I'm Kelly McEvers, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

One of my favorite places in the world is New Mexico.

It's not super far from where I live, and one of my really good friends is from there.

In the last few years, I've probably been there like a dozen times.

My friend takes me to all the cool places, the hot springs, the little towns of the mountains,

all the best hiking, and of course, the incredible food.

So today, we're playing a couple of episodes about this place that I love, you know, for Valentine's Day.

The first story is about one of the things that makes New Mexico famous, chilies.

I love roasted hatch chilies. You can make them into a sauce or just put them on a burger.

And I also love the way you can order most food as Christmas in New Mexico, with both red and green

chili on top. That said, I never knew there was actually a place in New Mexico where chilies are studied. Dylan

Thurus has the story. Chances are, you or someone you know loves chili peppers.

You know the type, the hot sauce people.

They got like eight hot sauces in the fridge.

I say this as if I am not one of those people.

I am one of those people.

There's just, it's, you know, whether you're talking habaneros or jalapinos or peri-peries,

there's just every single culture has a different kind of delicious hot pepper.

And I cannot get enough of that flavor and heat.

In the United States, the home of our chili peppers is without a doubt, New Mexico.

Oh my gosh, yeah.

It's a culture.

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