is your hometown food spicy?
no spicy, no unhappy. Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou and Jiangxi can all be regarded as Chili cuisine! Maoxuewang, boiled fish, spicy rabbit head, mala Tang and other classic spicy dishes challenge our taste. In Beijing, spicy crayfish has always been very popular, and even promoted the prosperity of Guijie Street.
Chinese people love spicy food, which can be explained by a figure. China's pepper production ranks first in the world, with an annual output of more than 28 million tons, accounting for about 46% of the world's pepper production, but its export volume only accounts for about 8% of the world's export volume. There is only one reason, most of which is domestic demand.
1/8 people in the world love pepper, and they must eat it every meal, which also promotes the continuous expansion of planting scale and the emergence of new pepper varieties. Up to now, there are more than 7, pepper varieties in the world, and China accounts for 1/1, with more than 7 varieties.
The hottest pepper in China is the hot pepper produced in Jingpo area. According to the measurement, it is at least 1 times as hot as the pepper. As long as you rinse it in the soup a few times, the soup will get spicy, and one pepper can be used many times.
It's not spicy. In recent years, in the Guinness Book of World Records, the "King of Pepper" has changed hands several times, and its spicy degree is enough for people to avoid.
how to judge the spicy taste? In 1912, Gaubil, an American, invented the "Pepper Index" (SHU for short) named after his own surname, which became the universal scientific standard for judging the hotness of peppers. A representative of a Shi Gaubil unit could not feel the spicy taste with the tip of his tongue after diluting capsaicin with a certain amount of clear water. In 27, India's "Soul-destroying Pepper" with a spicy degree of 1 million SHU beat Mexico's "Devil Pepper" and became the "world's hottest pepper" in the Guinness Book of World Records. By 211, the British "infinite" pepper with a spicy degree of 1.17 million SHU has updated the Guinness Book of World Records to become the "king of peppers". This kind of pepper tastes slightly fruity at first, but it won't be long before it shows its fierce face and feels like the whole throat is burning. Another kind of pepper named "naga viper" in Britain has a spicy degree of 1.359 million SHU. As soon as people eat it, they will feel burning throat and numb tongue, and they will not stop crying and running nose. The burning sensation can last for one hour, but this kind of pepper has not been certified by Guinness World Records.
More spicy varieties are still being born. In 212, "Trinidad Moluga Scorpion" from Australia was rated as the hottest pepper variety in the world by the Pepper Research Institute of the State University of New Mexico. This kind of pepper is the size of a golf ball, with an average spicy degree of 1.2 million SHU, and some fruits even reach 2 million SHU. It doesn't seem bad to take a bite of this pepper, but it will keep getting spicy in the mouth until it feels like a soldering iron is put in the mouth. Some adventurous people post videos to social networking sites after tasting them. In the video, their faces turned red, they sweated and shed tears, which made the audience feel spicy all over their tongues and throats.
Is this burning on the tip of the tongue actually related to the indigenous people in Mexico?
The story begins with Columbus' voyage.
After landing in the New World, Columbus happened to see the local red pepper fruit. In a letter, he described his new discovery to his friends: there is a shrub like a rose, which produces fruit as long as cinnamon, full of seeds and chews like pepper ...
This is pepper, which originated in Mexico of America. The Mayans realized the practical value of pepper very early. They used usable raw materials, mixed with peppers, etc., and became the original chocolate. The Mayans called it "the food of the gods". The remains of wild peppers discovered by archaeologists in the cave of Tehuacan Canyon in Mexico show that humans first picked peppers about 8 years ago, while planting peppers began 6 years ago.
In 1493, Columbus returned to Spain and brought back peppers. But at that time, this plant was only regarded as a strange flower and grass, and people knew nothing about how to eat it. It was even used as a medicine for a time. In 1594, John Gallard, an English herbalist, recorded in his "English Herbs" that peppers "... warm the stomach and are very helpful for the digestion of meat."
soon, pepper has become the main commodity in the global spice trade. Pepper is easy to grow, it can be dried, and it is convenient to store and transport. These characteristics make it spread all over the world quickly. In Europe, peppers spread from trade fairs and open-air stores in Lyon, France and Naples, Italy. When the Portuguese established their first colony, Goa, in southern India, they brought pepper and other spice crops, which have since spread all over southern India.
