Pepper, as a kind of food with the characteristics of both vegetables and condiments, plays an important role in our daily life. We eat Chili or Chili products almost every day, and many people even go to the point where "there is no food without Chili". Some people think that pepper is so common that we must know it like the back of our hand. But in fact, many of us have different degrees of misunderstanding about pepper. For example, the history of eating Chili peppers is only 300 years. For example, spicy taste is not taste, but pain. For example, people in China don't eat spicy food very much ... Why do you say that? The book China's History of Eating Spicy Peppers: 400 Years of Chili Peppers in China can tell you the answer. The author of The History of Eating Spicy Food in China is Cao Yu, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Anthropology of Sun Yat-sen University, and currently an associate researcher in the Center for Immigration and Ethnic Studies of Sun Yat-sen University. In recent years, Cao Yu's research fields are overseas Chinese studies and food anthropology, with special attention to the relationship between food spread and cooking taste and immigrants. This book tells the story of how peppers entered China, blended into China's food culture, and were endowed with other meanings by China culture from three parts: the origin of spicy food in China, peppers, peppers and classes in China culture. Through a large number of documents and materials, this book shows readers the evolution of pepper as a food in China, and at the same time breaks some common misunderstandings about pepper. Let's take a look at five common misunderstandings about peppers and what the actual situation is. 1 and pepper were introduced into China for only 400 years, and the edible history was only 300 years. As we all know, there are many kinds of Chinese cuisines, among which there are eight major cuisines, not to mention other distinctive local snacks. Rich in products, together with various spices and edible Chinese herbal medicines, our ancestors cooked countless dishes that were "fresh, fragrant, spicy and spicy". As the saying goes, "it is difficult to adjust." China has a vast territory and a large population. Faced with such a rich flavor, many people have reached a surprising agreement on eating "spicy". According to the data released on 20 14, the population of China who eat spicy food has reached 500 million, and it is still growing. Many people think that with so many people who eat spicy food, Chili must have a very long history in our food culture. But in fact, just 400 years ago, our ancestors didn't know what pepper was. After Columbus discovered the New World, peppers spread from America to China and other places. In the 19th year of Wanli ((159 1)), there was the first record about Chi Li in Eight Chapters of Respect for Life written by Gao Lian, namely Yan Xianqing's Appreciation Notes Four Seasons Flowers Collection. "Peppers are full of flowers, and the fruit is like a bald pen. It tastes spicy and red, and it is very impressive. " It can be seen that pepper was only used as an ornamental plant at that time. It was not until the sixty years of Kangxi (172 1 year) 300 years ago that we saw the record of chili being used for food. It is recorded in the annals of Sizhou that "sea pepper, commonly known as spicy fire, replaces salt with soil seedlings." Compared with the ginger, onion and pepper recorded in the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period, the pepper that entered China in the Ming Dynasty is like a "spring child". However, this teenager came from behind with his warm and lively personality and became an extremely important member of the seasoning family. Nowadays, in large and small restaurants, a small pot of Chili oil or Chili sauce is prepared on the table, and the charm of Chili is evident. It seems that knowing "friends" doesn't matter if you come early or late. The most important thing is to have a good personality and be able to "blend in" with everyone. People in China don't eat spicy food very much. Are you surprised to see this title? What? Fake! Didn't the information released by the Ministry of Agriculture say that China's pepper production ranks first in the world? Wait, don't worry yet. The information released by the Ministry of Agriculture is true. However, according to the data of FAO, China ranks second in the world in pepper production, far less than Indian. Why is there such a difference? It turns out that the Ministry of Agriculture included the sweet pepper without capsaicin. 20 15 According to the data released by the Ministry of Agriculture, 90% of China's pepper production is a plant edible variety containing no or a small amount of capsaicin. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has separated peppers used as vegetables from dried peppers used as seasonings. By 20 14, there will be about 500 million people eating spicy food in China, accounting for about 40% of the total population. Among people who eat spicy food, the annual per capita consumption of dried peppers is 580 grams. If the total population is 65.438+37.5 million, the per capita consumption is only 265.438+00 grams. The annual per capita consumption of dried peppers in India is as high as 800g, that in Thailand is about 700g, and that in Mexico is about 520g, so their spicy food concentration far exceeds that in China. Therefore, in fact, people in our country eat spicy food more commonly, and the population who eat spicy food is rising faster, but overall, the food is not very spicy. In fact, we are not the only ones who think that people in our country can eat spicy food, and many foreigners will misunderstand it. Cao Yu, the author of this book, gave an example of his visit to a school in California. When he was invited by his friends to be a chef to entertain the local people, everyone was surprised that there was no pepper in his cooking, because they all thought that spicy food was the characteristic of Chinese food. 3. Spicy taste is not taste, but pain. We often say "sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and salty", which are