I find it very hard to conceptualise the food from those places without the chilli pepper even though I know not every dish uses them.

Is there evidence of dishes that we know today that have versions before chilli peppers?

I was also wondering if there were notable social and cultural manifestations in art, fashion, domestic cultures, status etc. in Asia around the introduction of chilli peppers? It seems to me that there would be massive cultural shifts around issues like tradition, fashion and taste to arrive at chillies being so indispensable to cooking as they are in Malaysia, for example.

In the past I've read quite a bit about the consumption craze for coffee and the fashions related to it as it was introduced to the Old World, but I've never really read or heard anything about the history of the chilli in Asia and what effects its introduction had in social and cultural terms.