mandarin: lajiao
thai: prig
vietnamese: ot
by "chili peppers" or "chilies," i mean any pepper that is hot and spicy and makes your tongue burn! chilies can be red, orange, yellow or green. different types taste different, but in most recipes they are all basically interchangeable depending on preference.
i most often use what stores label "thai chilies" or "thai bird chilies," which are small and either red or green (see picture). as far as chilies go, thai chilies are one of the hottest per volume. most people have trouble eating even one fresh thai chili, but i have a friend who can eat 12 or 13 in one meal, whole and raw.
you can also buy bags of dried whole chilies, dried crushed chilies, dried chili flakes, dried ground chilies, etc. dried ground chilies (in powder form) is very useful to spice up any dish. traditionally in indian cooking, the ground chilies called "kashmiri mirch" (i.e., "chili from kashmir") are often used. (what i call "ground chilies" is different from what is sold in the USA as "chili powder," which is supposedly a mexican blend of many different spices including chilies.)
links:
chile pepper institute home page
chili-pepper-plants.com
chile (gernot katzer's spice dictionary)
chili pepper (thai table)
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