the five familiar flavors. But the history of eating spicy food in China tells us that spicy food is not a taste, but a pain. The reason why we can feel sour, sweet, bitter and salty is because of the taste buds on the tongue. When these seasonings enter our mouth, taste cells will be transmitted to the brain through nerves, and then taste will be produced. But the spicy taste is not like this. When people eat food containing capsaicin, capsaicin will * * the pain receptors in the mouth and throat, and then transmit signals to the central nervous system through nerves. In retrospect, have you ever had such an experience? After cutting a very spicy pepper, your hands will feel spicy, and you need to rinse them with cold water for a while to get relief. But if you grab a little salt or sugar and sprinkle it in the pot, your fingers will not feel salty or sweet. I remember watching a TV play when I was a child, and I can't remember the title. I only remember that the hero in the play was a chef. He was framed and lost his sense of taste. No matter how much Chili he eats, he can't feel spicy, and he almost gave up being a chef. Fortunately, he later regained his sense of taste and was able to continue his passionate career. I didn't expect even the screenwriter to have such a big misunderstanding. I didn't doubt myself at that time. I felt sorry for the hero for a long time. Now that I think about it, I really suffered from illiteracy. 4. Eating Chili does not necessarily get angry. One reason why many people don't eat spicy food is that "eating spicy food will get angry". If they eat Chili peppers, they may have symptoms such as acne, blistering mouth or sore throat. Whether eating Chili peppers will "get angry" depends on everyone's physique and habits. For example, many girls in Sichuan love spicy food, but their skin is still very good. In fact, "getting angry" is just a folk saying, and neither traditional Chinese medicine nor modern medicine has such a general identification and definition of the disease. According to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, the folk concept of "excessive internal heat" generally refers to the internal heat syndrome caused by the imbalance of yin and yang. Cao Yu, the author of this book, once made a survey in the old city of Guangzhou. Respondents are both local residents and foreign residents. 103 respondents agreed that eating spicy food would lead to excessive internal heat, but only the remaining three medical staff disagreed with this statement. In addition, the local people in Guangzhou who participated in the survey said that they hardly eat spicy food at all. Because they think the atmosphere in Guangdong is too hot, if we use hot food like pepper again, it will be hot, which is what we call getting angry. At the same time, they also said that if it is in the north, eating spicy food is no problem. Therefore, the author thinks that pepper can cause dietotherapy cognition, which actually has profound cultural identity factors and is also a rational explanation for people's eating habits in different regions-we just want to find a reasonable reason for their eating preferences with the theory of traditional Chinese medicine. 5, love to eat Chili, it turns out that many poor people think that Chili can spread all over the country in a short time and be loved by so many people simply because it is delicious. But in the area where peppers were first eaten, they were actually replaced by peppers because they were too poor to use salt. As mentioned earlier, "replacing salt with soil seedlings" means that the local indigenous people and seedlings in Guizhou eat peppers instead of salt. Our people didn't basically solve the problem of food and clothing until the 1980s. In the era of lack of materials and low grain output, in order to fill their stomachs, ordinary people have to use most fields to grow starchy staple foods, and rarely plant non-staple foods such as vegetables and fruits. In order to eat coarse grains, they need heavy-flavored non-staple food to cover up the taste of inferior ingredients in order to "eat". At that time, the salt production was very low, coupled with the monopoly of official salt, and the transportation was slow. Guizhou and other places could not eat salt all the year round, and the price of salt was even as high as "one stone of rice for one catty of salt". So the local people began to use hot and sour instead of salty taste, and made a hot and sour non-staple food. Up to now, it has formed a unique hot and sour dish in Guizhou. Some people like the "heavy taste" of pepper, because it will destroy the original flavor of high-grade ingredients, and the chefs of aristocratic families are very disdainful of using pepper. There is an interesting example about nobles not eating spicy food. When Zeng Guofan was the governor of Liangjiang, subordinate officials wanted to know his food preferences and please Zeng Guofan, so they bribed his cooks. The cook sprinkled some Chili powder into Zeng Guofan's bowl, but was scolded by officials. It turned out that the official mistakenly thought that Zeng Guofan's taste was noble and he would not use pepper, a cheap seasoning. It is because of this prejudice that Zeng Guofan secretly eats spicy food and doesn't want others to know. Although pepper has only a history of 400 years in China, as a vegetable and condiment, pepper has been deeply integrated into our life and has become an indispensable cultural symbol in our food culture. Based on the research path and theory of modern anthropology, The History of Eating Chili in China connects local chronicles, unofficial history and literati essays into a book, showing the evolution of Chili as food in China for 400 years, helping people to understand the history of Chili more systematically and deeply and get rid of many misunderstandings about Chili. It is a popular science book with strong readability. Disclaimer: The above content comes from the Internet, and the copyright belongs to the original author. If there is any infringement of your original copyright, please let us know and we will delete the relevant content as soon as possible.