of the last weddings performed in public in Las Vegas was on St. Patrick’s Day. The groom wore a dark suit. The bride wore a rockabilly-style black halter dress. The minister was Slash from Guns N’ Roses—or, rather, a licensed officiant…

I have spent plenty of time naked. I’ve skinny-dipped with a friend in the Montana wilderness, and I’ve skinny-dipped with strangers in the islands off Vancouver, B.C. I’ve ridden in a car with no clothes on, and I’ve done laundry in the buff. I’ve…

Pandemics make people do strange things. Nearly 14 years after I started growing my beard, and two years since I briefly removed it, I’ve shaved it off again. This time it’s because of the coronavirus—that is, if I need to wear a mask (N95, surgical,…

Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli’s Field was a breakthrough for the artist Yayoi Kusama. The 1965 installation was, as its name suggests, a room whose walls were mirrors and which was filled with dozens of somewhat phallic stuffed protuberances, all white…