Comment by saghm

Yeah, I've lived in the northeast US my whole life and have never seen "Chile" used for anything but the country before; the pepper and the food are both spelled "chili" in my experience. That being said, pronouncing the country's name as a homophone of "chili" is a bit of an anglicism too, since from what I remember of Spanish in high school, the more accurate pronunciation would be something like "chee-lay" rather than "chill-ee". I wouldn't be shocked if both the spelling "chili" and the pronunciation of it had roots in the name of the country and in English usage drifted over time (sort of like the pronunciation of the name of the city "Amarillo" in Texas).