There is a saying about the spread of pepper in Africa. Before arriving in India, Portuguese explorer Da Gama landed in Mozambique, Africa, and took the seeds of pepper with him. Since then, peppers have spread widely in Africa through the slave trade route.
"Five flavors are all available" is an idiom of China people. However, the history of China people eating spicy food is not long, only three or four hundred years.
Pepper was introduced to China in the 16th century, and was originally used for flower viewing. Tang Xianzu, a dramatist and writer in Ming Dynasty, was one of the earliest people to record peppers. In his play Peony Pavilion written in the 26th year of Wanli (AD 1599), he listed 38 kinds of flowers, one of which was "pepper flower". Gao Lian, a Ming Dynasty man, also recorded "pepper" in "Zunsheng Eight Lamps, Yan Xian Qing Appreciation Notes, Volume Down and Grass Flower Spectrum": "The flowers are clustered with white flowers, and the flowers are bald and the taste is spicy and red, which is very impressive." Gao Lian also listed peppers with violets, morning glory, wintersweet, Daphne odora and so on, as the flowers of "a wonderful product in China" for viewing.
it was not until the early Qing dynasty that peppers were "turned positive" and changed from ornamental flowers to edible vegetables. "Guangqun Fangpu" in the Kangxi period has clearly recorded: "Vegetable Pu Jiao". The use of pepper as a cooking seasoning can be found in Zhu Yizun's "The Secret of Food Xian Hong". He listed pepper and 28 kinds of spices, such as Gonggui, Chenpi and Zingiber officinale, as "the genus of incense". "All cooking spices are suitable for removing fishy smell or enhancing flavor." "Pepper" was served in the imperial meal of Qianlong, and by the time of Jiaqing, "Horn Pepper" shaped like a horn and "Chaotian Pepper" with upward pepper tip had been cultivated. During the Daoguang period, the Records of Zunyi Prefecture described pepper as: "Garden vegetables are important, and every taste is inseparable."
in just over 3 years, unique spicy culture has formed in various parts of China, such as "Sichuanese are not afraid of spicy food, Hubei people are not afraid of spicy food, and Hunan people are not afraid of spicy food". This stems from the different ways of eating peppers in different places. Sichuanese are used to adding pepper to peppers, which is hemp and spicy, commonly known as spicy; People in Yunnan like to fry peppers and fry them into a burnt smell, which is called paste spicy; People in Guizhou often pickle peppers to make them sour, which is called hot and sour; Hunan people eat the original taste of pepper, which is called the original spicy.
in recent years, experts and scholars believe that climate factors determine the basic boundary between spicy food and light food. Lan Yong, a professor at Southwest University, divided the map of China according to the "spicy degree": the heavy spicy areas in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, mainly in Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, Yunnan, Guizhou and southern Shaanxi; With Beijing and Shandong as the core, it reaches the Korean peninsula in the east and the northern spicy area of Xinjiang in the west; Jiangsu to Guangdong, basically do not eat spicy southeast coastal light flavor areas.
According to experts' analysis, the areas that are fond of chili must have less sunshine, cold winter and humid climate, so as to form the habit of eating chili because of the demand of eliminating cold and dampness. The spicy areas in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River often have less solar radiation, and the mountains are foggy and cold and wet in winter, which is of course a heavy spicy area. In the southeast coastal areas, although the humidity is high, the winter is warm and the sunshine is strong, so there is no demand for spicy food. However, Qiandao Lake area in western Zhejiang is an anomaly. Qiandao Lake is mountainous, foggy, cold in winter and humid in climate. It is quite spicy here.
In the United States, the influx of immigrants who are used to spicy food has made Americans' appetite bolder. During the period from 1995 to 25, the consumption of peppers in the United States soared by 38%. According to the statistics of the United States Department of Agriculture, at present, the per capita consumption in the United States is 5.9 pounds per year, which is more than asparagus, cauliflower and green beans. Among American presidents, there are many people who like to eat Chili. The first president, Washington, not only loved Chili, but also planted a large area of Mexican red pepper himself. Former President Bush's favorite food is fried pigskin dipped in Chili sauce. American astronaut William lenoir loves spicy food, so he should take a bottle of Chili sauce with him when he is on a space mission. Music conductor Zhu Bin Meida is even more addicted to spicy food. Whether conducting at a large concert or going to a restaurant for dinner, he should bring a few peppers and put them in a matchbox for dinner. Even when attending the banquet of Queen Elizabeth II, he explained: "A meal without Chili peppers is like a sick meal."
In Asia, Indians call chili "red steak". When cooking, chefs can combine dried chili, chili powder, chili paste, fresh chili slices or shredded chili into a whole, which is delicious and pleasing to the eye. Thai people eat 3 grams of pepper every day, and even drinking soup is burning. Sri Lankans are always hot, and their bags are often filled with spicy dried peppers. When friends meet, they respect each other's spicy dried peppers, just like cigarettes in China, which makes Sri Lanka the largest pepper importer in the world, with an annual import of more than 16, tons of peppers.
In America, Mexicans regard pepper as one of the "three major foods". There are many corn stalls on the streets all over the country. They not only put a layer of cheese pepper on the corn cob, but also sprinkle a layer of red pepper powder, which even children aged five or six love to eat. It's really "nothing can be done without pepper, nothing can be tasted without spicy". However, the strangest thing is the "Qila Pannuo" white wine brewed by residents in the southwestern United States with peppers. After drinking it, it can stimulate appetite, strengthen the body, strengthen the spleen, increase food intake and refresh the mind.
Being fond of chili also gave birth to a unique chili culture. In Hatch, New Mexico, the famous "Chili Festival" is held every October. In rural China, farmers hang peppers in front of their houses, which means red days; The nickname given to Wang Xifeng in A Dream of Red Mansions is "chili pepper"; Some fashionable girls are called "spice girls"; In the special era, there was even a saying that it was not spicy or revolutionary. In Kampur, India's "spicy capital", people regard eating Chili peppers as a symbol of courage and strength, and the degree of eating Chili peppers is a manifestation of masculinity. If a man eats Chili peppers worse than a woman, his wife will look down on him and even ask him for a divorce.
In 27, India's "Soul-destroying Pepper" beat Mexico's "Devil Pepper" and became the "world's hottest pepper" in the Guinness Book of World Records. The spicy degree of "Soul-Breaking Pepper" has been harmful to people, and now the Indian military has also begun to use "Soul-Breaking Pepper" to make new weapons such as "pepper grenades" and "pepper spray".
It is said that no one can challenge to finish a complete "Soul-Breaking Pepper" produced in Assam, India. This pepper used to be used as a fence in fields and villages to prevent elephants from breaking into residential areas. Later, the Indian Ministry of Defence used the non-toxic and super-spicy characteristics of "Soul-breaking Pepper" to make "pepper grenades" to deal with terrorists.
A British restaurant recently launched a campaign to "challenge abnormal spicy chicken wings". Participants need to swallow chicken wings made of the hottest pepper in the world, which is also called the hottest chicken wings in the world.
The challenge stipulated by the restaurant is to eat six "abnormal spicy chicken wings" within 1 minutes, and no water is allowed during this period. The chicken wings are sprinkled with the hottest pepper in the world-"Infinite" pepper. The person in charge of the activity said: "It is very painful to eat this kind of pepper. Your tongue will be numb, and then you will feel burning until you swallow it. This feeling will last for about an hour, and you don't want to talk to anyone or do anything. " Participants must wear gloves to eat Chili peppers, because grabbing them directly with their hands will be corrosive.
For most people, eating Chili occasionally is good for health, because fresh Chili is rich in vitamin C, β-carotene, folic acid, magnesium and potassium. Capsaicin in pepper has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, which helps to reduce the risk of heart disease, tumor and some chronic diseases with age.
Dr. Hall, a nutritionist at the University of London, thinks that, however, pepper is too intense to stimulate the gastrointestinal tract in the human body. People suffering from diseases such as fever, ulcer, chronic gastrointestinal diseases, hemorrhoids, dermatitis, tuberculosis, chronic bronchitis and hypertension should not eat a lot of peppers, and thin people should not eat more peppers. If you eat more peppers, it will not only aggravate symptoms such as dry throat, bitter taste, eye congestion, top-heavy, irritability and irritability, but also easily lead to bleeding, allergies and inflammation.
when many people eat Chili, they feel very hot, and naturally want to drink water or eat some staple food to dilute the spicy taste. In fact, the effect of doing so will not be ideal. Capsaicin will closely bind to nerve receptors on the taste organs, and capsaicin is a water-insoluble substance, which can only bind to fat, oil and alcohol. The best food to relieve spicy taste is milk, especially skim milk. Although some people have previously thought that the lipids in milk can better combine with capsaicin, the current research has found that the really effective ingredient is casein in milk.